JOURNEY OF AN ICU NURSE ON INTERNATIONAL NURSES DAY 2025
With
Kate Leigh, Clinical ICU Nurse
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, Western Australia
PEOPLE IN HEALTH CARE SEGMENT
Filmed in Nedlands, Western Australia | May 2025
Kate Leigh is a clinical nurse at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Intensive Care Unit in Perth, Western Australia, with seven and a half years of experience in intensive care, having started her career in London as a new graduate nurse. Initially focused on haematology, she found herself drawn to ICU after meeting a confident and knowledgeable nurse during a discharge. Inspired by his expertise and assuredness, Kate decided to pursue a transfer to Critical Care after seeing an internal advertisement that highlighted educational opportunities and professional development programs.
Since her transition, Kate has found the ICU environment to be incredibly supportive and welcoming. Despite not knowing anyone in the field before her entry, she fostered strong relationships with colleagues and has remained in Critical Care ever since, enjoying her role each day. Currently, she is involved in various projects aimed at enhancing patient and family experiences in ICU, such as the Three Wishes project, which focuses on providing palliative care and comfort items for patients and their families.
Additionally, Kate emphasises the importance of preventing ICU admissions and readmissions through early intervention and patient monitoring. Her work with the Metcal team and clinical nurse specialists aims to identify and address issues with deteriorating patients on the wards before they require intensive care, demonstrating her commitment to improving patient outcomes within the critical care environment.
Source: Written by AUDIENCED from transcript
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Awareness campaigns and HCP Toolkits for thyroid health
In 2021, the Australian Thyroid Foundation released analysis to show, well over 1 million Australian are living with an undiagnosed thyroid disorder, including thyroid cancer, lower IQs, lifelong disability, and a causal or possible contributory factor – in the development of other neurological disorders such as ADHD and autism. Some of the challenges for diagnosis and treatment can be addressed by producing material for health care practitioners during patient presentations.
‘Recent statistics show well over 1 million Australians are living with an undiagnosed thyroid disorder, awareness and testing can prevent unwarranted outcomes for mothers and their babies’ says ATF CEO Beverley Garside OAM
The Australian Thyroid Foundation has lodged a Pre-Budget Submission for the Federal Budget 2024-25 to counter increasing misinformation on social media creating dietary deficiencies such as an increasing number of young women, who are planning pregnancy or already pregnant opting for plant based milks such almond, soy or oat milk coffee as an alternative to standard cow’s milk, which is a source of iodine and alternate milks do not include.
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Space Health & Medicine on Australia’s Clinical Launchpad
Professor Smart is a veteran, medical doctor, health leader, aerospace medicine specialist, and retired Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) senior officer. She is currently at the Professor, Military and Aerospace Medicine at the Australian National University (ANU), and serves as the Interim Director of the ANU Defence Institute, and as a Mission Specialist at the ANU Institute for Space. She previously served as the University’s COVID-19 Public Health Lead from 2020 to 2022.
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Practising to top scope of urology practice, advancing treatment & patient care through research
Michael is a urology nurse practitioner with a special interest in prostate cancer survivorship, and has worked in urology for the past ten years. Michael has completed the Prostate Nursing Care course at Latrobe University, Graduate Certificate of Health with a specialisation in Scheduled Medicines (USQ), and the Master of Nursing (Flinders) to become a Nurse Practitioner in 2024.
As a Urology Nurse Practitioner he divides his time between the Australian Prostate Centre and Western Urology.
