The management of a busy ever changing tertiary Endoscopy unit was where l found myself after suffering some personal illness and workforce burn out.

I was going into a 6-month contracted role. It sounded good and gave me a change to decide what next. On commencement of the role l was feeling burnt out and overwhelmed by life and work. 18 months later l was proud, excited and energised by the staff and the achievements we had made as a unit. I was back to myself. Staff were feeling nervous, exhausted, burnt out, not listened to, some even said bored, other staff were excited with a new Nurse Unit Manager coming in. In my 18 months, we grew, we trained, we expanded services and staff, we became a place nursing staff wanted to work, l was regularly receiving emails with resumes, and we were able to choose staff at interviewing. When interviewing we would ask interviewee about why they applied, and the most common answer was “We have heard it is a great place to work.”

I need a change of pace and a change of pressure. The endoscopy unit was busy, and it was something l knew well. However, this unit was also somewhere l learnt so much more.
I was coming into the Nurse Unit Manager role with the ability to change and make this unit into something so much more. Endoscopy is not a space to retire. It is a space to create and provide both simple and advanced care to patients.
We were already an advance endoscopy unit, completing a variety of advance and complex procedures and we were ready for more. More advance procedures with better patient outcomes, shorter hospital stays for patient, and you guessed it a huge cost saving for the hospital.

I feel blessed that l was able to take the contract help patients, staff, a department and most importantly myself to continue doing what l love.

I have since moved on to permanent role of Nurse Unit Manager, still using my endoscopy knowledge and skill as well as my other theatre skills.
In my new role am currently assisting a lot with revamping the endoscopy section of the theatre and looking at the nursing workforce EFT within the unit. It is a workforce that has been experiencing burn out and short staffing for an extended period of time.