September 12, 2017
A new nursing role at Kingaroy Hospital is making a big difference to graduate nurses starting their careers.
Jess Carrigan took up the role of clinical facilitator after she and her husband Adam, a primary school teacher, moved to the South Burnett earlier this year.
She now supports the six nurse graduates at the facility, drawing on her experience as a registered nurse at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
No two days are the same – one of the reasons Jess says she loves her job.
“My main role is to help graduate nurses transition into the facility,” Jess said.
“I support them to learn new clinical procedures, operate new equipment and generally help them out.
“There’s not really a typical day, so each day I just see what needs to be done.
“The team here at Kingaroy Hospital has been really supportive of the new role – they are a really great bunch of colleagues to work with.
“The grad nurses are doing a good job, I am really proud of them.”
Nurse unit manager Liz Sommerfeld said the new clinical facilitator role had added a lot of value in the short time it had been in place.
“Jess has done a great job mentoring the graduate nurses to help them develop their skills,” Mrs Sommerfeld said.
“It really helps to have an experienced nurse who doesn’t have a patient load to support the graduate nurses and teach them skills on the job, so it’s all very timely and relevant.”
