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Healthcare Workplace Safety Conference

18 – 19 August 2025 | Novotel Melbourne on Collins

co-located with National Health Workforce Summit

Register Your Interest Download Brochure BUY A PASS

overview

Advancing Workplace Safety in Healthcare & Social Assistance

Join industry leaders, policymakers, and safety professionals for two days of in-depth discussions on workplace health and safety (WHS) challenges, emerging trends, and innovative solutions tailored for the healthcare and social assistance sectors.

The Healthcare Workplace Safety Conference 2025 brings together experts to address the most pressing occupational health and safety (OHS) issues, with a focus on psychosocial risk management, mental well-being, and regulatory compliance. Gain actionable insights, explore best practices, and network with key stakeholders dedicated to fostering a safer and more resilient healthcare workforce.

Why Attend?

  • Stay Ahead of WHS Reforms – Understand the new Commonwealth Code of Practice and the latest legislative updates in workplace safety.
  • Mitigate Psychosocial Risks – Learn practical strategies for preventing bullying, harassment, job strain, and burnout.
  • Enhance Workplace Wellbeing – Discover innovative approaches to workforce mental health, resilience building, and injury prevention.
  • Boost Return-to-Work Outcomes – Gain insights from successful rehabilitation programs and employer best practices.
  • Network with Industry Experts – Connect with WHS leaders, healthcare professionals, policy makers, and insurance providers.
  • Explore Cutting-Edge Solutions – Engage with exhibitors showcasing the latest in safety technology, risk management tools, and wellness programs.

Who Should Attend?

This event is designed for professionals dedicated to improving healthcare workplace safety, including:

  • Healthcare Professionals: Nurses, midwives, clinical educators.
  • WHS Directors & Advisors: Workplace health and safety managers and officers.
  • Workers’ Compensation Experts: Claims and injury managers, WorkCover group managers.
  • Policy Makers & Regulators: Representatives from Safe Work Australia, icare, Comcare.
  • Legal & Risk Consultants: Workers’ compensation lawyers, workplace safety litigators.
  • Procurement Specialists: Sourcing professionals for workplace wellness and safety solutions.

What’s in the agenda for 2025?
The agenda is still in development, but to check out the key topics, panel themes and how the two co-located events will be structured, take a look at the AGENDA AT A GLANCE.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST IN ATTENDING

ENQUIRE ABOUT SPONSORSHIP AND EXHIBITING OPPORTUNITIES

Speakers

Mason Gismondi

Head of Psychosocial Safety, Bupa APAC

Chanelle McEnallay

Chief Risk Officer & Legal Services Director, Ramsay Health

Natasha Smith

Operations Manager - Early Career Program, headspace National

Sally Moton

Partner & Practice Group Leader, Workplace Relations and Safety, Landers & Rogers

Dr Paula Conroy

Founder & CEO, Insight Health Advisory

Roman Ciofuli

Project Officer, HACSU WorkWell

Professor Andrea Phelps

Deputy Director, Phoenix Australia Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health

Jacqui Bloink

STAR Program Manager | WHS Psychosocial Risk Manager, St Vincents Hospital Melbourne

Prof Marie Bismark

Consultant Psychiatrist and Health Lawyer, Barwon Health

Dr Thomas Haskell

Emergency Medicine Consultant, Launceston General Hospital, Tasmanian Health Service

Dr Nancy Merridew

Clinical Senior Lecturer, Launceston Clinical School, Tasmanian School of Medicine, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania and Staff Specialist Physician, Hospital in the Home, Launceston General Hospital and Primary Health North, Tasmanian Health Service

Natalie Bekis

Assistant Secretary, Workforce Planning and Strategies Branch, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

Prof Erwin Loh

National Director of Medical Services, Calvary Health Care & President, Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (RACMA)

Donna Burns

Chief Executive Officer, Australian Indigenous Doctor’s Association (AIDA)

Dr Jess Dean

Senior Intensive Care Registrar, The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Dr Shannon Nott

Executive General Manager – Health & Clinical Services and Chief Medical Officer, Royal Flying Doctor Service (South Eastern Section)

Dr Shannon Gray

Senior Research Fellow and ARC DECRA Fellow, Healthy Working Lives Research Group, Monash University

Brad Wakeling

National Manager - Workplace Health & Safety, Regis Aged Care

Dr Leah Collins

Clinical & Health Psychologist VIC, Transitioning Well

Karen Marriage

Manager of Supervision, headspace National

David Field

Assistant Director (A/g), Return to Work Support, Comcare

Daryan Rosic

National Mental Health Program and Initiative Specialist, Allianz Australia Insurance

Nicola Adam

Manager, Early Intervention and Injury Management, Berry Street

Lani Harbour

Injury Management Consultant, Berry Street

Houda Peters

Team Leader Employer Education, ReturnToWork SA

Agenda

8:30 am

Hosted with National Health Workforce Summit in the pre-function area

9:00 am

The Journey Begins: Opening insights from the Conference Chair

9:10 am

OPENING ADDRESS | Implementing the national medical workforce strategy

Natalie Bekis, Assistant Secretary, Workforce Planning and Strategies Branch, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

9:40 am

  • What approaches to professional resilience and wellbeing programs deliver the best outcomes for workforce sustainability?
  • What are the key things that really impact staff wellness e.g. rostering? Complaints? How can organizations adapt and respond with approaches which genuinely prioritize staff wellbeing?
  • How can we help people to stay in the workforce? What are some effective approaches to managing flexibility?
  • What proven strategies and workforce models are most effective for improving retention and preventing burnout?
  • How do we implement flexible staffing, digital tools, and team-based care without overloading our teams?
  • How do you balance that safety for patients with quality standards?

10:25 am

Megatrends and what they will mean for the health workforce of the future

Dr Shannon Nott, Executive General Manager – Health & Clinical Services and Chief Medical Officer, Royal Flying Doctor Service (South Eastern Section)

10:55 am

Hosted with National Health Workforce Summit in the pre-function area

HEALTHCARE WORKPLACE SAFETY CONFERENCE

Chair: Dr Paula Conroy, Founder & CEO, Insight Health Advisory

11:30 am

  • What are the key psychosocial hazards experienced by Bupa?
  • How does Bupa assess and control psychosocial risks?
  • What site-specific interventions have proven most effective?

12:00 pm

Improving mental health: Taking steps to better manage employee mental health

12:20 pm

  • Identifying critical psychosocial risk factors
  • Understanding and implementing psychosocial hazard legislation in healthcare settings – from theory to practical application
  • Effective strategies for supporting both frontline healthcare workers and managers in managing psychosocial hazards
  • Creating sustainable solutions: Tools, resources, and best practices for ongoing psychosocial safety management
  • Recruitment and developing early career workforce capability – equipping new graduates with tools for resilience and raising awareness of supports available
  • Creating sustainable solutions through networks, resources, and best practices for ongoing psychosocial safety
  • Empowering healthcare workers to speak up and seek support following difficult situations

1:05 pm

Hosted with National Health Workforce Summit in the pre-function area

2:05 pm

  • What are the most effective frameworks and early warning systems that organizations can implement to prevent occupational violence before it occurs?
  • How can healthcare organizations build and resource comprehensive OVA support programs within existing budget constraints?
  • What strategies have proven most successful in encouraging staff to report incidents and access available support services?
  • How do you create and maintain a sustainable culture of safety that survives beyond initial program implementation?
  • What are the most critical lessons learned in managing OVA that other organizations should know about?

2:50 pm

  • How do we define bullying and harassment? How do we ensure it is better understood?
  • Why do junior doctors who experience or witness BDH not make a complaint?
  • How do gaps in BDH policies lead to poor implementation, opaque investigative processes and issues with not dealing with repeat offenders?
  • What are employer obligations and where are the responsibilities for other stakeholders?
  • BDH Handling – prevention, detection and response

3:20 pm

Bullying - Understanding legal obligations of employers

Sally Moton, Partner & Practice Group Leader, Workplace Relations and Safety, Landers & Rogers

3:50 pm

Hosted with National Health Workforce Summit in the pre-function area

4:15 pm

Learn from others and leave with a plan.

Join us for a series of small-group roundtable discussions led by sector leaders and experienced facilitators. These sessions are designed to be organic, honest and highly interactive, giving you the space to share challenges, exchange ideas, and walk away with concrete solutions you can apply in your organisation.

Each roundtable will:

  • Get beyond the presentations and into real problem-solving
  • Showcase practical strategies from featured speakers
  • Invite open discussion, questions and peer insight
  • Identify 3–5 actionable takeaways from the group
  • Help you learn from others and leave with a plan

Recruitment and Capability Development for Psychosocial Safety

  • Recruiting for sustainability attributes (reflection, interpersonal skills, uncertainty management)
  • Balancing junior recruitment with experienced professionals
  • Implementing clinical supervision and education frameworks
  • Creating psychologically safe learning environments
  • Managing junior staff taking on senior responsibilities
  • Accelerating “practice wisdom” in early career professionals
  • Building capabilities of clinical educators
  • Ensuring organizational and systemic protections

Trauma informed approaches to Aggression in the workplace

  • Understanding the impact of trauma on individuals
  • Identifying signs of trauma
  • Effective approaches to create supportive and psychologically safe environments for employees

How do we collectively reduce work cover claims?

  • What are the key areas of concern?
  • What are the red flags?
  • Where is there need for greater collaboration?

4:55 pm

Facilitators share top 3 solutions from each roundtable.

5:00 pm

Closing Remarks

5:05 pm

Hosted with National Health Workforce Summit in the pre-function area

8:30 am

Hosted with National Health Workforce Summit in the pre-function area

9:10 am

Opening Remarks from the Chair

9:20 am

  • How we manage psychosocial safety in Australia’s largest private healthcare network of hospitals
  • Psychological and psychosocial learnings from 10 years of running a professional accountability and speaking up framework.
  • What are the true barriers to improving psychosocial safety in each workplace?

9:50 am

Data driven approaches to managing Psychosocial hazards

10:20 am

Hosted with National Health Workforce Summit in the pre-function area

11:00 am

The latest data: Injuries and risks specific to health and social assistance sector

Daryan Rosic, National Mental Health Program and Initiative Specialist, Allianz Australia Insurance

11:30 am

  • Background – Community Services WHS risk challenges
  • Staff Critical Incident Response Model
  • Early Intervention Model
  • Case Study
  • Opportunities for further innovation with Mental Injury Claims

12:00 pm

  • What are the considerations when there is a mental health injury?
  • What are the actual underpinning factors preventing people coming back?
  • How do mental health professionals work with patients to help them return to work after an incident?
  • How do you prepare people to go back to work?
  • What are the simple changes that engage with people (health professionals) at a human level and change behaviours?
  • Where are the gaps in workplaces which could help people return to work?
  • What works and what doesn’t?

12:45 pm

Hosted with National Health Workforce Summit in the pre-function area

1:45 pm

  • Particular dangers for health and social assistance workers
  • What does the research tell us?
  • What resources are there for aged care and others?

2:15 pm

CASE STUDY | Preventive approaches to psychosocial hazards - St Vincent's Hospital STAR program

Jacqui Bloink, STAR Program Manager | WHS Psychosocial Risk Manager, St Vincents Hospital Melbourne

2:45 pm

  • How do we balance patient safety and accessibility with workforce safety?
  • What are different organisations doing to manage safety as the sector increasingly shifts toward out of hospital care?
  • How do you manage a workforce that operates remotely or out in the community?
  • What is safe to be delivered?
  • Preventing psychological and physical injury
  • What is the liability for employers in relation to employees who are injured offsite or at home?

3:30 pm

Closing remarks

3:35 pm

Conference close

Pricing

Early bird rate expires on 7 July 2025

Early bird Standard
Standard Pass
2 Day Conference – Healthcare Workplace Safety Conference $1,895 + GST $2,195 + GST
2 Day Conference – National Health Workforce Summit $1,895 + GST $2,195 + GST
Workshop A $495 + GST $495 + GST
Workshop B $495 + GST $495 + GST
Hospital/Govt Rate
2 Day Conference – Healthcare Workplace Safety Conference $1,495 + GST $1,795 + GST
2 Day Conference – National Health Workforce Summit $1,495 + GST $1,795 + GST
Workshop A $495 + GST $495 + GST
Workshop B $495 + GST $495 + GST

**This event is co-located with the National Health Workforce Summit. One pass gives delegates access to both events which are running concurrently.

BUY A PASS

Sponsorship & Exhibition Opportunities

Interested in showcasing your solutions to key decision-makers in healthcare safety? Contact us today to learn more about sponsorship and exhibitor packages.

Danielle Newman
Senior Business Development Manager
E: [email protected]
T: +61 (2) 9080 4318

Event Code Of Conduct

We want everyone who comes to our events to have a great experience. This code explains our expectations and rules, which includes general good practice behaviour, and how to report anything witnessed or experienced that goes against them. Read our Event Code of Conduct here.

ConnectMe

ConnectMe • Networking enhanced

All of our events utilise a bespoke dynamic smartphone app, ConnectMe – which guarantees attendees a premium event experience. Logins are sent prior to the conference commencement allowing you to check who’s attending, schedule in meetings and catch ups, participate in live Q+A and interactive polls, and much more. ConnectMe ensures you never miss a beat prior, during and post event.

Sustainability

Our Commitment to Sustainability

In Australia, we are committed to running our events in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Across Informa Connect we are focusing on the short and long-term sustainability impacts we have on customers and colleagues alongside the communities we work in.

We recognise that it’s not just about the way we produce our events and products but recognising that we have a role to play in providing a space to work in partnership together with our markets to inspire the sustainable development of the industries we serve.

To read more on our latest sustainability reports and Faster Forward initiatives – click here.

when & where

18 - 19 Aug 2025

Novotel Melbourne on Collins
270 Collins St
Melbourne VIC 3000
+61 (03) 9667 5800

contact

Still have a question?

General Information & Registration
Customer Service
+61 2 9080 4307
[email protected]

Sponsorship & Exhibition Opportunities
Danielle Newman
+61 2 9080 4318
[email protected]

Speaking Enquiries
Frankie Brewer
+61 439 780 927
[email protected]

Marketing & Media Enquiries
Libbie Sinclair
[email protected]

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