Emma Patel is Director of Nursing – Hospital Group at Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora – Te Matau a Māui Hawke's Bay, where she provides professional nursing leadership and clinical governance across hospital group services, and champions a culture of continuous quality improvement.

Pressure injury prevention is an area Emma is especially passionate about. For her, it represents the essence of nursing care - protecting a patient's dignity, comfort and wellbeing at their most vulnerable, and one of the clearest examples of where proactive care can stop harm before it starts.

Emma has led a number of initiatives to strengthen prevention across her organisation, including earlier risk assessment in the Emergency Department and a Hauora Plan that embeds skin integrity, mobility and nutrition into holistic care planning.

Supporting the Silent Heroes Awards matters to Emma because it celebrates the vigilance, judgement and teamwork behind every prevented injury, inspiring others to keep striving for excellence.

Job title: Senior Clinical Nurse Advisor – Skin Integrity and Wound Management
Workplace: Bolton Clarke
Residence: Melbourne, Australia

Kylie Elder is a Senior Clinical Nurse Advisor – Skin Integrity and Wound Management at Bolton Clarke, an aged care and community nursing not-for-profit. She is an experienced clinical leader and educator, committed to strong clinical governance that supports safe, person-centred care, research and evaluation.

 

Kylie has worked as a wound nurse specialist for many years, contributing to state and national wound committees to improve practice and develop education and resources in wound management.

 

She is passionate about pressure injury prevention because every prevented injury means a person experiences less pain, greater dignity and better wellbeing.

 

Recognising excellence in this space matters to Kylie because it shines a light on the dedication and teamwork required to keep people safe, and helps build a culture of continuous improvement.

Professor Barakat-Johnson is the founder of the Wound Care Command Centre at SLHD which is expanding to service Australia and New Zealand through an NHMRC Parentship grant awarded in 2025 on the Digital Wound Model of Care. With over two decades of experience in wound care clinical and research leadership, Prof Barakat-Johnson specialises in innovative, evidence-based approaches that improve patient outcomes, enhance clinical practices, and reduce healthcare costs. She co-led the 2026 revision of the International Best Practice Principles for incontinence associated dermatitis (IAD) and led Australia’s first implementation of best-practice IAD prevention guidelines. Her work has attracted national and international recognition, including the 2025 Premier-Federal Trailblazer Award, the Rita and John Cornforth Medal for Research Excellence (University of Sydney), ‘National Action Award’ (Sax Institute for Research), and the EPUAP 2024 Investigator Award.

 

As a child, Michelle Barakat-Johnson and her sister once accidentally put the family’s baby chicks in the bath, thinking they were like ducklings. The chicks nearly died, but were saved by their neighbor who was a nurse. From that moment, Michelle wanted to be like her - someone who could make a real difference and take action in critical moments. Michelle was driven to make a tangible difference in people’s lives and chose to become a nurse specialising in wound care.