PROF TOPICS | Empowering peer support through open communication
Tracks
212 | Table Talks
| Friday, June 13, 2025 |
| 4:00 PM - 4:50 PM |
| 212 | GE Healthcare |
Overview
Multiple Presenters
Speaker
Mrs Liz Jarvis
Sonographer
Royal Darwin Hospital
Culturally safe communication
4:00 PM - 4:20 PMAbstract
Culturally safe communication
Introduction:
A culturally safe service is actively mindful and respectful towards Indigenous cultures, strengths and differences. Cultural safety advocates that the professional learns about themselves. This presentation explores strategies to improve communication with a focus on reflecting on how our own culture affects our communication styles.
Method:
Research has been conducted by 'Menzies Communicate Study Partnership' across Royal Darwin Hospital, Katherine Hospital, Gove District Hosptial and Alice Springs Hospital exploring patient and staff experiences.
Discussion:
Findings have highlighted the importance of both cultural awareness and cultural safety when communicating with patients, resulting in better patient outcomes.
Conclusion:
Culturally safe communication is essential for improving healthcare outcomes for First Nations patients. Healthcare workers must engage in culturally safe reflective practices to build trust and improve communication with patients.
Introduction:
A culturally safe service is actively mindful and respectful towards Indigenous cultures, strengths and differences. Cultural safety advocates that the professional learns about themselves. This presentation explores strategies to improve communication with a focus on reflecting on how our own culture affects our communication styles.
Method:
Research has been conducted by 'Menzies Communicate Study Partnership' across Royal Darwin Hospital, Katherine Hospital, Gove District Hosptial and Alice Springs Hospital exploring patient and staff experiences.
Discussion:
Findings have highlighted the importance of both cultural awareness and cultural safety when communicating with patients, resulting in better patient outcomes.
Conclusion:
Culturally safe communication is essential for improving healthcare outcomes for First Nations patients. Healthcare workers must engage in culturally safe reflective practices to build trust and improve communication with patients.
Biography
Mrs Liz Jarvis |
Royal Darwin Hospital
Liz Jarvis has been working as a Sonographer in the Northern Territory for the past 15 years. She has been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to spend the last 2 years working as a remote Sonographer in North East Arnhem Land.
Liz has been working with the Menzies Health Research team on ‘The Communicate Study: partnership across the Top End to improve First Nations patients’ experience and outcomes of healthcare
The vision of the Communicate Study Partnership is to ensure more First Nations people receive culturally safe care, with a focus on communication.
Miss Tiana Alley
Research Assistant
Menzies School of Health Research
Culturally safe communication
4:00 PM - 4:20 PMAbstract
Culturally safe communication
Introduction:
A culturally safe service is actively mindful and respectful towards Indigenous cultures, strengths and differences. Cultural safety advocates that the professional learns about themselves. This presentation explores strategies to improve communication with a focus on reflecting on how our own culture affects our communication styles.
Method:
Research has been conducted by 'Menzies Communicate Study Partnership' across Royal Darwin Hospital, Katherine Hospital, Gove District Hosptial and Alice Springs Hospital exploring patient and staff experiences.
Discussion:
Findings have highlighted the importance of both cultural awareness and cultural safety when communicating with patients, resulting in better patient outcomes.
Conclusion:
Culturally safe communication is essential for improving healthcare outcomes for First Nations patients. Healthcare workers must engage in culturally safe reflective practices to build trust and improve communication with patients.
Introduction:
A culturally safe service is actively mindful and respectful towards Indigenous cultures, strengths and differences. Cultural safety advocates that the professional learns about themselves. This presentation explores strategies to improve communication with a focus on reflecting on how our own culture affects our communication styles.
Method:
Research has been conducted by 'Menzies Communicate Study Partnership' across Royal Darwin Hospital, Katherine Hospital, Gove District Hosptial and Alice Springs Hospital exploring patient and staff experiences.
Discussion:
Findings have highlighted the importance of both cultural awareness and cultural safety when communicating with patients, resulting in better patient outcomes.
Conclusion:
Culturally safe communication is essential for improving healthcare outcomes for First Nations patients. Healthcare workers must engage in culturally safe reflective practices to build trust and improve communication with patients.
Biography
Miss Tiana Alley |
Menzies School of Health Research
Tiana commenced at Menzies School of Health Research as a GTNT Indigenous trainee within the Hep B team in 2019. Throughout her traineeship she worked to improve health literacy regarding hepatitis B amongst Indigenous communities and improve the cascade of care for individuals living with CHB in the NT through evaluating the Hep B Story App and working along-side translators to translate the Hep B Story App. Through this traineeship, she has successfully obtained a Certificate III in Community Services and continued employment within Menzies. She was appointed a project assistant within the Hep B team as she continued working on the translation of the Hep B Story App. Tiana is a research assistant in the The Communicate Study Partnership, a collaborative program working towards ensuring more Aboriginal patients receive culturally safe healthcare, which will deliver better health outcomes.
Dr Kate Russo
O+G Specialist Sonographer and Senior Lecturer
CQ University/ Adelaide Woman's and Children's Hospital
Enhancing sonographer-patient interactions in LGBTQIA healthcare
Abstract
This presentation focuses on understanding LGBTQIA identities, implementing effective communication strategies, and overcoming common barriers. It emphasises creating a safe, inclusive environment and building trust to improve patient outcomes. The presentation includes practical steps, scenario reviews, and a Q&A session for further discussion.
Biography
Dr Kate Russo |
CQ University/ Adelaide Woman's and Children's Hospital
Kate enjoys working as a senior lecturer in the master’s ultrasound program at Central Queensland University and as a specialist sonographer in obstetrics and gynaecology for SA Medical Imaging at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide. Her ultrasound career started in Brisbane in 1998, where she spent five years before moving to the United Kingdom. While in London, Kate developed her passion in fetal medicine before returning to Adelaide in 2008. She has a special interest in fetal echocardiography and research, completing her PhD titled ‘Maternal cardiac function in women high-risk for pre-eclampsia’ in 2020. Kate continues to be involved with research and regularly gives presentations locally and nationally, aiming to improve obstetric ultrasound services for women through education. She is a passionate advocate for the advancement of sonographers and strives for continuous improvement in the quality of sonographer practice, communication and person-centred care.
Mrs Alison White
Senior Lecturer
Griffith University
Considerations of communication challenges facing sonographers in Australia beyond 2024
4:40 PM - 4:50 PMAbstract
In the coming decades, the number of people in the Australian population over the age
of 65 is predicted to increase to 23% by the year 2066. The increasing percentage of older Australians presents challenges for the sonography profession, including mobility, sensory and cognitive decline in patients, increasing complexities of ultrasounds due to multiple co-morbidities associated with physiological aging, as well as the increasing age gap between sonographers and their patients. Despite aging being a biological process, societal influences can portray aging as a negative process and promote incorrect stereotyping which fuels ageism. Sonographers can increase their own level of self-awareness of the elements of ageism and in doing so, can actively avoid ageist language, actions and beliefs. This in turn, promotes a person-centered approach in sonography with the outcome of improved patient care.
This presentation will provide practical strategies that sonographers can draw upon to ensure that respectful and effective communication occurs with older patients, promoting age-positive communication and increasing patient satisfaction and diffusing communication challenges in the sonography workplace.
of 65 is predicted to increase to 23% by the year 2066. The increasing percentage of older Australians presents challenges for the sonography profession, including mobility, sensory and cognitive decline in patients, increasing complexities of ultrasounds due to multiple co-morbidities associated with physiological aging, as well as the increasing age gap between sonographers and their patients. Despite aging being a biological process, societal influences can portray aging as a negative process and promote incorrect stereotyping which fuels ageism. Sonographers can increase their own level of self-awareness of the elements of ageism and in doing so, can actively avoid ageist language, actions and beliefs. This in turn, promotes a person-centered approach in sonography with the outcome of improved patient care.
This presentation will provide practical strategies that sonographers can draw upon to ensure that respectful and effective communication occurs with older patients, promoting age-positive communication and increasing patient satisfaction and diffusing communication challenges in the sonography workplace.
Biography
Mrs Alison White AFASA |
Griffith University
Alison White BSc MSc DMU (cardiac) AMS AFASA FASE SFHEA. Alison White is an accredited medical sonographer (cardiac) with over 25 years of clinical experience. She is an Associate Fellow of the ASA, a Fellow of the ASE and a Senior Lecturer and Program Director at Griffith University. Alison has been involved in the education of cardiac scientists since 2010 with both ASUM and the ASA. Since 2012, Alison has been the Program Director of the Graduate Diploma of Clinical Physiology at Griffith University, teaching the next generations of physiologists specialising in cardiac, respiratory, sleep and clinical neurophysiology. Alison has published textbook chapters and journal articles in both cardiac ultrasound and university learning and teaching and was awarded a National Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning in 2017, and a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2018.
