Laura Hainsworth

About me

I am a registered mental health nurse with 17 years experience, and a further qualification as a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse. I completed my undergraduate training in the UK, and relocated to Australia in 2018. I was lucky enough to complete a community mental health nursing placement in Brisbane as part of my undergraduate degree, and decided that I would one day return to nurse in Australia.

Clinical supervision is a mandatory requirement for all nurses in the UK, and therefore the importance of clinical supervision has been instilled in me from the first day of my nursing career, and is something I continue to find extremely beneficial.

My experience

I qualified as a mental health nurse in 2009, and have worked in a variety of sectors and roles in that time in the UK, including adult mental health, school health, police custody and magistrates courts, and police early response. Since relocating to Australia in 2018, I have spent three years working at Forensicare as a Clinical Nurse Educator, before moving to the Royal Children's Hospital in 2020.

My current role/work

I work as the Psychiatric Nurse Consultant at the Royal Children's Hospital. Whilst a large proportion of my work involves supporting the adolescent mental health inpatient unit and coordinating graduate programs, I also support the organisation with improving mental health literacy, providing education and supervision, and running Mental Health First Aid Australia courses. I provide regular clinical supervision, both for individuals and groups.

My training

I have participated in several clinical supervision courses, receive individual clinical supervision on a monthly basis, and attend training updates where available.

My approach to supervision

I believe supervision is only as successful as the relationship between the supervisor and supervisee, and that it is imperative the two are able to engage in a positive working relationship, and that sometimes this means trying different supervisors before finding a perfect fit.

I use a combination of supervision models, taking elements from the developmental model, integrated approach, and cognitive-behavioural techniques, but overall tend to veer towards the person-centred approach.