SPEAKERS

Keynote Speaker: Janice Lynne Spivey

A Registered Nurse for 41 years, Janice is licensed to practise in Ontario and New York State, USA. She has been certified in the specialty of Emergency Nursing in both Canada and the USA for the past 18 years. Janice currently practises in the Emergency department at Kingston General Hospital, and the Post Anesthesia Care Unit at Samaritan Medical Centre in Watertown, New York. She is the President of the Emergency Nurses Association of Ontario (ENAO) and member of the ENAO Board of Directors. Janice was the past President of Canada's National Emergency Nurses' Affiliation (NENA) and current member of the NENA Board of Directors, as well as being a Chair of the NENA 2014 Pan American Emergency Nursing Conference, "Connected by Caring Across the Americas". Janice is the owner of the Wise Owl Legal Nurse Consulting company.She is also a member of the Centre for Excellence in Emergency Preparedness (CEEP) Board of Directors, a member of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) Emergency Certification Board of Examiners, and an Ontario instructor for the Canadian Triage & Acuity Scale (CTAS) national triage program. Janice is a member of various provincial, federal and international health care steering committees and working groups, and is proud to have been an international speaker at Emergency Nursing conferences in Canada, USA, Mexico, Spain, Brazil and Peru.

Christina Toppozini

Christina Toppozini received her BScN from Queen’s University in 2003 and then moved to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to work on a general pediatric ward. While is Saskatchewan, Christina also worked as a public health nurse in the Baby Wellness Clinic and the Teen Sexual Health Clinic. In 2006, she moved to Ottawa to work in CHEO’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and became a member of the Rapid Response Team. After moving to South Africa for a year to complete her Capstone project on Pediatric Tuberculosis, Christina received her Masters of Public Health from the University of Waterloo. In 2010, she moved back to Ottawa to work briefly as Case Worker for CHEO’s HIV Clinic and as a PICU Educator. Christina is currently the Trauma, Resuscitation and Simulation Educator at CHEO, but also enjoys volunteering her time to medical missions in developing countries. Christina has been published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases and will be presenting an abstract at this year’s Annual Eastern Ontario Regional Trauma Conference.

Monica Larocque

Monica Larocque graduated from Queen's University with her Bachelor of Nursing Science in 2009. She spent three years working in the emergency department at Kingston General Hospital, while teaching at Queen's University and St. Lawrence College before pursuing her masters degree and nurse practitioner certification through the University of Toronto. Monica has just completed her program in 2014 and begun her career as a nurse practitioner working with heart failure patients at Kingston General Hospital. She strives to grow as a leader, educator, clinician and researcher as she continues in her pursuit of nursing excellence.

Jane Lewis

Jane Lewis is a Registered Nurse who has lived and worked in Kingston for most of her life. In 1998, she graduated from St. Lawrence College with a diploma in Business Administration as a Marketing Major. After a variety of positions throughout the Kingston area and overseas, all with challenges in customer service/advertising and sales, Jane decided to redirect her people skills and love for problem solving in a whole new way. She returned to school and graduated from Loyalist College in Belleville in 2002 with a diploma in Nursing. During her consolidation period, Jane was offered a position in the Emergency Department at KGH, and has remained there as a staff member until today (11 years). Jane represents the Emergency Department nursing staff on KGH's Nursing Practice Council and has done so for the past 5 years. In 2008, Jane joined KGH’s RACE (rapid assessment critical event) Team, in addition to her full-time position in the ER. This position allows her to use all of the fast-thinking, problem solving skills developed in the ER in the most unlikely locations throughout the hospital- all with the outcome of skilled nursing care for the ever changing status of the patients.

Debbie Luxenberg

Debbie Luxenberg (Nursing DEC, BScN) is a graduate of the University of Montreal with a specialty in Community Health Nursing and Psychiatry. Debbie has worked for 10 years in a community based psychiatric specific/ACT team at Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, as well as a total of 15 years on 2 inpatient psychiatric units at Lakeshore General Hospital/Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec. Debbie currently specializes as an Emergency Department Psychiatric Nurse at the Jewish General Hospital, responding to emergencies regarding psychiatric and mental health. She has also been the nursing coordinator of the Geriatric Psychiatry Clinic at the same hospital for 7 years. With extensive knowledge of psychiatric illnesses and emergency management, Debbie brings an extremely interesting perspective to the role of the Emergency Room Nurse, and can't wait to share her experiences at this year's conference.