Not only is the PAH Emergency Department not happy with Jan, they are outright sad to see their beloved nurse manager of HR retire from a job that she has loved from the minute she started her career as a mature age student in 1988.
Jan’s philosophy of kindness, empathy, and caring about the people who care for people, sets her apart as a nursing leader who has inspired generations of nurses.
She said the staff loved that she did ‘good rosters’ which is a very simple way of saying she managed the work-life balance of a cohort of over 250 nurses across the professional skill mix, accommodating their full and part-time status with the added complications of optional 12-hour shifts.
“I have always worked on the principle that if you look after your staff, they look after you,” Jan said. This is evident from the staying power of many of the team in Emergency who have remained for most of their careers in the ED and only known Jan as their HR nurse manager.
“I went into nursing because I only ever wanted to be a nurse, it was my great love to do clinical nursing so I was torn to make the transition to a nurse manager, administrator role. But everyone kept encouraging me to apply for it so maybe they could see that the role would be my next great love.”
Jan started nursing at 37, missing out on the experience of living-in training since she married young. Her first digs were in the former M7 ward (Ward 2C in the current building) in 1988 before she transitioned into her passion area of Emergency in 1991.
Throughout the nineties, she worked through every level from Registered Nurse, Clinical Nurse, and was one of the first Clinical Nurse Consultants when the roles were developed.
Reflecting on then and now, Jan has seen it all from the frontline, to the skyline, behind the scenes on the HR line and even crossing the line as a patient after a car accident.
She was part of the retrieval team in her CN days which included helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft responses and while she is not a fan of flying at all, she still declares they were ‘good days’ of Emergency nursing.
Jan was there for many transitions in the profession; from living-in nursing training to university training when the concerns were debunked that university trainees wouldn’t have real-life nursing skills. The rise of the machines from the introduction of computers to the hospital, to PA’s leadership role as the first large public hospital in Australia to become a Digital Hospital. Even the trials and tribulations of the payroll system change but also the triumph of myHR in making HR processes easier than the old paper forms.
“When I got my CN position, I thought this was it for me, this is what I love, this is what I want to do and I’ll be happy for the rest of my life in this CN position. I found it extremely challenging and loved every minute of it,” she said.
But her fondness for doing the rosters and the encouragement of many saw her step into her new destiny as a most beloved nursing manager within one of PA’s largest nursing units at the tender age of 57 in 2008.
“Back in the 80’s and 90’s the bed platform was very different as the old PA was a 1200 bed hospital so there was no delay getting people out of ED into a bed. Wards were often half empty but then the length of stay was about two or three weeks for many patients,” she said.
“Staffing models in the ED in the 2000’s involved 15 nurses on an early and 18 on a late shift– now we have twice that with 29 on an early shift.”
But her role involved so much more than the rosters. Jan was made famous across the nation for an expose in the Sunday Mail’s Body and Soul section, and subsequent radio interview, highlighting her ‘Not Happy Jan’ journals which were a way for staff to debrief, decompress or share their frustrations about presentations they deemed funny, alarming or inappropriate.
This initiative could rightly be interpreted as an early version of the meme for hospital-related insights so Jan’s list of many talents should include contemporary leadership influencer.
While the ‘not happy Jan’ television advertisement from 2000 went on to become one of the most memorable television advertisements to transcend the decades; so too, Jan Gehrke holds a special place in Emergency Department folklore and will remain one of the most memorable Nurse Managers to all who worked with her over her three decades.