Newsroom

This year marks the 60th of year of Irene`s nursing and midwifery career, commencing at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in 1966 before moving to the RBWH in 1973, and starting her midwifery studies in 1975. 👩‍⚕️🌟

Over the last 60 years, Irene has seen many changes to nursing practice, most recently being the introduction of the integrated electronic Medical Record patient record system (ieMR) for which she has recently completed her training.

"Going live [with ieMR] is going to be very advantageous because we`re not waiting for notes to be uploaded or waiting for someone to input them. It’s difficult when you`re learning it as it`s a completely new way of thinking, but I think it will be cool," Irene said.

"When the Centre for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment was introduced, and I didn`t really want to go there because I didn`t know what I had to do. But I went there and truly it was the best part of my working career, being able to support women with abnormalities in their pregnancy.

Speaking on some of her career highlights, Irene finds it hard to choose just one.

"I was fortunate enough to be working in theatre when they did the first kidney transplant in Queensland, I was also the first nurse in our training to get married, so I didn`t have to live in during my last two years - and I did classes for non-English speaking women with our interpreters where we would work through their birth plan!"

👏 A massive #ShoutoutSaturday to Irene and her successful and ongoing 60-year career! ...

We had a yarn with 87-year-old pals Pat and Di this week, when they dropped off hundreds of hand-knitted beanies for newborn babies at RBWH.

The duo have been knitting for little ones born at the hospital for 10 years, since Pat`s daughter Helen suggested she get involved to keep herself busy.

"Helen worked here as a nurse, and one day she posted me a pattern and said I should make beanies for the babies," Pat said.

"I photocopied the pattern and gave it to Di, and then we started giving it to our friends with a ball of wool and some needles, so they had no excuse not to start."

Pat and Di currently have three friends that knit with them, estimating they have knitted approximately 8000 beanies for little patients over the years.

"I`m a big Brisbane Broncos and Brisbane Lions fan, but I knit all the team colours for the parents who barrack for other teams - I`m told the fathers love picking these ones," Di said. 🧶 ...