This special event draws on clinical examples and expert speakers to facilitate a discussion about how nurses can actively build equity into their clinical practice. We will explore research-informed approaches to providing care to people from diverse backgrounds and critical considerations to delivering equitable care at the bedside.
We will be asking participants to consider situations where inequities arise and engaging in a discussion about how nurses can respond to these challenges.
Professor Meinir Krishnasamy
RGN; BA (Hons): DipN; MSC (Cancer Nursing): PhD
Professor Mei Krishnasamy is Professor/Director of the Academic Nursing Unit at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the VCCC Alliance Research & Education Lead, Cancer Nursing. She is the program champion for the VCCC Nurse-led Research Program and is honorary Professor of Cancer Nursing at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Vijaya Joshi
Vijaya is the Health Equity Manager at the VCCC Alliance. Prior to this Vijaya worked in a range of equity related roles in prevention and service deliver organisations including Our Watch, Menzies School of Health Research (Darwin), and Oxfam Australia. She is a member of the Research Evaluation Committee of the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency, and Deputy Chair of the East Timor Hearts Fund.
Professor Sanchia Aranda AM
RN PhD MN B. App Sci (Adv Nurs) GAICD
Board Chair, Professor of Health Services Research
City Cancer Challenge Foundation, VCCC Alliance, The University of Melbourne, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Professor Sanchia Aranda AM is regarded as one of the world’s pre-eminent experts in cancer control. With more than four decades’ experience as a clinician, researcher, educator and administrator, she has served as CEO of Cancer Council Australia, President of the Union for International Cancer Control and President of the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care.
Professor Aranda is the inaugural Board Chair for the City Cancer Challenge Foundation and served on the Advisory Council for Cancer Australia for eight years until 2015. She also holds a part-time appointment as a Professor of Health Services Research at The University of Melbourne and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and is Deputy Chair of the board of VCCC Alliance.
Professor Aranda is particularly passionate about achieving greater equity in cancer care and outcomes across Australia, especially for First Nations Australians and those who have a lower socio-economic background, live in regional or remote areas or have a cancer type with typically poor survival.
Meg Rynderman OAM
Consumer Representative
Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre
Meg generously volunteers her time as a consumer representative for the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre, (ACSC).
She comes to the ACSC as a survivor of recurrent Hodgkin disease and hormone positive breast cancer. Treatment for her disease included radiotherapy, high dose chemotherapy, stem cell transplant and bilateral mastectomy & reconstruction. Meg also volunteers for Cancer Council Victoria’s Cancer Connect program.
Meg’s 25+ year cancer journey has instilled in her a passion that other cancer survivors should be offered more appropriate support and follow-up care than she experienced in her early years and that cancer should no longer be seen as a one-off incident, but rather a whole-of-life health issue. In 2021 Meg was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to people living with cancer and the community.
Mary Duffy AM
Clinical Nurse Consultant: Lung Service
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Mary is the Advanced Practice Nursing Nurse Coordinator for the Lung Service at Peter Mac and works primarily with patients who have lung cancer or mesothelioma, and their families.
Mary has worked with lung cancer patients for over 20 years in a variety of roles. Her areas of interest include all aspects of supportive care for people with lung cancer and mesothelioma, including symptom management, and patient and carer information and support.
Mary is currently completing her Masters of Philosophy by Nursing Research at The University of Melbourne. She is an active member of, both national and international, nursing and lung cancer professional organisations and is the inaugural Chairperson of the Australia and New Zealand Lung Cancer Nurses Forum (ANZ-LCNF).
