Health Career Pathways
How I became an Emergency Physician
with Dr Kim Hansen
Dr Kim Hansen was initially attracted to emergency medicine because of its dynamic and chaotic environment. She enjoyed organising the chaos of the emergency department and working with a variety of patients, from newborn babies to centenarians. Dr Hansen found it fulfilling to help people get better or provide them with assistance and guidance when they couldn’t be cured. The unpredictability of the work was also part of the appeal, and she dedicated herself to developing the skills required to be a good emergency doctor.
To prepare for this role, the Dr Hansen worked in various specialties, including intensive care, paediatrics, anaesthesiology, general medicine, and infectious diseases. She also served as a board member and Chair for the Emergency Medicine Foundation and contributed to the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine in numerous ways, such as advancing women in emergency medicine and promoting patient safety and quality.
Dr Hansen acknowledges that emergency medicine can be a challenging field, as it involves shift work and can be emotionally taxing. However, she remains passionate about what she does to continue to contribute to her department, hospital, and the broader field of emergency medicine. Dr Hansen encourages medical students and junior doctors who enjoy working in a fast-paced, unpredictable environment to consider emergency medicine as a career.
Reflecting on her experience and career pathway, emergency medicine offers a broad range of opportunities, from working in a hospital emergency department to pre-hospital care, retrieval coordination, virtual healthcare, and other specialties such as intensive care, palliative care, or sports medicine. Dr Hansen sees emergency physicians as a cohesive group who support each other and enjoy each other’s company, and the field offers great mobility and work-life balance.
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Empowered nurses leading digital health enablement
Nurses have a pivotal role to play in the widespread implementation and adoption of digital health technologies throughout the healthcare sector for the primary purpose of improving safety and quality of patient care.
Australian Health Journal talked to two of Australian top leaders in nursing and in digital health on how the role of nursing is pivotal to the success of digital health in the Australian health system.
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Bridging the orthodontic knowledge gap
In recent years, the orthodontic sector has been growing rapidly due to success in B2C marketing and companies like Invisalign reaching the consumer, but there has also been a lack of knowledge sharing among general dental practitioners and specialists.
General dentists require mentorship and guidance from orthodontists to feel confident in providing orthodontic treatment to their patients, ultimately improving the quality of care in the community.
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Addressing Wound Management
The cost of chronic wounds in Australia is estimated to be $3 Billion per year, impacting 420,000 Australians. Not only is this a national economic concern, but more importantly, is the suffering the person may be going through.
Australian Health Journal met with Hayley Ryan, Board Director and Chair at Wounds Australia and Director at WoundRescue to hear her work in chronic wound management, palliative wounds and pressure injury prevention to comfort those living with a wound.
