Isabelle Bradley

• I have been doing 6-week contracts on an Oncology Day unit in Goulburn, NSW, throughout this year. I am about to start my 3rd contract with them. Throughout the day, we are accessing central lines and inserting IVCs to then administer chemotherapy, immunotherapy, blood products and other infusions our patients need. We are also giving education to newly diagnosed patients who are about to start treatment.

• This was my first contract working as a travel nurse, I did a two-month contract in Casino NSW on their general medical/surgical ward. I was able to quickly pick up the online system they use for charting and notes and was able to adapt quickly to the ward and worked well with all the other staff members. I was able to apply my general ward skills to this contract as well as learn new skills while working in a rural hospital.

• When I first moved to Australia, I started working at Hollywood Hospital. Throughout the 18 months on this ward, my clinical skills and experience grew dramatically. Working on an acute oncology/haematology ward was both challenging and rewarding. It is a 30-bed ward, and we would usually work in teams of two with up to 10 patients. I also had the opportunity to coordinate a couple of times, which involved being in charge for the evening/night, liaising with bed managers and after-hours managers. I completed my ADAC chemo training while on this ward and would administer chemo frequently to our patients. I also gained a lot of experience in working with palliative patients which quickly became another passion of mine in nursing.

• During this year I was working in an acute ward specialising in older people’s health and rehab for over 65 year olds. Working in this ward has given me a solid foundation for my nursing career. I was also in a new graduate programme which includes education days and simulations. This has helped increase my knowledge in areas that we didn’t see all the time on our ward.

During my time working as an HCA I built on my therapeutic relationship skills and time management skills and became extremely familiar with how a ward runs.

• During my 5 years of working for this company I have developed my customer service skills and been able to work with a variety of different people in a team. I had also worked as a duty manager throughout the last two years and was able to delegate work effectively and take responsibility throughout this role.