Naomi Howell

Naomi is a nursing academic in the School of Health at UniSC. She has a broad experience in acute medical nursing across multiple medical specialties such as: stroke, geriatrics, immunology, neurology, renal, gastroenterology, hepatology. She has worked in the specialist nursing fields of infusion medicine and blood management. Naomi has spent time working in Safety and Quality, facilitating the implementation and evaluation of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards throughout the Health Service. This experience has assisted her in developing an extensive knowledge of how to apply quality improvement, evidence-based practice and patient safety frameworks in the clinical environment.

Naomi is an Aboriginal woman who has completed her Bachelor of Nursing degree and Master of Nursing Clinical Leadership at UniSC. She is a Member of The Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) Leaders in Indigenous Nursing and Midwifery Education Network (LINMEN) and is a clinical advisor to the Office of the Health Ombudsman Queensland. Naomi is currently undertaking PhD studies in vascular access in geriatric populations and is a member of the Alliance for Vascular Access Teaching and Research (AVATAR) and Australian Vascular Access Society (AVAS) networks.

Her research focuses on healthy ageing, vascular access, and infection prevention and control, with a strong emphasis on improving care outcomes for older adults and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. She is also engaged in scholarship around cultural safety, Indigenous data sovereignty, and the integration of Indigenous knowledges in health education. In addition to national priorities, her work contributes to regional health system strengthening through collaborative infection prevention projects in the Pacific, undertaken in partnership with the Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research.

Naomi has taught and coordinated in various courses across the undergraduate program and is currently the course coordinator for health law and ethics, and enjoys engaging with students and developing innovative and engaging, learning and teaching practices