Epilepsy Nurses Symposium

Melissa Bartley RN, BN, PostGradCert (Neuroscience Nursing), MNursing (Advance Clinical Practice)

Melissa Bartley is a epilepsy clinical nurse specialist at comprehensive epilepsy service at Westmead hospital in Sydney Australia. Melissa provides care to people with epilepsy and seizures in the adult outpatient and inpatient care setting. Melissa worked as a neuroscience nurse for 5 years before moving to her current role in epilepsy which she has been working in for 13 years. Areas of special interest include epilepsy surgery, diet therapy for epilepsy and transition care. Ensuring standards of care, including best practice, quality, and safety in care.

Melissa completed undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing Education at Western Sydney university, and completed a post graduate certificate in neuroscience nursing and Masters of Nursing advance clinical practice from the University of Technology Sydney. Melissa is a past chair of the epilepsy nurse special interest group of Australasia (ENSIGA) and is a current committee member.

Melissa has presented platform and poster presentations at local and international neuroscience nursing scientific meetings and participates in epilepsy research within the Westmead service and collaborating with epilepsy groups.

Janis Brown is the Clinical Nurse Consultant for Paediatric Neurology at the John Hunter Children’s Hospital in Newcastle, NSW. Janis has worked as a registered nurse for 37 years, 15 of those specialising in paediatric epilepsy and holds a master’s degree as a nurse practitioner. Janis set up a service in Fiji, visiting twice per year since 2014, excluding pandemic lockdown periods, in conjunction with a paediatric neurologist providing clinical support that was previously unavailable to them. A clinical service in Tonga was included for the first time in September 2022.