Dr Melissa Bloomer has more than 20 years experience as a registered nurse and academic. What started as a desire to improve care of the dying in intensive care, led to a path in research. Melissa's research focuses on end-of-life care across the lifespan with a particular focus on patient care and decision making, care of the family before and after patient death, and the registered nurse’s educational and emotional preparedness for death, dying and end-of-life care. Utilising qualitative and mixed methods approaches, Melissa’s end-of-life care research spans neonatal, paediatric and adult ICU, as well as a significant amount of work conducted across acute care and rehabilitation settings. Her research has resulted more than 50 publications and an international profile in end-of-life care.