Since 1995, Dr Bernie Whitaker has conducted more than 210 courses and workshops for health professionals in 62 NHS Trusts and hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Japan, South Africa, Canada and USA.

Bernie Whitaker has a background in Nursing and was a University Lecturer in Nursing for 17 years.  His subject areas included Pain Management, Bioscience, Human Anatomy and Physiology, Pharmacology, Pathophysiology, Medical/Surgical Nursing and Psychobiology.  He also lectured for a number of years on the neurophysiology and psychology of pain to Bachelor of Nursing (Post Registration) students in Hong Kong.  

In 1988 he became interested in pain and in particular procedural pain in children while working in an emergency department.  In 1995 he completed a Master of Nursing Studies degree at LaTrobe University in Melbourne, which investigated the use of guided imagery as a way of helping children through painful procedures.  It was also at this time that Bernie started to teach a range of health professionals in hospitals in Australia and overseas how to use relaxation and guided imagery to manage pain.

Immediately after completing his Master’s degree Bernie continued to work full-time and enrolled part-time in a Ph.D in the discipline of psychology.  He completed his Ph.D: The effects of distraction, relaxation, and guided imagery on procedural fear and pain in children in 2002.

In the past Bernie has been a member of the Victorian Quality Council Acute Pain Management Working Group.  He is, and has been a member of the International Association for the Study of Pain and the Special Interest Group (SIG) Pain in Childhood since 1994.  Bernie has presented at International Symposium on Pediatric Pain (ISPP) on seven occasions, the last chairing a workshop on managing procedural fear and pain in children and adolescents at ISPP Halifax, Nova Scotia, October 2023.  He has also presented at the World Congress on Pain in Sydney, Australia in 2005 and numerous other international congresses as an invited speaker.

After ten years in the UK he has now returned to Australia and based in Swan Hill in north western Victoria. With the impact of the pandemic on face-to-face teaching he is now also offering the workshops online via Zoom and has done this with Project ECHO Toronto Sick Kids Hospital on two occasions.

Thankfully, now the pandemic has eased, face-to-face, in-person workshops are again available. Please use the ‘Contact’ link above to find out how to schedule a workshop.