About me
I commenced nursing in 1980, initially as a general nurse before quickly moving into mental health nursing. My initial experience was in a group psychotherapy unit in Edinburgh and after migrating to Australia worked in both public and private settings. I moved into practice development and education in 2008 and held management and leadership roles within my organization prior to retiring in early 2022. Systems and family therapy training supported me to navigate and understand the complex mental health settings in which we practice. Clinical supervision has always been part of my practice and has sustained me throughout my career. Providing clinical supervision has been one of the highlights of my work. Honesty, integrity, respect and hard work are core values for me and are integral to my engagement in supervision both as a supervisee and supervisor.
My experience
Most of my clinical experience is in public mental health in both inpatient and community settings, primarily CATT work. I continue to work clinically with CATT on a casual basis. My educator roles included undergraduate coordinator, graduate coordinator and then leading the practice development mental health team. As an educator and manager I developed and delivered training sessions including clinical supervision training.
Having been a hospital trained nurse I returned to study and completed my Bachelor of Advanced Nursing (Community Health) (1990) and Masters with my final thesis focusing on Clinical Supervision in inpatient units (2013).
My current role/work
Small private practice providing clinical supervision
Occasional shift with CATT
My training
Clinical supervision training through Bouverie, the CPN, Eastern Health both engaging in supervision and becoming a clinical supervisor, and Role Development for clinical supervision training
I also attended training in Systems and Family Therapy which strongly influences my approach to clinical supervision
My approach to supervision
My lifelong engagement with clinical supervision has nurtured, sustained and enabled me to grow professionally and I am passionate about providing a space to others through clinical supervision in pursuit of the same benefits. Developing a trusting, supportive yet challenging supervision relationship is crucial and is done through attending to both the structure and process of supervision with particular attention to the early development sessions.
Several supervision models influence my practice including Driscoll's What Model, Proctors Model ,The Alliance Model and Role Development Model.
The clinical supervision framework for mental health nurses in Victoria (2018) principles are embedded in my practice
-
Monday
-
(
- Morning /
- Afternoon /
- Evening )
-
Tuesday
-
(
- Morning /
- Afternoon /
- Evening )
-
Wednesday
-
(
- Morning /
- Evening )
-
Thursday
-
(
- Morning /
- Afternoon )
-
Friday
-
(
- Morning /
- Afternoon )