About Me

Background:

I have enjoyed being a Registered Nurse since 1989. My career in the Health Sector has seen me nurse in a variety of secondary care settings including general medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, gynaecology, orthopaedics, coronary care and the emergency department.  I have nursed in Manawatu, Waikato and Canada. 

During my 21 years working in secondary care, apart from RN positions, I also held leadership roles including Charge Nurse, After hours Duty Nurse Manager, Project Manager for the Director of Nursing, Team Leader for Internal Medicine.  I studied at Massey University achieving a post graduate Diploma in Nursing with a leadership focus.

Eight years ago I entered the aged care sector, where I successfully led and managed a failing 50 bed aged care facility back to full audit attainment and a capacity facility with a waiting list.  I went on to project lead the shift from that 50 bed site to the new ‘green fields’, purpose built, aged residential care and retirement village development.  This saw my managing, staffing, marketing and setting up all systems to operate a 74 bed hospital, 20 bed dementia centre, 54 residential care apartments and completed the preparation to sell the external villas.  I gained experience in project development and compliance requirement and procedures and I worked in partnership with building contractors, architects and sector suppliers to achieve a top class purpose built aged care facility. 

In 2014, I was appointed to the General Manager role.  This was developed to integrate management and clinical systems across the Director’s two aged care sites and ensured both facilities were meeting the high standards we were known for.  This saw my leading and managing 200 staff and 216 residential care beds across both sites.  I was very proud that within 18 months of the new site opening we received a three year audit achievement with three continuous improvements and just one partial attainment (negligible) which recognised interRai was not fully embedded across the facility.   

I have theories and learning from my background that I offer to help develop people from managers to leaders.  I am fascinated with human behaviour and values and how that impacts a team.  I thrive on meaningful change and enjoy challenging set practices with a curiosity around why things are done the way they are.  I am known for my uncompromising passion to be part of a health system that can deliver equitable, meaningful, quality care to those who require it.  

My values include: integrity; honesty; compassion, competence and resilience. 

 Early 2016 in response to the demand for my broad skill set, I decided to establish my own consultancy practice, which allows me to work across the sector to support optimal outcomes for people accessing the health sector.