Newsletter – Winter 2012
Annual Member Get Together
Please join
your ONL Board, and management, fellow members, and supplier company
representatives for drinks and a fantastic smorgasbord lunch.
Venue is the
Bowlers Club, York Street Sydney from 11:30 am on Saturday, 17th November 2012.
Attendees
always have an informative and enjoyable afternoon, which includes door prizes
and drawing of our annual raffle.
Attendance and raffle tickets will be offered
in spring.
Our nurses’ stories
Three of our wonderful Stomal Therapy Nurses from Concord
Hospital share their personal stories.
My name is Anne Marie
Lyons; I am an Irish immigrant arriving to this beautiful country in 1996
after completing my nurse training in London in 1991.
To fill you in a little…I am one of 10 children; in my family there are 7 boys and 3 girls.
Since we were an Irish catholic family it was customary for the girls to either take up nursing or teaching as a profession.
My early childhood trauma of 2nd to 3rd degree burns on my abdomen, and consequent treatment (which lasted 2 years) all done at home without hospitalization helped me with my decision to become a nurse. This was the beginning of awareness of how important it is to be a compassionate sensitive and caring nurse.
I love nursing and I have found stomal therapy to be a sensitive area of nursing which proves to be extremely challenging and traumatising for both patients and their families alike. Thoughtful, informed management of these people is paramount. It is also a very rewarding job as you can often see the immediate relief you can bring to your patient /relatives by simply being just that: being sensitive/caring.
My educators in the field were an inspiration to me and they encouraged and assisted me in my pursuit of Stomal Therapy as my speciality.
I have worked at Concord Hospital for 15 years and in Stomal Therapy for 11 of those years.
I work with 2 great nurses Ian and Roger who both bring unique aspects of care to Stomal Therapy with their different personalities, creating an environment which is great for me as a colleague, but more importantly a very specialised Stomal Therapy unit which is essential to the care of our patients.
I also took up the position of Stomal Therapist at the Colostomy Association of NSW last year and am thoroughly enjoying the position. I also work with a great team there too.
I chose Stomal Therapy as my speciality because it incorporates all the reasons I chose nursing as my profession: psychological care, practical hands-on care, teaching both patients and their families, and educating my colleagues.
I love Stomal Therapy Nursing as it is constantly evolving; new improved surgical techniques, new improved products and equipment, all created for our prime focus - our patients.
What is the one piece
of advice I give all fellow nurses?
No amount of education or knowledge can compensate for the effectiveness of the human touch. Sometimes words are not appropriate, a touch of the hand, a sympathetic face can often be the most powerful tools a nurse can possess.
Ian Whiteley is the Stomal Therapy Clinical Nurse Consultant at
Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Concord (NSW).
I undertook my Bachelor of Nursing degree at the University of Newcastle, followed by a Graduate Certificate in Nursing Education (Charles Sturt University), Graduate Certificate in Stomal Therapy (NSW College of Nursing) and Master of Clinical Nursing (University of Tasmania).
I began my nursing career at Concord Repatriation General Hospital in 1998 and have worked there for the majority of my nursing career. There was secondment for a period of 2 ˝ years where I worked as the Clinical Nurse Educator for Colorectal and Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
While still at school I did work-experience as a nurse. However, after leaving school, circumstances prevented me from following my path and I began a career in a bank which lasted for the next six years. I progressed through various roles in the bank, and studied Banking and Finance, but found banking unfulfilling and unstimulating.
Two gastronauts, pictured with Charmaine Richards (STN) and Tom Flood, say goodbye to ONL on their way to Westmead Children’s Hospital.
A change was needed … one of my close friends had become a nurse and by this time had developed a meaningful career she was passionate about … nursing had enabled her to work and travel around the world. After a conversation with this friend and with my mother (also a nurse) the decision was made to resign from the bank and go to university and study nursing full-time. While at university I continued to work for the bank part-time, and also for an agency where I did after school care for autistic children, respite care for families with physically and intellectually disabled children and as a care assistant at the Hunter Orthopaedic School for children with disabilities. I enjoyed these caring roles and would often skip lectures at university to take on an extra shift in one of these facilities. Despite skipping lectures and working at 4 jobs, I graduated from my undergraduate nursing degree with a distinction average.
I was fortunate to meet nursing mentors at Concord Repatriation General Hospital who offered encouragement and motivation and whom I aspired to be like. Having found a career that challenged, stimulated and rewarded, I followed what seemed like a natural path that led to Stomal Therapy. This was an area of nursing where I believed I could make a difference to the lives of patients … but at the same time I benefited by meeting a remarkable group of patients faced with the challenges of life altering diagnoses and body altering surgery.
There are three main aspects to the role of a Stomal Therapy Clinical Nurse Consultant, and I have embraced all of them with dedication and enthusiasm. Firstly, and most importantly there is the patients, support is provided to both in-patients and out-patients. Secondly the role provides education to nurses, doctors, patients & families, support groups and to the wider community. Lastly the role has a research component to inform practice and policy. It is an ongoing challenge to meet these goals.
I recognise the need to have a good work-life balance, and have learned through my patients to focus on what is important. I have a thoroughly satisfying career and life outside the workplace and have been fortunate enough to travel to many places in Australia and around the world.
Roger Ricardo is the
third STN at Concord Hospital.
I work two days a week in my capacity as a stomal therapy nurse, the other three days I work on the wards.
On 5th June 2012 a number of STNs visited ONL at Kirrawee; despite horrendous weather!
Born in Paddington 36 years ago I was raised and educated in Sydney. Prior to training as an Enrolled Nurse in the late 1990s at TAFE, I worked in nursing homes and aged care, which is a good grounding to have. In 1999 I was employed by Concord Hospital and completed my registered nurse training in 2003 and stomal therapy training in 2004.
Stomal therapy is a wonderful speciality enabling a nurse to follow a patient through their whole pathway of sickness. I have had great role models who have been inspirational, patient and wonderful teachers. To be a good STN I think the most needed skills one could have are really good communication, a true ability to listen (and hear), and understanding.
The demands and frustrations of being a stomal therapy nurse are frequently a lack of time to always do a first class job for our patients, and death of some patients, that is very difficult to cope with. However, the patients and people I work with are a constant source of inspiration enabling my enthusiasm for stomal therapy to remain at a high level.
At home I have a lovely wife and family and in my spare time I love to garden and play various sports, so work and play are very well balanced.
A Charge Nurse (Ann Pilley) gave me the best piece of advice regarding being a stomal therapy nurse.
She said: “As a stomal therapy nurse you will always need to go that extra mile.”
President’s Message
Another
financial year has concluded. Many of
our members will be working on their taxes. Don’t forget to include
donations made to charities such as ONL. Notices
in regard to our Annual General Meeting to be held on Saturday 17th
November will be sent in October. Meanwhile,
please give some thought to nominating as a Director, as we are always in
need of guidance and assistance from members with a variety of experiences
and skills. Thank
you to our current Board Members who are all working hard to ensure the
ongoing success of our association for the benefit of members and all
ostomates.
Tom Flood
Got something interesting to say?
Articles, questions, poems, jokes, or stories; please Email or phone us
Country Care Link
Tel 1800 806 160
Mon-Fri 9:00am to 4:30pm
This is an initiative of St. Vincent’s Sisters of Charity Outreach and NSW Agriculture's Rural Women's Network
Contact Us
Ostomy NSW Limited
6/555 Princes Highway
Kirrawee NSW 2232
( Tel: 02 9542 1300
) Fax: 02 9542 1400
8 Email info@ostomynsw.org.au
+ PO Box 3068. Kirrawee DC 2232
: www.ostomynsw.org.au
Orders
Please post, fax or email to oders@ostomynsw.org.au
Board of Directors
Tom Flood, President
Warren Nalty, Vice President
Gerard Watts, Treasurer
Heather
Hill AM, Stephen Grange,
Kevin Skerritt, Perry Johnstone
Robert (Bob) Newman, Company Secretary and Manager
Dates to remember 2012
- Public holiday: Labour Day 1st October
- World Ostomy Day 6th October
- UOA NSW Regional Meeting will be held at Armidale Ex-services Club (RSL) on
Tue 23rd October
- ONL AGM including luncheon, is on Sat 17th November
