Expo Speakers

Shyla is a palliative care nurse with over 16 years’ experience, working in most jurisdictions of Australia, as well as internationally in India, Nepal, Mongolia and the UK. Shyla has worked as a DON of an aged care facility and in paediatric palliative care, as well as the National Programme Manager for the National Standards Assessment Program (NSAP), with Palliative Care Australia.

Shyla holds a Master of Palliative Care and a Master of Public Health and has a particular interest in public health palliative care, continuous quality improvement, arts in healthcare and service excellence.

Originally from The Netherlands, Rianne is a Registered Nurse who developed a special interest in palliative care when she and her siblings cared for their terminally ill father.

Rianne, with her husband and their two children, spent four years living in Ethiopia and Singapore where she worked for a number of NGO’s. After a period back in the Netherlands where Rianne worked as an RN in a hospice, the family moved to Queensland in 2005. They absolutely love it and intend to spend the rest of their lives here.

In Australia, Rianne has worked in aged care as an ADON and as a Breast Care Nurse.

She now combines her work as Program Manager for Palliative Care Queensland with working as an RN in palliative care.

Rianne is inspired by the success of Ambulance Wish in The Netherlands and her wish is that AWQld will help create more awareness about palliative care and the need for all Queenslanders’ to have access to this specialist service.