Michelle Smit

• Active member of the senior leadership team focused on delivering leadership with clinical excellence.
• Support improvements in health service delivery.
• Identify resources to successfully enable the implementation, management and leadership of improvement initiatives within the complexities of the healthcare system.
• Link the department's improvement opportunities with the strategic direction of the HHS.
• Provide awareness of change management strategies at a practical level.
• Build the team's understanding of self and others to shape the development of a high performing team.
• Develop a strong local network of like-minded improvement practitioners.

Provide a multi-disciplinary service for diagnostic procedures within the Neurophysiology scope of practice.

• Epilepsy Monitoring Unit: perform diagnostic and surgical procedures to support the evaluation process of patients admitted under Neurology to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. Obtained licensing to administer TC99m radiopharmaceutical injections for ictal SPECT injections.
• Neurosurgical Team: involved in intraoperative monitoring performing Electrocorticography for tailored epilepsy surgery procedures. Implement service improvement strategies to optimise this service and offer external HHS training to senior scientists in the industry.
• Orthopedic Team: perform bi-weekly intraoperative monitoring of MEP, SSEP and raw EMG in idiopathic and neuromuscular surgical cases. Continuous service enhancement to eliminate systemic defects, benchmarking against leading institutions to provide a gold-standard IOM service.
• Rehabilitation Team: intraoperative monitoring for Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy in approved patient co-hort. Built up a team of competent, highly qualified scientists with a keen interest for innovation and ongoing service improvement, achieved an approved work instruction manual accessible on the Queensland Health Intranet Page.
• PICU: support an ongoing research project within this discipline. Actively involved as a sub-committee member of the Neurocritical Care Group, representing Neuroscience Service, with interest in reviewing guidelines, policies and procedures in a critically ill environment. Translating research into practice providing service improvement strategies and innovative pathways for EEG monitoring in Neonatal and Paediatric ICU settings, re-distribution of key resources and re-introduction of SSEP testing in approved cases.
• Opthalmology: participated in the business proposal for an improved Ophthalmology service – motivating for scientist theoretical training (Sydney University), clinical observation and purchasing of world-class ERG/VEP equipment to service all of the Queensland paediatric cohort.
• Collaborate with all necessary teams to provide a detailed scientific report of completed neurophysiology procedures.
• Actively participating in clinical research activities within the Neuroscience Department and extended to PICU, Orthopedics and Ophthalmology services.
• Attend and present at workshops and conferences: quarterly nurse education/epilepsy workshops - annual presentation to surgical teams - training sessions to PICU nurses on request - workshops for Allied Health Clinical Physiologists - Executive presentation: detailing improved Opthalmology service.
• Capable of managing multiple areas within the Neuroscience Department – bookings, stock-taking, patient flow, triaging, engineering and BTS, IT and general day-to-day functions.

SELF MANAGED - CONTRACTED SERVICE

• Started up private neurophysiology service with one Consultant Neurologist: performing routine, sleep deprived, prolonged and overnight video-EEG’s.

• Performed high-quality clinical neurophysiology tests including EEGs, nerve conduction studies, assist in EMG, evoked potentials, and other within-scope neurophysiology testing.
• Consulted and coordinated with other healthcare providers in relation to care/testing, and promptly advised referring specialist clinicians of patient outcomes requiring immediate clinical attention.
• Prepared patient reports for referring clinicians as relevant within and external to TTH.
• Accurately recorded patient data and reports into the medical records as required by Queensland Health.
• Preserved confidentiality and privacy of patient information and records.
• Assisted with clinic projects and general administration of clinic duties in partnership with the Consultant Neurologist.
• Maintenance and inventory of technical equipment and neurophysiology supplies.
• Managed daily business and administrative operations of the department to ensure operations were efficient and patient focused.

Achievements:

• Introduced the education and training program for James Cook University IBL students for a 10-week clinical measurements placement. Participated and assisted in the training of registrars and fellows within the Neurology Department with keen focus on nerve conduction studies.
• Implemented additional bi-weekly nerve conduction study sessions to reduce the waitlist (performed morning and evening clinics with two Consultant Neurologists, averaging 5-8 patients per clinic). Successfully managed to reduce the 3-year waitlist down to a 1-week turnaround, with emphasis on urgent category 1 referrals.
• Managed research projects performed in the Neurology Department: setup protocols and proposals, submitted necessary documentation for TGA approval, liaised regularly with the research officers to ensure efficient trial start-up, scheduled regular meetings with all staff throughout the trial timeline and assisted with finalising statistics, write-ups and poster presentations.
• Started up an in-service nurse education training program alongside the CNC to educate staff about seizure identification and safety.
• Participated in regular monthly teleconferences with neuroscientists' in Queensland, presenting on varied topics of interest within the field.

SELF MANAGED - CONTRACTED SERVICE

• Started up a private neurophysiology service with a Consultant Neurologist: performing routine, sleep deprived and prolonged overnight video-EEG’s and nerve conduction studies.
• This was the first private neurophysiology service offered at the Mater Hospital in Townsville.

Responsible for the efficient running of the Clinical Neurophysiology Department, including direct supervision of the Grade 2 scientists, administrative staff and Industry Based Learning (IBL) student. Proficient in performing all neurophysiology studies (EEG, Video-EEG Monitoring, Nerve Conduction Studies (assisting with EMG), Evoked Potentials, Vestibular Function Tests, Quantitative Sensory Tests. Involvement in clinical trials performed within the Neurology Department.

Managerial duties included:

• Monthly scientist rosters (scheduling of annual leave and ADO’s, weekend on-call and after-hours monitoring – flexible rostering ensuring a patient responsive service and employee work-life balance).
• Ensured timely maintenance of equipment, recorded monthly statistical data, and ensured appropriate patient billing.
• Conducted weekly scientist check-ins, monthly departmental meetings and one-on-one managerial discussions surrounding budgets, cost reduction opportunities, quality performance and audits, supplier negotiations, accreditations, safety training and PC&D’s.

Achievements:

• Participated in the establishment of a dedicated 4-bed Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at RMH: combing sleep studies with video-EEG monitoring for 1-7 days.
• Active implementation of subdural intraoperative monitoring, performing 3-5 cases per year.
• Project managed the renovations within the Neurology department, from design layout to implementation.
• Launched a paperless system within the department, collaborating with IT to ensure safe data storage and confidentially: resulted in prompt streamlined record retrieval systems.
• Assisted with improved triaging strategies by liaising with health care team responsible for requests and communicated the feedback to the Director of Neurosciences Service.
• Created a prompt verbal and facsimile report turnover system, created a roadmap for all administrative staff from referral acceptance, test booking (dedicating time to understanding referral categories), report completion and distribution - allocated protected time to educate the administrative staff in the systems and processes involved.
• Developed a robust teaching and training program for the 12-month placement of the IBL students: created a library of resources including articles and contact information of key stakeholders to support the student, engaged in relevant workshops and assisted the student with their final research project, coached and continued support post placement for all students involved in the program.
• Initiated nurse education sessions in collaboration with the Nurse Unit Managers, focus on supporting the Epilepsy Specialist Nurse for the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at RMH.
• Achieved publications and presented at seminars and conferences.
• Secretary for the Neurophysiological Sciences Society of Australasia (NSSA), 2009-2012.
• Developed strong relationships with the Senior Scientists from the Alfred Hospital and Royal Children’s Hospital to develop accreditation within the field of Clinical Neurophysiology, with aim to standard all departments and clinics within Victoria and extending Australia-wide.

Assisted the clinical research team in ensuring effective and efficient conduct of clinical research studies by providing administrative and project tracking support.

Responsibilities:

• Preparation of trial specific documentation (Case Report Forms).
• Maintained study databases.
• Arranged meetings and coordinated general administrative duties.