Michelle Bolte has 30 years of nursing experience in various specialty areas and extensive experience in acute care surgical settings. Michelle’s current role is Infection Prevention Clinical Nurse Consultant for Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital, and she is focusing her efforts on surveillance and preventing surgical site infections.

She led the research project that developed and implemented a bundled intervention aimed at preventing surgical site infections in women giving birth via caesarean sections. This study has significantly reduced infection rates in this group of women at Tamworth Hospital. This project has required extensive collaboration with and engagement of a variety of medical, nursing, and midwifery clinicians and negotiations with management and the executive teams.

Previous senior Nursing roles, such as Clinical Nurse Consultant in Orthopaedics and Wound Care in a busy Central Coast Hospital, saw Michelle was responsible for District-wide implementation of a pressure area scale tool and wound care educational resources and guidelines.

In addition, Michelle spent 15 years working in remote rural settings in Western NSW and Hunter New England Local Health Districts (HNELHD), where she worked across sectors including primary health and acute care. Her work within primary health included working as a practice nurse and in a community nursing role.

Michelle’s work in primary health also extended to activities related to developing, implementing, and managing projects within isolated communities. Her experience working in an Aboriginal Medical Service enabled her to collaborate closely with local indigenous families and health professionals to plan and deliver care.