About us
About infection control nurse
Our team
Lisa Hellwege
Lisa is a Registered Nurse. Lisa worked for a number of years in the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) clinic at the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH). She has also worked for a number of years as an infection control nurse in the Infection Control Unit at the RHH, for the RHH Redevelopment team, and is a member of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC).
Whilst currently the Clinical Director of Earworx Australia, a microsuction wax removal service based in Hobart, Lisa has been and continues to be passionate about the area of infection control. The current COVID-19 pandemic saw her temporarily return to her infection control role at the RHH to assist the hospital redevelopment team fast track the opening of their new $689 million dollar K block, where she provided infection control advice around mitigating strategies including cleaning practices to protect patients during building works. Her dedication to best practice cleaning and her desire to protect the public led her to establish Infection Control Nurse.
Corrine Westen
Corrine is a Registered Nurse. Previously working in office, hospitality and computing roles, she commenced her nursing career in the last 10 years, studying her bachelor of nursing at the University of Canberra. She has worked in areas including paediatrics, adult surgical and adolescents.
Returning to her home state of Tasmania more recently, she then worked with adults and children in day surgery, palliative care and rehab, before expanding her skills to include venepuncture, working as a blood collector at pathology.
As well as being an Earworx nurse, Corrine’s experience in pathology, which more recently involved undertaking COVID screening tests, inspired a desire to share her knowledge about infection control and the importance this has in protecting her community.
Shaun Lawson
Shaun has been a registered nurse for over a decade, and currently works alongside Lisa and Corrine in his role as a Jobfit RN, completing pre-employment screening. He completed a Bachelors Degree in Nursing at Flinders University in South Australia and has post graduate training in critical care nursing through La Trobe University in Victoria.
Shaun has developed a sound understanding of infection control through his many years working in the acute and critical care environments and through his association with Earworx has furthered this knowledge and contribution to the Infection Control Nurse cleaning course.
WHY CHOOSE OUR COURSE?
Our course compliments information provided by organisations such as the Australian Department of Health, Safe Work Australia, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Our goal at Infection Control Nurse however is to bring you all of this information in one short, comprehensive course, demystifying infection control and the cleaning process.
Because of this, you do not need to be a Registered Nurse to do our course; in fact it is designed specifically for those of us who are NOT health care professionals. We want this information to be available for everyone because we believe it is so important, especially during a healthcare crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
The course starts with some basic topics like what germs are, how they spread, and how this impacts on how we clean our environment, before moving onto the importance of good hand hygiene and how to protect ourselves and others by the proper use of personal protective equipment like gloves. After this, we cover cleaning, looking at what cleaning equipment we need, what products we should use, the difference between cleaning and disinfecting, when we need to disinfect, and what a ‘deep clean’ is.
One of the best parts of this course is learning about the principles of good cleaning. We will give you five strategies for ensuring your cleaning is to the highest standard possible.
You will also be given a cleaning schedule – a downloadable template – which you can modify and print off to start using straight away. This ensures you have a record of the cleaning which Safe Work Australia are mandating at present.
WHO IS IT FOR?
- how infection spreads,
- how you can protect yourself and others from infection, and
- how to clean a work environment to reduce the spread of infection.