Over the last two weeks, you have met our wonderful Stage One and Stage Two Emerging Nurse Leaders (ENLs). It is with great pleasure that we feature our eleven ambitious up-and-coming nurse leaders participating in Stage Three, Empowered to Reach. We congratulate all participants on their selection into our prestigious award program. We hope you enjoy reading about their ambitions for the future and how they anticipate the ENL program will support them on their leadership journeys.
Kali Baker MACN
Kali is a registered nurse at Ballarat Health Services who is currently employed at a residential care facility. She is in her second year of practice and is developing a keen interest in Gerontology.
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Being an ACN member, Kali is delighted to know that she is not alone in striving for advancement. Within the Australian context of nursing, her vision for the advancement of the profession has a gerontological focus. The older person is situated within nearly every clinical environment in health care. Caring for the older person is extremely rewarding, provides professional growth and personal reflection daily while delivering immense job satisfaction. Kali’s aligned vision for the profession of nursing is to encourage other early entry career practitioners to develop a passion for nursing the older person
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Monique Blackburn MACN
Monique participated in the Epworth CCEED program whilst studying her Bachelor of Nursing at Deakin University and completed her studies in 2017. During her university studies, she was an active member of the Deakin Nursing and Midwifery Society, initially as Treasurer, and then 2 years as President.
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Monique demonstrated strong leadership in the role and was instrumental in establishing a sponsorship relationship with HESTA, one of Australia’s leading industry superannuation funds for the Health & Community Services sector. Since this time Monique has been working initially as a graduate nurse, and subsequently as a Registered Nurse at Epworth Eastern. Monique spent the first six months of her graduate year in the cardiac unit and the final six months as a theatre scrub/scout and was successful in achieving a full-time role in the cardiac unit.
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Tammie Breneger MACN
Tammie came into nursing after more than 20 years working her way through the other uniformed vocations – hospitality, policing and corrections and the imminent arrival of her baby son. She has always had a passion for helping others whilst developing new skills and discovering opportunities to test her skills.
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Whilst studying at Southern Cross University (SCU) Tammie was actively involved in many student committees and was student lead to the Bachelor of Nursing program. Tammie was given the opportunity to lead and create the SCU Student Nursing Society and was the student representative to the Non-Academic Misconduct Appeals Committee.
Upon completion of her undergraduate program in 2017, Tammie undertook the NSW Health Transition to Practice Graduate Year at Kempsey District Hospital working in both the high dependency unit (HDU) and medical ward. It was during her rotation in HDU that Tammie realised her passion for critical care nursing and is looking to specialise in this area in the coming years.
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Enya Chong MACN
Enya is a registered nurse and registered paramedic who has a passion for being the best health professional she can be, whilst encouraging others to do the same. It is for this reason that Enya has enjoyed her previous role as the Academic Coordinator of a nursing clinical skills simulation peer program whilst at university.
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Throughout this program, she was able to facilitate the learning of nursing students and enabled them to reach their full potential. This program was the only student-led peer program at university and effectively prepared students for their various hospital placements. Enya’s ultimate goal is to mentor other dual degree students and guide them through university so that they may succeed in their career. Enya describes working as a registered nurse as very rewarding and she strives to further her leadership abilities through the ENL program this year.
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Danni-Lee Dean MACN
Danni-lee is an Emergency Nurse who is passionate about education, advocacy, research and technology. Danni’s love for rural and remote healthcare has brought her to Darwin where she is serving on a committee to reduce waste and recycle in her workplace.
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Throughout her degree Danni was recognised widely for her leadership and commitment to the community through her volunteering and roles on multiple executive committees. She is currently studying her Graduate Certificate in Emergency Nursing and is passionate about educating her peers and patients.
You’ll find Danni travelling to many conferences throughout the year and networking with a variety of health care professionals discussing environmental impacts on healthcare, advancements in nursing practice, up to date best practice research and the future use of digital information and technology in health.
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Michelle Jory MACN
Michelle graduated her Bachelor of Nursing at the University of Queensland in 2017. Since then, she has been working as an emergency nurse at Redlands Public Hospital. Michelle delivers quality care across the lifespan with experience in paediatric and adult nursing.
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She is dedicated to quality improvement within the health service and has undertaken various quality initiatives within her current role to improve patient care. Michelle is currently completing a Postgraduate Certificate of Emergency Nursing at the Queensland University of Technology in pursuit of specialist knowledge and expertise in critical care fields. Michelle’s ambitions for the future include:
- mentoring graduate nurses
- becoming a nurse educator
- teaching the future generation of nurses as a university lecturer
- completing a research higher degree.
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Alex Kung MACN
Alex is currently completing her graduate program at St John of God Mt Lawley, Perth and is studying a Graduate Certificate of Clinical Nursing at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle. She is loving her rotation in the medical/surgical ward and enjoyed her first rotation in the endoscopy unit.
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Alex graduated from a Master of Nursing (Graduate Entry) and a Bachelor of Medical Science at Edith Cowan University. Her background in medical science and experience as a new graduate registered nurse has reinforced her interest in the importance of quality health care, as well as ensuring a positive patient experience. Alex is passionate about advocating for patient rights and safety, as well as the nursing profession.
She feels privileged to continue her journey in the ACN ENL program and looks forward to attending the National Nursing Forum in Canberra 2020 and continuing to work with a network of amazing nurse leaders to continue quality improvement in health care.
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Lisa Russ MACN
Lisa is a current graduate nurse at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, beginning her career in cardiothoracic nursing. Lisa was drawn to the ENL Program as it emulated her desire to become a well-respected leader of the nursing profession.
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She is excited at the opportunity to develop her leadership skills and qualities so she can continue to be an advocate for not only her patients and their families/carers, but also for the nursing profession. Lisa strives to be able to empower the nursing profession to provide safe, excellent and unbiased patient-centred care. She knows that having the right person in the right role at the right time is paramount to the success of a unit and this ultimately results in better patient outcomes. Lisa is looking forward to achieving her goals by being able to work within a supportive network of like-minded individuals as part of Stage Three of the ENL Program.
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Julia Suarez MACN
Julia is a registered nurse who works within the paediatric department of Logan Hospital in Queensland. Julia works in both the children’s inpatient unit and casually in the special care nursery caring for children and their families alongside fantastic teams. She was also a Pathway to Excellence Champion For Change for Logan Hospital.
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Julia is a passionate nurse who aims to deliver quality, focused and evidence-based health care that is family centred and holistic to those she cares for. Julia believes that leadership, positivity and kindness are foundational to nursing practice. Before Julia became a nurse, she held various positions in health care from 2007, ranging from infection control cleaning, patient support officer to assistant in nursing. With this extensive background, Julia understands that everyone has a vital role in the delivery of safe care to those in need. She has a keen interest in paediatric care and development, neonatal nursing and community care. Julia gained her Bachelor of Nursing through Griffith University in 2016. She graduated with academic achievement and was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International Honour Society of Nursing. Julia also holds a Certificate III in Health Services Assistance from Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE.
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Ariel Yokota MACN
Ariel is an enrolled nurse working in orthopaedics at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane. At the beginning of 2019, Ariel completed her new graduate program on the permanent nurse pool, providing extensive experience across all medical, surgical and rehabilitation wards throughout the hospital.
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Ariel actively engaged in study days during her graduate program by asking questions, sharing experiences, practising nursing skills and volunteered to participate in interviews for Metro South Health footage. Her ability to be adaptable improved as she experienced a new department, team and differing patient conditions each day. Ariel prides herself on her ability to work within and become a part of the team, even if it changes each day. She believes her communication skills, friendly nature, focus and accountability helps to establish quick, trustworthy and therapeutic relationships with both staff and patients. Typically, the comment Ariel would hear as she finished her work on a new ward by nurses was “we hope to see you again.” Ariel accepted a contract in orthopaedics to further develop her surgical nursing skills in a specialty area of interest. Ariel has selected ‘Medication Safety’ as her portfolio within the unit to contribute to patient safety and well-being.
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Madeline Ziegler MACN
Madeline has always lived and worked in rural locations within Australia. Originally from Waikerie, South Australia, she made the move to the Northern Territory two years ago upon completing her nursing degree. She is currently employed at the Alice Springs Hospital where she completed her graduate program and is now employed as a paediatric nurse.
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Working and living within Central Australia, Madeline has a large involvement in providing care to and interacting with the local Indigenous families from all communities surrounding Alice Springs. She has a keen interest in paediatric nursing and takes every opportunity to continually develop her clinical practice. Madeline always strives to provide family centred care to include all members of the family and takes the time to build relationships with mothers and their children to further improve health education.
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Keep an eye on next Tuesday 12 November as we showcase our Stage Four cohort, Empowered to Achieve.
Have our Emerging Nurse Leaders inspired you to pursue your leadership potential? You can register your interest for our 2021 program at acn.edu.au/enl.
