Guest Speakers:

Donna Staples de Boer – Speech Pathologist, Health Independence Program, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne

Donna is an experienced Speech Pathologist working with adults in neurological rehabilitation. Her current role is at the Community Rehabilitation Centre at St George’s Hospitals, part of St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, where she has been working since 2023.

Donna is a member of the Health Independence Program (HIP) Environmental Sustainability Working Party, implementing multiple initiatives aimed to reduce carbon footprint, waste, and unnecessary spend of the teams she works across. Her presentation will describe initiatives as well as outline the role of leadership prioritisation and local area champions in implementing change.

Kylie Feely, Equipment Nurse Sunshine Intensive Care, Western Health. 

Kylie Feely completed her bachelor degree in 2000 then her Critical Care Graduate certificate in 2004. In 2008, Kylie became a valued employee with Western Health Intensive Care. In 2021, Kylie was appointed the equipment nurse specialist for Sunshine ICU. 

Kylie is the lead of the Sunshine ICU Sustainability team, implementing multiple changes aimed at reducing waste, our carbon footprint and money. Kylie tested and rolled out sustainable linen in Sunshine ICU, something that has now been rolled out organisation wide. Kylie has presented this work at multiple conferences including the ANZICS quality conference 2023, ACCCN AEM 2024, Critical Care medicine conference 2024, and the greening the healthcare sector forum 2024. 

Kylie is the MacHSR fellow for 2025. Her project is to significantly reduce the amount of unopened expired products that are wasted to landfill each year through a quasi-experimental interrupted time series research project.