Conference Keynote Speakers

Conference Keynote Speakers

This page will be updated as further speakers are announced.

Carli Whittaker, Royal College of Nursing, Head of Nursing Practice, Children and Young People

Originally a Sydney-sider, after qualifying and practicing as a registered nurse in Australia, the plan was to come and travel the UK and Europe for 2 years, this was over 20 years ago. Carli is both adult and paediatric nurse by profession, however area of specialism is Paediatric Critical Care. Carli is the President of the Paediatric Critical Care Society (PCCS), the first nurse and female to hold the role within the Society, PCCS is a professional, multi-disciplinary, membership organisation representing the interests of those delivering paediatric critical care in the UK (United Kingdom) for the benefit of Children and Young People and their families. 

Carli’s interests predominantly focuses in Paediatric Critical Care with her PhD in the exploration of children’s nurses and the retention challenges faced. However,  Carli is also interested in the education, simulation, CYP leadership and CYP health inequalities. Carli is passionate about broadening the scope and profile of Children’s Nursing not only in the UK, but globally. She works in partnership with the NHS, private and independent sector, and professional, statutory and regulatory bodies.

Professor Bernie Carter PhD BSc RN, RN(Child), Professor of Children's Nursing, Edge Hill University 

Bernie's research focuses on children and young people whose lives are disrupted by pain, illness, disability, complex health care needs and disadvantage, and the ways in which this affects their parents, brothers and sisters and family life. She is particularly interested in the challenges of assessing the pain of children with profound cognitive impairment. Much of her research is creative, narrative, appreciative, participatory and arts/activities based. She works closely with children and families throughout her research to ensure her work is robust and grounded in the lives of the participants. On a good day, Bernie loves writing about research (although on bad day's it can make her cry).   

Professor Sarah Neill -Professor of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth

Sarah is a children’s nursing academic with over 25 years’ experience in higher education, initially focussed on teaching and learning for the next generation of children’s nurses, then gradually more focussed on research. Sarah Co-leads the Fit for Children and Young People (Fit4CYP) project with her colleague Dr Matt Carey as she is passionate about ensuring children’s nursing education is fit for purpose.

Sarah’s research is mainly focussed on acute childhood illness in children under five years of age, predominantly in the home and in first contact health services, such as primary, urgent and emergency care. She works collaboratively with parents and health professionals to understand patient and professional experiences and decision making. This evidence she applies to the development of interventions to improve access to care for acutely ill children.

Sarah leads the Acutely Sick Kid Safety Netting Interventions for Families (ASK SNIFF) research programme and was the Chief Investigator on the Before Arrival at Hospital (BeArH) NIHR RfPB funded project. She is currently Co-leading another NIHR RfPB funded project: Acutely Sick Kid Digital Interventions for Parents from under-represented Communities (ASKDIPaC) project. Sarah is a qualitative researcher with a specific interest in Glaserian grounded theory. Internationally Sarah co-chairs the International Network for Child and Family Centred Care https://incfcc.weebly.com/ and the Conference Planning Committee of the International Family Nursing Association https://internationalfamilynursing.org/ .

Dr Matthew Carey – Associate Professor in Child Health Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth

Matt is a passionate children’s nurse with a background in critical care who joined the University of Plymouth in 2012 as a lecturer in child health nursing. For the past 12 years Matt has facilitated the training and education of future generations of children’s nurses and qualified professionals, leading to an Inspirational Teacher SSTAR Award in 2019, voted by students. After completing his PhD Matt gradually moved to focus more on research, leading to a promotion as an Associate Professor in Child Health Nursing.

Matt’s research interests are centred on children’s nursing education, children, young people (CYP) and their families as well as critical care. Matt is Chief Investigator on a number of research projects including the Fit for Children and Young People (Fit4CYP) project and the ASTOUND study. The Fit4CYP project, co-led with Professor Sarah Neill was established to ensure that children’s nursing education is fit for purpose. The ASTOUND Study, has been established with an expert panel representing 34 countries to explore the global provision of pre-registration education for the preparation of student nurses to care for neonates, infants, CYP and their families.

Matt is also the award holder for the NIHR Undergraduate Research Internship Programme, to develop pre-registration student nurses as research leaders of the future. In addition, Matt is the Postgraduate Research Coordinator and the Research Leader for Child and Family Health within the School of Nursing of Midwifery.