Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Director of Nursing Research and Clinical Nurse Consultant, Professor Fiona Newall has been listed as one of Australia’s 2013 top five inspirational nursing leaders.
Fiona has been a nurse at the RCH for 15 years and is dedicated to improving the professional development of fellow nurses. Her role involves supporting RCH nurses to deliver the best care possible and this nomination, voted by readers of Nursing Review, is well deserved.
Fiona works with nurses to identify areas of practice that could be improved and appropriate strategies for improvement, and then evaluates the outcomes to see if the initiative has made a difference.
She also helps nurses navigate pathways for professional development. “There is not a one size fits all approach as every nurse has different skills, motivations and knowledge,” she says.
“Both of these areas are vitally important as both have the potential to improve the quality of care provided to RCH patients and their families.”
Colleagues describe Fiona as a ‘great mentor, leader, and example’, but Fiona says her leadership has been guided by her own mentors including RCH Paediatric Haematologist and Head of the Department of Paediatrics at The University of Melbourne, Professor Paul Monagle, and Professor Linda Johnson, currently the Head of Nursing and Midwifery at Queens University in Belfast.
“They provided me with opportunities to merge academic development and clinical development, which doesn’t often happen in nursing,” Fiona says. “They also enabled me to take on research that involved patient care and gave me career opportunities.”
“I believe mentorship, both formal and informal, is vitally important to professional development and I have a strong desire to see all nurses receive appropriate and personalised career development advice.
“I know that the realisation of such a desire cannot be achieved by one individual, which is why capacity building across our workforce is so important. I believe that through the work of the Nursing Research Department, we’re well on the way to achieving a sustainable approach to this important issue.”
Fiona works in the RCH Department of Clinical Haematology one day per week, caring for children with blood clotting disorders, and her passion for the profession stems from a nurses’ ability to directly influence the lives of patients and families in a positive way.
She also enjoys the variety of the profession saying there are so many ways nurses can practice − in education, direct clinical care, management or research.
“One of the things I love about working at RCH is the opportunity for all of those elements of nursing practice to be supported in the one campus.”