Suzanne Murray

Nurse Educator – Workplace Capabilities and Person Centred Care

Prince of Wales Hospital

“I’m a nurse educator in a unit of 9. We all hold education portfolios at the Prince of Wales Hospital and work closely with the District Nursing & Midwifery Unit. One hospital program I facilitate is the Patient Centred Care & Partnering with Consumers workshop. I’m not clinical, I haven’t been clinical for many years, but I do feel what I do every day in my role is still about making a difference to the patient experience.

I had the opportunity to project lead the District’s Heart of Caring resource in 2014. The Ministry of Health allocated funding to each District to look at compassionate care. I was in the privileged position to interview 50 nurses and midwives and record their stories. Then excerpts were taken and shared in a reflective resource book. There’s such power in sharing stories. I don’t think we get to do that enough really. We also share a story at some of our nursing forums, workshops and counsels.

Compassionate care is about being authentic, it’s about the small acts of kindness and treating people how you would like to be treated yourself.

I’m English, my husband is English and we’ve been in Australia 18 years. So every weekend still feels like a holiday sitting on the beach and being in the sunshine.”