Over the next 10 years I worked in various private respiratory labs, then while on maternity leave in 2010, I applied for what was a dream opportunity as a ’Spirometry Trainer’ - but despite almost 10 years experience I was rejected for this role as ‘I didn’t have current experience while on maternity leave’.  Feeling a mixture of emotions, I harnessed my rejection and decided to write my own course.    
I started "!nspired Spirometry Education”  and ran a few teaching gigs now and then on the side of my clinical work.

In 2012 I had the unique honour of establishing the respiratory laboratory at Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney, which I managed for the next 6 years.   There was still not much spirometry training happening on the sidelines.  Despite a widespread understanding it was necessary, there were no mandates in place.  So I decided to rebrand and transform the material into an accessible and more affordable online learning course. Surely attending ANY training would be better than none at all?  The ’Spirometry Training Professionals’ website was then launched in 2013, which would later become incorporated as ’Spirometry Training Company (Aust) Pty Ltd.

During 2016 when the Monash Review was published and there were whispers of reforms to the QLD Coal Scheme, my phone was ringing hot...and I guess you could say, the rest is history!  
Training became mandatory under the scheme, and  we became the FIRST accredited Spirometry Training Course in Australia.   Training was now delivered face to face, every month at various locations around Australia.  Loads. Of. Travel.  I was suddenly on a frantic treadmill that I just could not jump off!   Until COVID hit our shores in 2020...

After a brief pause in training due to travel restrictions, I gained permission in mid-2020 to conduct virtual workshops. They proved to be almost as effective, and sometimes even better, than traditional on-site training and resulted in a major revamp of our training approach.  This virtual workshop was developed, tested and refined over the next 2 years.  Turns out to be timely in enabling more availability and accessibility of courses, as the health monitoring for crystalline silica guidelines were published around this time.  I now needed operational support, and welcomed our exceptional Operations Manager, Janita, to the business. She hit the ground running and has not lost momentum since, as she continues to manage all the operational side of the business, allowing me time to continue to refine the program and develop and launch the Interpretation training course for Medical Practitioners.

It soon became apparent that teaching spirometry was one aspect of quality services... however who was checking the quality output after training?  So in 2022 an additional branch of the business was born with the soft launch of QCM. This is a remote quality, compliance & monitoring service for spirometry providers.  QCM offers 1) centralised monitoring of spirometry test quality and 2) quarterly assessment of compliance with quality control procedures.

Fast forward more than 20 years from my first role at St Vincents, and training is now my full time focus, keeping me very busy and continues to bring me so much satisfaction and reward from sharing knowledge and building relationships with all my clients.  

Thank you for being part of my journey.  I look forward to what the next 20 years have in store.