Dr. Liezl Balfour

Liezl is a passionate healthcare change leader, critical care nurse and manager with over 20 years clinical nursing and management experience, dedicated to improving the quality-of-service delivery and patient outcomes within the Private Healthcare Sector in South Africa.

She started her undergraduate nursing career in 1994 at Ann Latsky Nursing College in Johannesburg. She completed her B.Cur (I et A) with specialization in Critical Care Nursing (University of Pretoria) in 2006. In 2012, she developed and published an evidence-based clinical pathway for non-invasive ventilation in critical care as part of her master’s degree (University of Pretoria).

The limited adoption of the clinical pathway prompted her to continue her academic journey focusing on improving adoption of evidence-based practice in the clinical setting. She obtained a Ph.D in Nursing Science from the University of Pretoria in 2020, and is currently working on several projects to effect health care systems change in South Africa. She is a member of the Critical Care Society of SA, the Healthcare Improvement Team of SA (HITSA), the South African Society for Quality (SASQ) and a fellowship nominee of the Academy of Nurses (ANSA).

During the pandemic, she co-authored several articles, including:

Difference in mortality among individuals admitted to hospital with COVID-19 during the first and second waves in South Africa: a cohort study – DATCOV Author Group https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8270522/ and

Health Checks and Treatment during Covid-19, October 2020. https://hasa.co.za/news_stories/health-checks-and-treatment-should-be-addressed-even-during-covid-19/

More recently she participated in a multinational, multicenter study related to implementation of antimicrobial stewardship in Neonatal intensive care units and will be co-authoring publications related to this study.

She has worked for most private sector health care groups in SA during her career and is currently the Nursing Practice Manager for the Lenmed Group.