It’s a remarkable achievement for Mrs Southern after combining three years of juggling study for her masters with four sporty children and work as a nurse in ERH’s oncology unit.
Three years ago, Mrs Southern was looking for an opportunity to further progress her career and skills and approached ERH executive director of nursing June Dyson.
“The planning for our Cancer and Wellness Centre was well underway and in that planning they had identified there was a need for an oncology nurse practitioner,” Mrs Southern said.
“I’m still a nurse. It’s an extension of practice and I’ve developed better, more comprehensive assessment skills, better collaboration skills with the oncologists and learnt a lot from them.”
In May 2019, the Victorian Government announced $6 million towards the new Cancer and Wellness Centre, which is now well underway with demolition on the proposed site and construction set to start in July this year.
It will see cancer and dialysis treatment move from an outdated aged care facility in the hospital to purpose-built, modern spaces built to care for a larger number of local patients in the region.
Mrs Southern said she was grateful for the support of ERH in becoming an accredited nurse practitioner.
“There were study days I needed to attend down at Melbourne University and clinic time had to be factored in – the hospital was extremely accommodating,” she said.
“They invested a lot of time, effort and money into training me to become a nurse practitioner for which I’m very grateful.”
With oncologists visiting the hospital once a week and hematologists once a month, it means more timely care can be provided with Mrs Southern able to prescribe medications, order tests and imaging and make referrals.
ERH oncologist Rob Bloom said Mrs Southern was now able to independently assess patients and then report to the supervising specialist.
“That way we can see more patients in the given time and more patients can be looked after in their region,” Dr Bloom said.
“Because of their nursing background, nurse practitioners bring a different way of assessing a patient.
“It allows for greater capacity to see patients, greater co-ordination of their treatment and also brings those additional skillsets.”
He said achieving accreditation as a nurse practitioner was a significant commitment.
“It was pretty evident to me from an early part of her development that Mrs Southern had the skillsets to fulfill the role and she’s doing the job beautifully,” Dr Bloom said.
The role is still being developed and the hospital hopes it will become a great asset to the new Cancer and Wellness Centre.
ERH needs to raise $1.3 million to bring the centre to a reality. To donate visit erh.org.au/cancerandwellness
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