Spotlight on Practice Nursing

Michelle McGillivray April 08

Katrina Hishon is the Clinical Manager and Practice Nurse at Baarlijan Clinic at Ballarat & District Aboriginal Cooperative. Katrina is a Division 1 Registered Nurse who commenced her nursing education at St John of God Hospital in 1984.

Since then she has continued to train to achieve graduate qualifications and develop her capabilities. She has a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Paediatric Nursing and the Advanced Diploma of Business Management. Katrina is also an accredited Nurse immuniser.

Prior to joining Baarlijan Clinic 14 months ago Katrina worked at both Ballarat hospitals and achieved Clinical Nurse Specialist qualifications and Associate Unit Manager of BHS Paediatric and Adolescent Unit. She continues to increase her knowledge by participating in the Division education sessions and attending conferences on Indigenous Health.

Baarlijan Clinic aims to provide holistic and preventive care for their patient population. Katrina is actively engaged in clinical care including triage, wound management, immunization, spirometry, pathology collection and ECGs.

'A major focus of Aboriginal health care' Katrina says, 'is ensuring continuity and coordination of care as well as patient advocacy. We could not do this successfully without the support of a cohesive team.' The team at Baarlijan includes six sessional GPs, two Aboriginal Health Workers, the administrative staff at the clinic and a number of other service providers at the cooperative. The team approach that Baarlijan has developed has led to demonstrable improvements in health outcomes.

The main population age range of patients at the clinic is between 15 and 50. Katrina is passionate about working with young people where her approach to preventive care has the greatest potential. The recent introduction of paediatric health checks has seen an increase in children being brought to the clinic for health care.

The clinic works actively on a preventive health model, utilizing the MBS items for ATSI health checks and the CDM items when chronic and complex needs are identified. Katrina works actively with patients on their referrals and follow-up. A vital part of her role is to ensure that clients have access to transport and social support.

Katrina says each day is a new experience. She relishes the health education aspect of her work and develops or tailors sessions for individuals and groups. She also conducts education, professional development and training sessions for clinic staff, visiting and rotating pharmacy and medical students.

With the solid grounding of her training in business Katrina says she is able to use or adapt technology to improve the practice's capacity, find and locate records and keep patient data up-to-date. Katrina makes good use of the templates available from division websites to streamline her work particularly in chronic disease management and health assessments. 'These,' she believes, 'are invaluable resources for us to import and adapt for use in the practice.'

Like any general practice Baarlijan clinic has to manage their bottom line. Katrina is justifiably proud that the clinic has doubled its monthly income in one year. Her analysis shows that this has been substantially achieved by making appropriate use of MBS items which includes the full range applicable to Practice Nurses.

Katrina says her role is challenging but rewarding. 'I love working at Baarlijan. It gives me the scope to work to my full potential and I am encouraged to use my knowledge, skills and qualifications to really make a difference.'

This article is available online at http://bddgp.org.au/article/2008/04/katrina-hishon

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