Ann Marie Fitz Johnson

In the last year I have been working as a child health nurse in Gympie and I am now privileged to develop the 1000 days health advisor role in Gympie 2 days per week alongside my colleagues on the coast. This is an amazing opportunity to work in a strength-based model to provide the best outcomes for clients that would not access mainstream services due to vulnerabilities. I also feel it uses my previous knowledge and skills working with vulnerable clients to provide measurable outcomes to improve the long term outcomes for children and families.

I spent 3 months working in a CPLO role which was an exciting opportunity to develop relationships across health and child safety and broaden my knowledge and understanding of legislation specific to Queensland.

I have embraced the new culture and job role having moved from the UK and feel have adapted to new ways of working showing resilience and enthusiasm.

I have had the privileged to be the I care representative for the Gympie team and look forward to working more with the I care team to further develop my skills and cultural sensitivity.

I have also felt able to challenge and question areas of practice where I felt service delivery was not meeting client need and this has resulted in a service change.

Since being in the role I have been able to use my previous skills and knowledge especially around family partnerships and hope to develop this further utilising the partner programme of antenatal promotional guides recognising the importance of antenatal visits with our more vulnerable families.

My previous clinical lead role focused on line
management and clinical leadership of services
for children and families with a focus on
prevention and early intervention especially in
the first 1001 days when we know children are
impacted most affecting their future health and
outcomes.
The role involved line management of 26
qualified staff and also 6 unqualified team
members. I offered safeguarding and
management supervision to all staff in 6 weekly
meetings . I ensured all safeguarding practices
were reviewed and safe and effective by
caseload review. I offered support to develop
practitioners skills and confidence both in 121
meetings and in team meetings. This also
involved review of clinical records and audit
implementing any change to improve the safety
and effectiveness of the service.

As a clinical lead worked alongside statutory
and voluntary agencies to develop services to
support the best outcomes for children and
families recognising local challenges and
implementing appropriate systems and
strategies to support them. I led on a project to
develop a service wide perinatal service working
with health/ voluntary agencies to meet local
need this involved gaining national funding and
providing outcome measures to show clinical
effectiveness in reducing perinatal illness.
I was the lead for infection control and
fathers mental health and recently disseminated
the findings around involving fathers in
healthcare and improving outcomes for children,
Throughout we adhered to organisational policy,
government guidance and local safeguarding
board guidance. By undertaking local audits of
practice I was able to follow through on areas of
practice development to ensure services were
optimal and well delivered.
We also actively sought service user feedback
and acted on recommendations from any
concerns or complaints.

As a team lead I also had to maintain rosters
and ensure staffing levels were safe, undertake
sickness and HR processes with staff. I also
undertook performance reviews/ appraisals and
supported colleagues to develop and learn.

Throughout my career whether as a clinician or a manger I always take time to listen , show empathy and compassion. In busy work environments I always felt people value having someone listen and hear them even if we cannot resolve every challenge.

I would value the opportunity to use my current skills in a clinical nurse post to make a positive impact on service development but more importantly service delivery recognising the need to constantly adapt and change to the needs of our clients and deliver services in new and innovative ways whilst maintaining safe effective practice.

• INSTITUTE OF HEALTH VISITING Perinatal Mental Health train the trainers 2022
• FATHERS MENTAL HEALTH INSTITUTE OF HEATH VISITING Fathers perinatal mental health train the trainers 2022
• ICON Abusive Head Trauma in Infant Trainer Course
• NEWBORN OBSERVATIONBRAZELTON CENTRE Newborn infant observation to support infant mental health and attachment 2015
• ELIM Speech and Language (Preschool Language Development) 2021 HCRG Care
• Autism Awareness 2022
• LONDON MAUDLSEY FAMILY PARTNERSHIP Promotional Guides train the Trainer 2017

Circle of Security August 2023