Health Times November 2018

November 2018

Education Feature + New program to help GPs and PNs broach the topic of nutrition with patients + Mindfulness and meditation training: finding calm in the chaos + Mandatory training helps MCH nurses diagnose Autism in the second year of life + Fertility nursing: the reality of making baby dreams come true

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November 2018 We hope you enjoy perusing the range of opportunities included in this issue.

If you are interested in pursuing any of these opportuities, please contact the advertiser directly via the contact details provided. If you have any queries about our publication or would like to receive our publication, please email us at contact@healthtimes.com.au

Advertiser list Absolute Care Health Australian College of Nursing Australian Medicines Handbook Avondale College CCM Recruitment International

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For all advertising and production enquiries please contact us by telephone on 1300 306 582, email contact@healthtimes.com.au or visit www.healthtimes.com.au Published by Seabreeze Communications Pty Ltd trading as HealthTimes.

ABN 29 071 328 053 Š 2018 Seabreeze Communications Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied or reproduced by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. Compliance with the Trade Practices Act 1974 of advertisements contained in this publication is the responsibility of those who submit the advertisement for publication.

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HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 05

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HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 09

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DISCOVER YOUR FUTURE HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 11

Education can better equip nurses for rural and remote practice

By Professor Melanie Birks, James Cook University

T

he healthcare industry is quickly expanding, with longer Australian life expectancies and a growing population lifting demand for skilled nursing clinicians. However, much of this demand is not being met in the bush and more funding and training is needed to better equip nurses for practice outside of metropolitan centres.

The Australia’s future health workforce – Nurses report has predicted that Australia’s demand for nurses will significantly exceed supply over the medium to longer term, with a projected shortfall of approximately 85,000 nurses by 2025, and 123,000 nurses by 2030 under current settings.

Yet in certain regional areas, there is already a lack of nurses. In 2015, the overall supply of employed nurses and midwives was 1,138 fulltime equivalent (FTE) per 100,000 population across Australia, up from 1,107 in 2011 and around the same as in 2014 (1,135). However, the supply of nurses and midwives varied across geographical areas, with supply the lowest in ‘Outer regional areas’ at 1,083 FTE per 100,000 population.

So, what can be done to meet this need to educate more nurses and better equip them for practice in rural and remote areas?

Quality education and training programs are key. It is crucial that higher education providers recognise the importance of upskilling nurses to deliver advanced patient care. Nurses need a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of practice in rural and remote communities, with a focus on health assessment, quality use of medicines and a stronger understanding of the diagnostic reasoning process to deliver effective healthcare.

Nurses need to be able to make rapid and

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astute decisions in challenging environments where they may be isolated from other professionals. Postgraduate education can arm nurses with greater skills for rural and remote practice and help nurses achieve the best outcomes for their patients.

James Cook University’s (JCU) College of Healthcare Sciences has recently expanded its Master of Nursing program by adding a major in Advanced Practice which can arm nurses with the knowledge and skills they need to enjoy the challenge of providing comprehensive advanced care in locations where nurses are often the primary providers of healthcare services.

The Federal Government has made some positive moves too. The Government will from July 2018 pump funding of approximately $8.3 million over four years into the Nursing in Primary Health Care (NiPHC program), to be delivered by the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA). That program is part of the Government’s Stronger Rural Health Strategy which targets expanding the crucial role of nurses in the delivery of team-based and multidisciplinary care in rural and remote settings.

The faster governments and higher education providers act now, the less impact the predicted shortage of nurses is likely to have.

In addition to preparing nurses to practice in diverse and complex settings, there can be career benefits from further study. With a Master’s qualification, nurses can command higher salaries, and are in great demand for a variety of professionally satisfying roles. Nursing managers earned an average weekly wage of $1,952 as at May 2016 , compared to $1,382 for registered nurses, highlighting the financial benefits that career progression into management can deliver.

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HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 13

New program to help GPs and PNs broach the topic of nutrition with patients

A

new education package will help General Practitioners, Practice Nurses and patients raise the topic of nutrition during consultations, offering the opportunity to significantly improve poor diet, which is the most prevalent modifiable risk factor for chronic disease in Australia.

The NutriCare program was developed by a team of 9 leading researchers in Australia, led by Dr Lauren Ball through her NHMRC Research Fellowship.

Researcher backgrounds include general practice, medicine, nursing, nutrition & dietetics, public health, epidemiology, statistics and health economics.

“Australians have poor diets,” said Dr Ball.

“Most people do not follow the Australian Dietary Guidelines, endorsed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

“Clearly, the way we eat is a significant health and economic concern that warrants urgent intervention.

“Our team has shown that adults highly value discussions about nutrition during the ongoing care they receive from GPs and PNs and want to be asked about diet, provided with nutrition advice and/or referred to specialised health professionals such as dietitians.

“We have demonstrated that GPs and PNs are effective at improving patients’ diets when

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they discuss nutrition, including reducing intakes of discretionary foods, eating more fruit and vegetables and reducing dietrelated disease risk.

“Discussing nutrition with patients should be commonplace in general practice.”

But Dr Ball said most patients did not discuss nutrition with their GP or PN, with discussions taking place in less than 7% of consultations.

“Less than 37% of people with a poor diet remember ever discussing nutrition with a GP or PN and many report feeling unheard and rushed when wanting to do so.

The SNAP (Smoking, Nutrition, Alcohol, Physical Activity) practice guidelines already provide a model for how GPs and PNs can discuss nutrition with patients, however practitioners had indicated that they want support to start the conversation.

NutriCare’s goal is to help start such conversations.

“Evolution within the health care system has created significant barriers to GPs and PNs discussing nutrition with patients.

“We have found that GPs and PNs feel they have insufficient nutrition knowledge, report low self-efficacy in nutrition and are faced with competing priorities in consultations.

“Facilitating GPs and PNs to talk to

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patients about nutrition may appear to be a simple task, however, conventional strategies have had limited success in their uptake because they vary in their effectiveness, cost and sustainability.”

NutriCare is a theoretically grounded program, modelled on the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), which provides a method for theorising how to change health professional behaviours and has been extensively used and validated for health services research.

“The NutriCare intervention has six components that concurrently facilitate GPs, PNs and patients to raise the topic of nutrition during consultations.

“Three components target adult patients before attending consultations and three components target GPs and PNs in clinics.

“Each component has been designed using intervention logic modelling and

targets a barrier previously identified as preventing nutrition discussions occurring in consultations.”

Dr Ball said the goal is for the NutriCare program to be scaled-up to all clinics throughout Australia.

“The resources are purposefully simple and low-cost, increasing the likelihood of findings being effectively translated into practice.

“Spreading NutriCare across all Australian general practice clinics has potential to make a significant difference to population health and the reduction of chronic health care costs, by increasing the role of general practice in ensuring wellbeing and health promotion.”

HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 15

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HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 17

Mandatory training helps MCH nurses diagnose Autism in the second year of life

N

urses play a pivotal role in the early diagnosis of autism, which is why all Victorian Maternal and Child Health Nurses will undertake routine training to hone their skills in this area.

“The universal MCH system provides an ideal platform as children are already routinely monitored for their health and wellbeing – so it was an easy solution to incorporate the monitoring of early signs of autism within these routine checks,” says Professor Cheryl Dissanayake, Director, Olga Tennison Research Centre, who developed the training program along with Dr Josephine Barbaro.

“We use the 12, 18 and 24-month checks, and so the training was developed to equip nurses with the skills to monitor infants for signs of autism at these ages.

“Our ultimate focus in developing the program was and is to bring down the age of diagnosis of autism.”

Children can show signs of autism from the first year of life, with others beginning to show signs during their second year.

Research conducted by the Olga Tennison Research Centre shows that autism can be reliably identified during the second year, with diagnoses made at 24-months bring reliable and stable over time.

“This research was undertaken in Victoria

Page 18 | HealthTimes.com.au

across two large studies with approximately 35,000 babies monitored by about 350 MCH trained nurses,” says Professor Dissanayake.

Professor Dissanayake says the key early signs involve social attention and communication behaviours and include inconsistent use of eye gaze, failure to point to shared interests, little use of imitation, a failure to use gestures socially, not responding readily when their name is called, little engagement in pretend play, amongst others behaviours.

And while some parents may spot some of these signs, statistics show that only 50 per cent notice that something is amiss during their child’s first year of life.

“Parent’s aren’t exposed to the variety of children that nurses are, and many first time parents don’t know what to expect of their developing infant.

“The early signs of autism are often subtle as well, and it’s hard to see an absence of behaviours – which is commonly the case in autism – and so many parents miss the signs.

“MCH nurses see thousands of babies for their routine health and wellbeing checks, and are thus finely attuned to what typical development looks like; therefore they are receptive and sensitive to training on signs of atypical development - in our case, focused

on the second year of life.”

The current early diagnosis training involves a 3-hour face to face delivery, but as part of the contract with the Department of Education and Training (DET), the research team is also developing online content to support the nurses learning of the early signs of autism.

Participants learn how to monitor the early signs of autism using the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance (SACS) approach, along with key learnings about autism and the early autism phenotype.

They also learn about the importance of the key early behaviours in the development of children, and how these go astray in autistic development, along with training on how to identify a child who is developing autism and how to raise concerns with parents and to empower them to seek a further referral for a developmental assessment of their child.

“The nurses often know, even before training, when the baby is not developing typically.

“Our training empowers them to operationalise what may be going on, and gives them the skills to hone in on this, to raise concerns in a timely fashion and to refer the family for a further developmental assessment of the child.

“The evaluations undertaken following the training of nurses in our two previous studies highlighted the positive impact of the training in SACS on their practice and the confidence it gave them to accurately monitor and refer children.”

Professor Dissanayake says 81% and 82% of children referred to as having a high likelihood of autism in the two studies, respectively, were diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at 24-months of age.

The mean age of diagnosis in Australia (in children under 7) is 4 years old (49 months) – two years later than what is possible.

“This makes a huge difference to children’s outcomes and parents lives, as the earlier children are identified and diagnosed, the earlier they are able to access services and supports.

“The remaining 18 – 19% of children who did not have an ASD were either language or developmentally delayed, meaning that they too were able to access services earlier than would otherwise have been the case.”

The training of MCH nurses on the SACS will impact the lives of between 1-2 % of Victorian children who develop autism and their families – who will have better outcomes as a result.

“But we need to make sure that once these children are referred by their MCH nurses, they have access to a timely assessment and diagnosis, and ready access into early intervention.

“We still have a lot of work to do.”

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HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 21

Long term access to Allied Health treatment would have a positive impact on the lives of those with Cerebral Palsy

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ong term access to Allied Health treatments would have a positive impact on the lives of people with Cerebral Palsy, as well as their families, allowing them to set achievable goals for future planning and comfort.

According to Jo Elmer, Director of Clinical Services at CPL, Cerebral Palsy researchers are increasingly looking into the effectiveness and specific protocols requirement for those with CP, via Allied Health In other words, the idea that without the intensity and specific type of service, individuals won’t get the desired outcomes.

“More specific details on types of CP and different levels of Allied Health will enhance outcomes – that is an ongoing body of work to be completed, which will ultimately inform families and the government on how to use Allied Health services to manage CP,” says Ms Elmer.

Cerebral Palsy is a physical disability that affects both movement and posture. It is a permanent and a lifelong condition but generally doesn’t worsen over time. In its many forms, Cerebral Palsy is the result of damage during the development of the brain – mostly during childbirth or at a very young age.

CP is generally diagnosed quite early, but symptoms vary depending on age, and are treated in one or more of the following categories: 1. Medications – children with CP may need this due to complications associated with really high muscle tone, epilepsy, or children may have trouble with reflux as

Page 22 | HealthTimes.com.au

a result of complications with eating and swallowing.

2. Surgery – some children will have injections of botox that stops muscle from contracting for a temporary period of time.

To help a growth spurt or stop contractures.

Or they may have surgery to lengthen muscle ligatures.

3. Allied Health - because of the broad and varied benefits associated with Allied Health, CPL has expanded its service offerings in this area, in the hope that more people with CP and their families with be able to access it long-term.

“Therapists at CPL have always had significant training on what’s called ‘understanding abnormal tone’, which supports children with a range of diagnosis,” says Ms Elmer.

“For example, children with autism can also have abnormal tone, however not to the same extent as those with CP. “Our therapists are fully trained to support clients’ communication difficulties, swallowing difficulties, physical difficulties and emotional implications. Our therapists also have very significant and specialised skills around mobility, access to the community and communication.”

Specifically, the areas of Allied Health that have the most impact are speech and language pathology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and social work.

“Speech therapy relates to enhancing a child’s ability to communicate or providing something to assist with alternative ways

of communication – this could be a High Tech Communication aid like an electronic communication device or a Low Tech Communication aid like a pointer board with pictures and symbols,” says Ms Elmer.

Speech and language pathology also assists with safety and independence while eating.

“Occupational Therapy involves working with equipment and working to increase independence in the home or school,” says Ms Elmer.

“Finding the right seating, wheelchairs or beds to encourage comfort and better sleep routines; communication or different ways to communicate so they can reach out and operate different pieces of equipment, moderation of cars, and specific therapies looking at enhancing the upper body and arms.”

OT also includes self-care like washing, dressing, eating and accessing the community.

Physiotherapy treatments focuses primarily on lower limb and general strengthening.

“Types include managing complex seating requirements to ensure patients have correct posture in their chair; adapting strollers so they are safely moving in the community.

“Setting up tricycles and bicycles for children who aren’t able to move around by walking yet; hydrotherapy with a specific program for strengthening, and land-based programs for enhanced muscle mass; developing specialised body suits, which give an extra level of support and control.

“This could also include orthotic devices

to help children with alignment issues with their ankles to stand upright.”

Because CP is a permanent disability, it’s crucial that those with the condition have access to counselling from social workers.

“It’s really important to provide counselling from social workers for the client and family, and provide access to other people and families affected by CP. “Parent education and behaviour management area also big factors for social workers.”

Ms Elmer says she would like to see more people with CP access Allied Health services across their lifetime, not just as a one-off.

“It’s hugely important to provide intervention early, but Allied Health services should be accessed long-term.

“There are often times when life gets very busy for families or finding money to access the services becomes difficult.

“We still need to be providing Allied Health services so young people can transition into the general community and into the workforce eventually.

“It’s really important to ensure there’s a good match between the client, service provider, organisation and family.

“Client goals must be updated on a regular basis, which means time and money invested in therapy is going to give the best outcome.”

HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 23

Mindfulness and meditation training: finding calm in the chaos

M

indfulness meditation has origins in Tibetan Buddhism and has been embraced by New Age gurus for centuries.

However, science is progressively proving that this ancient spiritual practice improves physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Its most notable therapeutic benefit is reducing stress and anxiety. For those who work in high-pressure health care professions, meditation and mindfulness training might be the medicine to relieve burnout in an often-chaotic and emotionally draining workplace.

Nurses and midwives work long shifts, put others first, work in high-stress environments and often cope with sickness and death. As a result, it’s not uncommon for them to experience professional ‘burnout.’

Burnout differs from the everyday stress we all feel from time to time; it builds up over many years, manifesting as a state of complete emotional, physical and psychological exhaustion, which results in disengagement.

Marie Louise, a lead educator for Evolve Yourself Institute (EYI), an organisation that delivers mindfulness and meditation training to health professionals, said nurses and midwives are wired to support others, but it is not so easy for them to give that support to themselves.

“They work hard, long hours and too often put others first. This pattern within the

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mindset of a carer is having great deficits of burnout, stress and staff retention.

“We educate on the importance of ‘selfcare’ and bring awareness to making this a priority, for wellbeing, sustainability and a fulfilled life experience,” said Ms Louise.

Ms Louise said EYI programs provide education on the impact of chronic stress in the workplace and provide the tools, concepts and practices for participants to “fill up their own cup” in terms of self-care.

“It is not sustainable to do anything else when individuals don’t enact on prevention; a crack will show itself with mental, emotional or physical dis-ease.”

Organisations also play a significant part in supporting staff to have good mental and emotional health, said Ms Louise.

“Organisations that look after their employees and highlight the importance of wellbeing are seen to have a ‘well’ organisation.

Organisations are seeing the return on investment through staff retention, less sick leave, engagement and overall wellbeing.

“This program is now seen to be of importance within the health sector, this is the beginning of a long overdue shift,” said Ms Louise.

When nurses and midwives practice meditation and mindfulness, they can expect to feel less stress and emotional reactivity and achieve a calmer and more centred mindset.

The result is the ability to tap into more joy, happiness and overall states of positive life experience explained Ms Louise.

“Stress has a myriad of ill effects on the body and mind, and the profession of nursing and midwifery is in a chronic state of the stress response. So, learning ways to relieve and modify stress response supports every aspect of wellbeing for nurses and midwives.

“Just by turning off the stress response, we allow the organs to do what they are born to do and regenerate and renew, supporting the well-being of mind, body and spirit.

“Every person who does an EYI program becomes aware of the impact and detrimental effects of chronic stress.

They learn practices to calm the central nervous system and gain a clear understanding as to why they would want to engage in such practices.

“It is important for individuals who care for others, to find ways in quieting the noise and allowing the body to regenerate and renew. This impact is multi-faceted of life experience; the impact not only is within the profession but supports every aspect of life development, relationships, inspired living and presence in life.”

Ms Louise says she is heartened to hear stories of team leaders integrating ‘the breath’ when the ward is overwhelmed, and how they became aware of a shift in the state of the ward immediately.

“Not sweating the small stuff and focusing on the goodness in their lives has supported a more invigorated life for individuals and teams. Our leadership program supports

leaders to develop communication with more authenticity and transparency,” she said.

Personal benefits aside, Ms Louise said patient care also improves when caregivers are trained in mindfulness and meditation techniques because it changes the way nurses and midwives interact in their environment and with patients.

“The rush, to do list, not enough time and the feeling of being pulled is quite common for a nurse and midwife. Not enough time, too much to do, not enough staff - this stress and ‘dis-ease’ does not support patient care.

“When we develop the capacity to live more in the moment, we develop the skill of being present to patients. It is hard to connect or engage when we are thinking about the list we have to do.

“Our connection to others is amplified in presence, using practices that support present state awareness allows for patient care to be at its best.

“The practices we share develop aspects of the brain that support disengagement of the stress response, thickens grey matter for developed communication and emotional intelligence and compassion rises, and a less reactive state is experienced.

“This all supports team morale, patient care and sustainability,” said Ms Louise.

Despite the apparent benefits for staff and patient well-being, barriers to training still exist, said Ms Louise; however attitudes are changing.

“Barriers are shifting, but a key barrier is leaders not realising the positive impact of such

HealthTimes -November 2018 | Page 25

practices, and regarding it as not necessary or indulgent. If leaders don’t realise the myriad of benefits for the culture to develop more mindfulness or wellbeing, the application or value of self-care isn’t nourished.

“The finances to pay for these types of programs and giving the space necessary within the system is not coming from the top down. Time and staffing sometimes is an issue, so the backing to support mindful practices is not encouraged. The culture is not at this moment set up to support the practice, but we do see this is changing,” said Ms Louise.

Mark Aiken, a registered nurse for 34 years, recently completed EYI’s ‘How Fit is Your Brain? More Than Mindfulness’ training – a one-day workshop and online program.

As a result of the training, Mr Aiken now incorporates the five pillars system of selfactions into his daily routine, to cultivate awareness and growth which are fundamental to a happy and healthy life. They include: 1. Meditation 2. Movement 3. Education 4. Breath 5. Reflection “Mediation and mindfulness training and practice are important to the self-care and wellbeing of nurses and midwives.

“Nurses and midwives are increasingly using mindfulness to offset some of the pressures they experience in the workplace and at home,” he said.

Mr Aiken said mindfulness training improved his personal and professional life in the following ways: • Improved well-being • Reduced stress • Improved communication • Less reactive • Better able to live in the moment • Greater self-awareness • Improved ability to set boundaries • Increased emotional agility

Page 26 | HealthTimes.com.au

“It taught me to live and stay in the moment, to be fully present, appreciate nature, value what I have rather than focus on what I don’t have and the importance of breath to emotional regulation and slowing down.

“Nurses and midwives care for others and are fundamental to a well-functioning health care system. It is therefore important they receive care and support and skills that enable them to value self-care.

“Mindfulness and meditation training are a fundamental element to self-care,” said Mr Aiken.

Dr Anita Bamford-Wade, Professor of Nursing & Midwifery Gold Coast University Hospital, said in a testimonial, following group training, that the program helped staff personally and professionally.

“Evolve Yourself Institute has been overwhelmingly successful in giving our staff the necessary skills to keep themselves well and to manage challenging situations,” said Ms Bamford-Wade.

Continuing (CPD) hours.

professional

development

If you want to add to your CPD, EYI has day workshops, online and leadership programs for mindfulness and meditation. Day workshops are 8 CPD, and online programs are 12 CPD. Nurse & Midwife Support is the national support service for nurses, midwives and students. The service is 24/7 anonymous, confidential and free 1800 667 877.

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HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 27

Fertility nursing: the reality of making baby dreams come true

F

ertility nursing is equal parts rewarding and heartbreaking according to Amy Scott, a fertility nurse with Genea Fertility, who works with woman and couples to achieve the ultimate gift – a baby.

As a former student nurse working in a lowrisk birthing unit, Ms Scott’s passion for women’s health and pregnancy began early in her career and gained traction when she accepted a position as a specialist early pregnancy nurse in an emergency department.

“I always knew I always wanted to work with this demographic of a patient. So, when I saw the job at Genea Fertility, I knew I would love it!

Working as a fertility nurse requires an interest in women’s health, compassion, empathy and an understanding of the pressure that infertility puts on patients, said Ms Scott.

“Fertility nursing generally moves away from acute clinical nursing and is far more counselling based, generally working from an office rather than on a ward.”

While Ms Scott said she enjoys her work in fertility, like any profession, it has its up and downs.

“Building strong relationships with patients is wonderful, explained Ms Scott, but it hits hard when a treatment cycle doesn’t end well.

“Informing patients that their pregnancy test is negative, or that their pregnancy hormone is dropping is heartbreaking.”

For this reason, fertility nurses, and those

Page 28 | HealthTimes.com.au

looking to enter the industry for the first time should never underestimate the need for patient-centred care when choosing a workplace, said Ms Scott.

“Fertility clinics should invest in nurses, counsellors and patient relationship coordinators to support patients through the often-difficult fertility journey, and may clinics cut corners,” said Ms Scott.

“Genea pours large amounts of profits back into research and development, and they are continually looking at ways to improve the patient outcome and experience.

“Whether that is designing new equipment to ensure more embryos are viable and therefore pregnancy rates are higher or developing a patient portal to ensure the patients receive their next step instructions in a timely informative manner.

“We are fortunate to have the expertise of a counselling team to refer our patients to, and they are pivotal in supporting patients through this journey,” she said.

It may come as a surprise that many patients do not share their fertility journey with friends and family, so fertility nurses act as emotional supports and sounding boards on the roller coaster that is infertility, explained Ms Scott.

“We build really strong bonds with our patients. Commiserating with them on the bad days and celebrating with them on the good.

“Delivering bad news is the most challenging part of being a fertility nurse.”

“But it’s an honour to look after these patients during their fertility journey, regardless of the outcome,” said Ms Scott.

Fertility Nurse, Madeline Towns, began her career as a medical secretary before embarking on a Bachelor of Nursing and, more recently, completing a Masters in Reproductive Medicine.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the contact I had with patients as a medical secretary but wanted to give more and to assist them further in their fertility and IVF journey.

“It was at that point I decided to complete my Bachelor of Nursing while still working full time. The Masters in Reproductive Medicine empowers me, even more, to assist couples with their desire to have a family,” said Ms Towns.

Now a nurse manager, Ms Towns is responsible for 1200 cycles per year, training a staff of four and managing the daily tasks and responsibilities in a busy In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinic.

“A typical day involves five nurse chats with patients, planning egg collections and embryo transfers, assisting with patient queries, and communicating with specialists.

“We run an early morning clinic for our patients Monday to Saturday from 7 am to 9 am. During these clinics, the nurses consult with patients, give medication demonstrations, take blood and perform ultrasound scans to monitor how the cycle is tracking.

“The rest of the morning is normally utilised meeting new patients and running through the treatment plan their fertility specialist has prescribed for them and explaining the IVF process.

“Around lunchtime, we receive blood results from the patients who attended the morning clinic, we liaise with doctors about next steps and then relay this information to the patients in the afternoon.

“I love making what can sometimes be a

terrible, frustrating, stressful journey, somewhat easier.

“At times it is challenging with patients who are unsuccessful in the cycle, their heartbreak is felt throughout the clinic.”

However, despite this inevitable challenge, it’s still a rewarding career, said Ms Towns.

“I have never once felt like I was coming to work or that it was a chore. They say, “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”, and for me, this is 100 per cent true,” she said.

What do fertility nurses do?

Fertility nurses work with a team of specialised health care professionals in fertility clinics, obstetrics or gynaecology offices.

Working as a fertility nurse means confronting highly sensitive issues with patients, so excellent communication skills, compassion, and empathy are vital.

The inevitability of new research-based advances means it’s also essential to have a thirst for knowledge and an eagerness to learn to better patient outcomes.

A fertility nurse’s role includes many tasks and responsibilities, including: • Working as educators to discuss the pros and cons of available treatment options with clients who want to achieve pregnancy.

• Offering emotional support and counselling to patients and their partner to cope with the difficulties of treatment and conception.

• Teaching patients how to administer In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatments.

• Facilitate the egg donation process, providing support and guidance to both couples and the matched donors.

HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 29

Great jobs for health professionals (you won’t find anywhere else)

Lecturer, Acute/Critical Care Nursing Sydney. Take on unit-of-study coordination and teaching of pre and post-registration courses at a Sydney’s leading University.

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Registered Mental Health Nurse QLD. The largest tertiary health service in Northern Australia is looking for experienced qualified mental health nurses to join our inpatient teams.

These and hundreds more great job opportunities at

HealthTimes.com.au Page 30 | HealthTimes.com.au

Nursing jobs UK & Ireland Plan ahead and be in Europe for 2019 RNs in all specialles are encouranged to apply* Take advantage of the aaraccve benefits on offer: Sign on bonus/relocaaon allowance flight paid/assistance with flight short term accomodaaon on arrival assistance with work permit support with registraaon me and greet** airport meet Our CCM Team have first hand experience living and working abroad as nurses.

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HealthTimes - November 2018 | Page 31

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