Elise Janson, a practice nurse at Harrington Park Medical Centre, believes the experience of practice nursing really is what you make it.
She is passionate about caring for her patients and building relationships in her day-to-day role.
Her contribution to enhanced clinical outcomes for patients and effectively communicating with patients to educate them, is key to making her role as practice nurse worthwhile.
How long have you been a nurse and how long have you been working in South Western Sydney as a practice nurse?
I have been a practice nurse at Harrington Park Medical Practice for four years.
Why did you decide to pursue a career in nursing/primary care?
There are many benefits to becoming a practice nurse. I thoroughly enjoy the longevity of patients. We as a team go through highs and lows with patients and their families. The rapport and relationships built can be super rewarding. I personally chose this style of nursing as the impact I could make was beneficial in comparison to ward-style nursing.
What is your day-to-day role and how do you contribute to improving clinical outcomes?
My day-to-day role does change day-to-day!
Sometimes, there are emergency situations or high intensity situations which require the practice nurse to triage, commence care and make decisions based on the patients’ needs and/or deterioration. Each day the ages of patients I see ranges from birth to elderly and everything in between. This often includes seeing babies, infants, teens, new mums and older people. The role includes immunisation, travel vaccines, triage, ECGs, infusions, wound care/management, assessments, recalls, women’s health – the list just goes on and on.
Practice nursing for me is what you make of it. I contribute to clinical outcomes by educating patients with their care needs, promoting safer scenarios for their overall health, applying complete transparency regarding their health, effectively communicating and ensuring my clinical competency is up-to-date with the latest literature.
What do you love about your role as a practice nurse?
I love the lifestyle, the patients are rewarding, the staff is like a family. I especially love no shift work! We all enjoy working together, improving patient care and implementing new ways to ensure patient satisfaction. I mostly enjoy working autonomously and being trusted enough by the care team to be able to make decisions about my patients’ health, and to feel heard by the patients’ care team.
What is the biggest challenge of the role and how do you overcome this?
The limited number of GPs, and appointments can be challenging. Overall, the health system does require an overhaul but by working as a team at Harrington Park Medical Centre we believe we combat this as best we can to ensure priority patients are seen.
How do you help educate your patients about maintaining good health?
Building rapport through therapeutic communication. By getting to know your patients over a long time, you gain the ability to understand what strategies are required to effectively ensure their understanding of their health and what is required to apply the strategies.
Tell me about your ideal workday!
My ideal workday is to ensure all patients leave feeling satisfactory with no poor results. Unfortunately, in practice nursing, upsetting outcomes of patient care can happen so an ideal day is when this does not occur.
The treats brought in my patients is a great scenario too!
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I enjoy my three kids and being social. Just the regular stuff, that we all enjoy doing. And once again, without the shift work being involved. My work family are also great people to have around and we ensure we enjoy each other outside of work as well.