Nurse in the spotlight: Liz Roberts

Profiling our Anaesthetic / Post Anaesthetic Care Unit (PACU) Nurse

As the World Health Organisation's 2020 international year of the nurse and midwife continues, so too does our celebration of our own super star nurses, through recognising and profiling some of the team and the incredible role they play.

Nurse in the spotlight: Liz Roberts

Liz has worked at Mulgrave Private Hospital for 26 of the 27 years of her brilliant nursing career.

In describing her inspiration for becoming a nurse, Liz explains it is a real family tradition;

Since I was young I have always been fascinated about the human body and how it works. Even as a young child I loved caring for things and as I grew, I had a deep desire to connect with people to help them and support them in their time if need so nursing was a great fit for me.

I have a legacy passed down from my mum and sister as both are nurses also. I am proud to say the family tradition is being passed down to my youngest daughter who is wanting to begin her nursing studies after finishing year 12 VCE this year.

• What does being a nurse mean to you? I'm really passionate about my role as an Anaesthetic and PACU nurse, particularly about being a caring and friendly smiling face when patients come to theatre. I love easing the nerves of patients by connecting with them and supporting them as they go in for surgery and during the recovery phase in PACU. In doing this I love chatting to people about what makes up their world and making them feel valued and supported.
  
  I love working in theatre because we work as a team, side by side, supporting each other and sharing our knowledge and skills. It's doctors, nurses, theatre techs, orderlies and clerical staff all working together to get through our theatre list smoothly.

• What do you enjoy most about your job? I love the variety of working in theatre. No two days are ever the same. I love building community in my workplace and acknowledging and supporting each member of staff that I work with.

• What are your proudest nursing achievements? I always feel like its a privilege and honour for patients to trust you with their care. In my theatre experience, some of my highlights have been to look after some critically ill patients, back to health and to support their families through that process.
  It is visiting patients after their surgery day and let them know that you care about them. It might be cuddling a small child in PACU to give them comfort until mum or dad can arrive. Sometimes its as simple as holding someone's hand or giving them a smile to put them at ease.

• Tell us about your nursing journey and experiences: I finished my nursing training at Monash University as the second year of college graduates when nursing moved from hospital based training to university based training.
  I quickly moved into surgical nursing which I loved and progressed to gain experience in endoscopy and day surgery. I started my first permanent position as it was known then as Dandenong Valley Private Hospital in 1996 and started working in Theatre in 1998.

Mulgrave Private Hospital is honoured to have Liz's wisdom, experience, passion and dedication to providing warm, quality patient care to our patients undergoing procedures with anaesthetic or sedation.