Helen Parker

RGON, Vascular Nurse Radiology, Tauranga Hospital

Biography

My Nursing journey has taken me down many roads over the last 45 years. The last twenty of these has been in the Radiology department, thirteen of them in a shared leadership position. Currently I am working mostly in the vascular room organising patients for diagnostic and interventional procedures from preassessment through to completion.

I have a passion for IV access and have worked to improve this for our patients over this time. We have no IV team in our hospital so we have become the default for DIVAs (difficult IV access). Our Ultrasound skills are called on from all corners of the hospital.

We have been inserting PICCs since 2009 and have had the opportunity to develop our skills and our range of options. I would like to share our journey and some of the important things I have learnt along the way.

Presentation Topic

PICCS’s our first 10 Years

After seventeen years of inserting PICCs in Tauranga, I would like to share somethings that I have learnt.

Number one is that change is a constant. We can expect some things to stay the same but there is always something new on the horizon and embrace the future

Number two is that we must work together to create the sort of synchronicity that allows us to work in harmony with each other and our clients.

Number three is that we must continue to learn and grow our nursing knowledge. Share your stories with each other and discuss solutions to problems on a daily basis celebrate your wins and dissect your losses.