Georgina Bassett

Georgina is a Deputy Chief Nursing Officer (DCNO) in the Department of Health, Ireland. She is an experienced nurse leader providing strategic leadership and expert policy direction to support government health policy and the Sláintecare reform programme through maximising the contribution of nursing and midwifery to achieving health goals.

Georgina is a former Honorary President of the Irish Association of Directors of Nursing and Midwifery (IADNAM) enabling a wide and expert knowledge of nursing and midwifery across all services and a broad leadership experience at a national level.  She is also a qualified coach with an Advanced Diploma in Personal, Leadership & Executive Coaching. She holds an MSc in Healthcare Management and a post-graduate Diplomas in Gerontological Nursing and Business Studies. She was formerly a Project Manager in Older Persons Policy Development in the Department and prior to that, a Director of Nursing in HSE Older Person Services, South East Community Healthcare SECH. 

Georgina has coordinated several international learning engagements and has worked across national expert and steering groups involved in developing policies, programmes, models and frameworks to support nursing and midwifery leadership and practice.  She is fully committed to the development and implementation of policy that will enable nurses and midwives to fully contribute to healthcare design, delivery and improvement by using their full scope of practice. Georgina is an advocate and an activist for healthcare leadership development across services and believes that nurses and midwives are key innovators and implementers in bringing about improvements in patient care outcomes and experiences.

Judy Currey

Professor Judy Currey is Chair of Academic Board at Deakin University in Australia, a Professor of Nursing and an Executive of the Centre for Organisational Change in Person-centred Healthcare (OCPH) in the Faculty of Health. Professor Judy Currey is an internationally respected educator, researcher and critical care nurse whose expertise spans academic, industry and professional organisations. In recognition of her expertise, Judy was awarded a Principal Fellow of the HE Academy (UK), an Accredited Consultant-Trainer in Team-Based Learning (USA), a Graduate of the Australian Company Directors’ Course and Life Member of Australian College of Critical Care Nurses.

Judy leads a clinical investigative program of patient safety research focused on healthcare governance, systems and processes, and clinician decision making particularly in Rapid Response Systems for recognising and responding to clinical deterioration. Judy’s research explores relationships between clinician attributes, risk management decisions, workforce factors, systems and processes of healthcare delivery, and patient outcomes. Judy is a foundation member of Deakin University’s Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research and Institute of Health Transformation. In 2023, Judy was ranked second in the world in the fields of “rapid response systems and nursing” based on productivity (Title, abstract search: Scopus). Judy is committed to ensuring her research enhances clinicians’ skills and positively impacts patients’ lives through implementation of best practices. Judy leads investigative and translational research in healthcare communication using Guided Self-Determination, and translation research in shared decision-making via healthcare communication skills training in Deakin’s OCPH to enhance patients’ lives and experiences of healthcare.

Judy has a strong academic profile in educational scholarship and practice with an emphasis on active and collaborative learning for student investment in learning, academic scholarly practice and satisfaction, and students’ development of soft skills and psychological capital along with mastery of learning and workforce preparedness.  Pioneering Team-Based Learning (TBL) in Australian health education, Judy led a team of academics to adopt scholarly practice and scholarship in learning and teaching that has been recognised by prestigious competitive awards at the University, Australian and International level. With active learning and TBL specifically being adopted by other disciplines, Judy has enabled succession planning for future generations of learners.

As a proud critical care nurse researcher and educator, Judy holds numerous university and national awards for leadership, curricula design, active learning, learning space design and outstanding contributions to student learning. Judy is a Board Chair of a large not-for-profit non-denominational community-based aged care home in Melbourne.

Nicki Credland

Nicki Credland is a Reader in Critical Care at the University of Hull, England, UK. She is a Fellow of the British Association of Critical Care (BACCN) after a six-year term of office as Chair of the organisation. She is now Chair of the UK Critical Care Nursing Alliance. She is a nurse advisor to the Department of Health Adult Critical Care Clinical Reference Group and is a specialist advisor in critical care nursing to National Health Service England. Involved in national and international research and education for critical care nursing Nicki was appointed Director for Nurse Education at the NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber during the Covid pandemic. She speaks widely about the critical care nursing workforce and has contributed to a number of position statements and key documents around these issues.

Aisling Meehan

Aisling is a medical student at University College Dublin. In 2020, she underwent lifesaving neurosurgery and had a long recovery in ICU while relearning how to read, write, eat, stand and walk again. She uses her experiences to give educational talks about the patient perspective to new and experienced nurses, doctors and other clinicians. She is a committee member of ICU Steps Dublin, a peer support group that supports past patients and their families after they leave ICU. In 2023, she worked with the National Office of Clinical Audit as the “patient story” in their 2021 report which launched in Oct 2023. Aisling also campaigns for disability and Deaf rights, and hopes to stay in an advocacy role after college.

Melanie Ryberg

Melanie is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Neuropsychologist who has received academic qualifications from University College Dublin, The University of Glasgow and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She is Principal Specialist Clinical Psychologist in Critical Care here in Tallaght University Hospital, and was the first Psychologist permanently appointed to work as part of the critical care team in Ireland. She took up her post in March 2021, and has been developing the role in service of better outcomes for patients, families and staff, since then. She has been involved in a variety of research projects in critical care in collaboration with various academic partners, including post-intensive care follow-up of our ICU Covid patients with our colleagues in TCD, and the experience of end-of-life care and bereavement in critical care settings with colleagues in UCD. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology UCD, and a Clinical Lecturer in the School of Medicine TCD.