Perth nurse wins National Award for Employee of the Year
22 October 2007
Brenda Fieldhouse, a Nurse Manager working at Perth Clinic, a private psychiatric hospital in WA, has won the Australian Private Hospitals Association Award for Employee of the Year.
The award, which recognises a significant, outstanding contribution by an employee within a private hospital, who has acted above and beyond the call of duty, was presented at the APHA National Congress in Melbourne.
Brenda was recognised for taking on many leadership roles over 15 years in the challenging environment of a psychiatric hospital. These roles have included; ECT therapy coordinator, Clinical nurse educator, Graduate nurse mentor, Patient advocate, and Researcher.
As ECT therapy coordinator, Brenda has developed information resources, orientation programs and a post treatment group to improve patients’ confidence with the treatment, developed staff training programs and reviewed work practices that led to a new way of delivering the treatment.
As an educator she has developed a professional development points system for nursing, self-directed learning packages, a graduate nurse program, a student nurse program, an in-service education program for clinical and non-clinical staff and an orientation program for overseas recruits.
Brenda is committed to improving patient care and has developed and evaluated many clinical programs as well as undertaking research.
Executive Director of the Australian Private Hospitals Association, Michael Roff, said the judges were particularly impressed that Brenda devotes her personal time to supporting staff and has had a powerful influence on staff morale and retention leading to a cohesive team environment and low staff turnover.
“Brenda’s keenness to improve patient services drives her to continually improve her own practice while giving freely of her time to support other staff and maintaining her kindness and dedication to patients.”
Brenda was a joint winner of this award along with Sue Knight from Tamara Private Hospital in Tamworth.
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Media Contact: Fiona Wilson 0416 171 266
