Join us to strengthen provider capability in delivering safe, confident, and well documented immunisation care.
The session will also include a brief discussion on the latest seasonal influenza vaccines for the upcoming flu season.
Participants from primary care and residential age care homes (RACH) will learn how to identify and manage patients with needle phobia, using supportive communication and behavioural strategies to reduce anxiety. The session will also cover how to prevent, manage, and report common vaccine administration errors, supporting quality and safety in clinical practice.
Attendees will be guided through checking patient immunisation status on the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) and uploading vaccine records to both AIR and My Health Record, ensuring accurate, reliable documentation.
Speaker:
Georgina Lewis is a Registered Nurse with a background in paediatric nursing at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. She has a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Clinical Nursing, Paediatrics and has been an accredited Nurse Immuniser since 2005. Georgina has been working with Victoria’s vaccine safety service, SAEFVIC since 2007 and currently holds the position of Clinical Manager. She also works as a casual Nurse Immuniser with a local council. Her special interests include vaccine safety, surveillance, education and immunisation research.
Michelle Ryan is a Clinical Nurse Coordinator in the Immunisation Clinic at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne (RCH), with extensive paediatric experience across immunisation, cardiac, and renal nursing. She has delivered the National Immunisation Program in secondary schools across Melbourne’s eastern region for the past six years and also works in a private travel clinic providing specialised paediatric travel vaccines.
Michelle spent 13 years on the cardiac and renal ward at RCH before joining the Immunisation Clinic in 2021. Her work caring for children with complex and chronic conditions has shaped her strong focus on protecting vulnerable populations through vaccination.
Her professional interests include special‑risk immunisation, improving access for immigrant and refugee families, RSV prevention in neonates, and supporting children with needle phobia. In 2025, Michelle coordinated the RSV immunisation program at RCH and continues to lead the program in 2026.
Sarah Crowe Previously a Practice Manager working in general practice and allied health, Sarah worked for the Eastern Melbourne PHN in the GP Redesign team and practice support team, looking at how they can improve and strengthen general practice workflows. Sarah now works at the Western Vic PHN where she originally led the Remote Patient Monitoring Program and has since taken on the role of Digital Health Manager, writing a Digital Health Strategy for western Victoria, and supporting primary care to engage with digital health solutions in a meaningful way.
Learning outcomes:
- Explain the latest 2026 Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) flu vaccine recommendations
- Describe how to identify and manage patients with needle phobia
- Describe how to prevent, manage and report common vaccine errors
- Explain how to check patient immunisation status on Australian Immunisation Register
- Explain how to upload vaccines to Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) and My Health Record
This session is hosted by North Western Melbourne PHN in collaboration with Eastern Melbourne PHN, Gippsland PHN, Murray PHN, South Eastern Melbourne PHN, Tasmania PHN and Western Victoria PHN.
In registering for this event, you acknowledge that attendance and evaluation data will be shared with the participating PHNs for attendance and evaluation purposes.
