Professor Jeanine Young, University of the Sunshine Coast, has worked in Australia and the United Kingdom in neonatal intensive care, paediatrics and community child health. Jeanine has a special interest in infant care practices; in particular breastfeeding and parent-infant bed-sharing. She works closely with Red Nose to ensure national infant sleep recommendations are evidence-based, and is passionate about growing community capacity through partnership models to address health inequalities associated with infant mortality. Jeanine has established a research program to investigate Queensland’s high infant mortality rate, with a focus on evidence-based strategies to assist health professionals in delivering Safe Sleeping messages to families with young infants. Through international collaborations and local community partnerships, Jeanine first introduced the Pēpi-Pod Program, a portable sleep space combined with safe sleep education as a strategy to promote safe infant sleeping and breastfeeding in the context of shared sleeping. This culturally appropriate and feasible strategy to reduce infant mortality has been integrated into service delivery rural, remote and metropolitan Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, Queensland, and more recently in other Australian states and territories. Jeanine has also initiated the first Australian trial of a sleep enabler suitable for postnatal units to support breastfeeding and promote safer infant sleep environments in hospital. Jeanine works in partnership with government, industry, safety and regulatory bodies, and communities in translating evidence into practical advice for parents. Her efforts in reducing infant mortality through supporting the role of health professionals and health promotion within communities have received state, national and international recognition. In collaboration with Change for our Children New Zealand, Jeanine is the Australian lead for the Pēpi-Pod Program, which comprises a practical infant sleep space suitable for shared sleeping embedded in safe sleep education, now available in metropolitan, rural and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Jeanine has also initiated the first Australian trial of a portable sleep space suitable for postnatal units to support breastfeeding and promote safer infant sleep environments in hospital.

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Linda Campbell has over 30 years of experience in nursing including working in rural and remote areas of Australia and New Zealand, as well as the USA. She has an interest in blood transfusion and its alternatives, and was appointed as the Clinical Nurse Consultant for Patient Blood Management (PBM) at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (WA) in 2012. Linda has led the program since its inception.

PBM aims to decrease the risk of blood transfusion by optimising haemoglobin (Hb) and iron stores prior to elective surgery involving significant blood loss. Preoperative optimisation facilitates the post-op recovery of Hb and has the capacity to change transfusion practice. This intervention has significantly reduced transfusion rates in elective joint replacement patients and the model has been replicated at a secondary site and is now rolled out to other surgical specialties at SCGH.

It is important to Linda that patients receive equitable care despite the geographical challenges of living thousands of kilometers from Perth. Creating networks with GPs and regional healthcare providers has been instrumental in the success of PBM. Over 1000 patients across the State of Western Australia are referred to Linda annually and audit has shown that 99% of joint replacement patients receive PBM review and care. Educating clinical staff about the impact of blood transfusion and PBM has led Linda to contribute to GP clinical pathways, deliver presentations at State, National and International meetings and provide tutorials for WA undergraduate medical students.

The overall transfusion rate has fallen by 30% at SCGH since PBM was introduced. This not only has significant cost saving benefits (over $1.2 million annually) but has made a major contribution to patient safety and reduced the demand on the blood supply; ensuring that donor blood is available for trauma or transfusion dependent patients. Although PBM is relatively new evidence based discipline in medicine it is one of the few areas where improved outcomes, reduced risks and cost savings are all made at the same time. This legacy will continue to improve patient care for years to come.

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