Fiona Jennings
Thirty years on the frontline of critical care and acute trauma has placed PAH Nurse Practitioner (NP), Fiona Jennings at the top of her game and established her as one of the hospital’s most treasured colleagues.
Fiona’s passion for trauma care traces back to 1993 when she moved interstate to launch her PAH career. Over the next two decades, Fiona steadily climbed the ranks, paving her way through various trauma-focused nursing roles.
Fiona took on a new challenge in 2014 when she became A/CNC in the Trauma Service team, before attaining her Master’s degree and stepping into her NP role two years later, where she has thrived ever since.
“I've always loved being a nurse, but as I've progressed through my career, I've always sought more knowledge and more scope. The Nurse Practitioner role has provided that for me and elevated my capabilities,” she said.
As she closes in on three decades of trauma care, Fiona says the greatest privilege of her work is supporting patients through their most difficult moments.
“There's nothing I can really do to prevent the injury or trauma because it’s already happened. But I can do my very best to improve patient outcomes and make sure that their journey through the hospital system and with us is as good as it can be,” she said.
“I’m meeting people who are usually in a very bad state, both emotionally and physically. Being able to provide support to the patient and education to the family around the healing and their progress is really important to my role, and I’m privileged to do it.”
Reflecting on her fruitful tenure, Fiona says the variety and opportunities presented at PAH over the years have defined her career and cemented her loyalty to the hospital.
“I have tremendous loyalty to PAH. It has offered me terrific opportunities and I’ve jumped on them. Even while I stayed in ICU for a long time, I did a lot of different roles within that, so I was constantly learning and being challenged.
“In 2006, I went to India for a month and did critical care teaching with new fellows and people working towards being consultants or doing their practice exams, and that was probably one of my really big career highlights. It was an amazing experience,” she said.
Fiona says the community culture at PAH and the support of her colleagues as they navigate challenging days together have made the hospital a consistently special place to work.
“It feels like a community at PAH. I love walking around the wards and saying hello to different people from patients to operational staff, nurses, doctors, and all the other faces you see. I love being a part of that family, and PAH has provided me with many opportunities, so I'm very grateful for that,” she said.
“I love working with my team. They're all very supportive. Everyone has their strengths and we all back each other.”
With a wealth of experience and a productive tenure under her cap, Fiona now has her sights set on taking her unique skillset international after claiming the 2023 Ollie Scholarship at the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) National Conference Gala Dinner in October.
Presented by the National Board of the ACNP, the highly coveted annual Ollie Scholarship is named in memory of NSW’s first appointed Nurse Practitioner, Olwyn Johnston, and was established in 2001 to support NPs seeking to grow the body of knowledge in Australia.
Splitting her time between the wards and her weekly clinic, Fiona’s passion for advancing the standard of trauma care led her to apply for the scholarship.
“It’s important to me that I continue to benchmark my practice and deliver the best evidence-based care that I can. I want to make sure that the information I’m providing to patients is the most accurate information, and see if there are additional things that could be provided by the clinic, so my goal is to explore that,” she said.
Ready to take on her next challenge, Fiona looks forward to taking her exploration overseas and bringing home as much knowledge as she can.
“My plan is to go overseas and do a short clinical placement in an area that closely resembles the type of clinic and work that we do here, so that I can gain experience, and benchmark what we're doing here to ensure we're providing the best care.”
Congratulations Fiona, and thank you for your continued commitment to advancing standards of care in the PAH community.