Antje Williams

Our team of 8 nurses per day, service both acute post operative patients and chronic care patients within the Clarence Valley. We work autonomously and each manage our own caseload. These patients each have differing medical oversight (at times none at all) and it is our responsibility to liaise with surgeons, general practitioners or other medical specialists to coordinate their care.

Including:

• Catheter change, maintenance and education
• Post op drain care
• Post op wound care including complex wound care such as NPWT
• Chronic wound care
• Palliative care and symptom management
• Chronic disease management

My background in emergency and acute hospital care gave me a lot of the skills for this position but the last few years have taught me how to work in isolated areas and independent of a team. This has given me the confidence needed to act and make decisions autonomously as well as, when and where to seek assistance.

• We each provide holistic primary healthcare, and each day I utilise the knowledge of mental health, emergency care, disease prevention, medication knowledge and assessment skills I have gained over the 20 years of acute and primary healthcare experience.

This achieves:

• Preventing unnecessary hospitalisation of chronically unwell clients.
• Facilitates early discharge.
• A close collaboration with local and tertiary healthcare.

Part of my role is managing and triaging referrals to the service, ensuring patient safety and referrer communication is maintained.

As well as guiding the development of new community nursing staff by demonstrating best practice in community healthcare delivery and promoting growth and professional development.

• I was part of a large dynamic team of medical, nursing and other specialty staff juggling both the mundane and the time critical elements of a large emergency department.
• Triaging patients and ensuring patient and staff safety by monitoring the waiting area.
• Initiating emergency treatment and coordinating emergency procedures including all aspects of advanced life support.
• Patient outcomes were the focus while maintaining the benchmarks set to ensure patient flow, consistently providing high-quality emergency care and implementing evidence-based nursing practices.
• Collaborated with physicians to quickly assess patients and deliver appropriate treatment while managing rapidly changing conditions.

• This is where I learned how a large tertiary hospital emergency department operated.
• I learnt how a large and seemingly chaotic department can run in a coordinated and seamless manor with the leadership of experienced staff who exemplify the provision of care following defined protocols and clear communication.
• I became proficient with advanced life support measures and learned clinical skills such as cannulation, CVAD management and ventilation.

• Warwick is a small rural hospital with no medical cover out of hours. It was here I learned to comprehensibly assess situations and utilise the limited resources at hand.
• Initiating and coordinating retrieval teams in emergency situations
• Utilising critical thinking skills to prioritize nursing interventions based on patients'' acuity levels and individual needs.
• Conducted comprehensive patient assessments to identify changes in condition, promptly notifying physicians and initiating appropriate interventions when necessary.
• Administered medications and supportive measures safely according to established guidelines while closely monitoring for side effects or adverse reactions requiring intervention.
• Providing compassionate, holistic nursing care that addressed physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.