Matt Lutze

Nurse Practitioner, Emergency Department

St George Hospital

“A Nurse Practitioner is an advanced practice nurse who has specific registration endorsements to diagnose, prescribe, order tests and make referrals. My primary focus in Emergency is around the high volume presentations that can be independently managed without a doctor's input - people with fractures, lacerations, sprains, abdominal pain, vomiting, bleeding in early pregnancy and cases like that.

Growing up I wanted to be a pilot, because my father was an aeronautical engineer and I spent my childhood around airplanes. However, one of my first jobs was a milk run and on a rainy night I slipped under the truck, it ran over me and I ended up in hospital. I was about 15 and I needed a lot of skin grafts on my leg. It was at that point I realised I wanted to be in healthcare – the people I appreciated the most were the emergency department nurses. The nurse put a drip in, gave me morphine and made me feel comfortable for what was a pretty ugly leg injury. So from that moment, when I look back, they helped shape my life. And now I’m able to give back to some poor, unsuspecting soul that suffers the same mishap I did.

I love my job. I enjoy the satisfaction of being able to help people when they really need it the most. For me, that fit is in Emergency.”