Despite working in a busy Melbourne hospital, Celina chooses to supplement her job with agency shifts and has been a valued member of the Programmed Health Professionals team for the past 15 years. She enjoys the flexibility and variety of work that Programmed can offer her.
Celina’s primary roles with Programmed include Midwifery, where she spends a lot of time in the post-natal and special care nursery, and as a General Medical/Surgical Nurse, which can include rotations through several areas of a hospital, including neurology, orthopaedic, urology, oncology, gynaecology, day procedure and many more!
Working in countless departments and hospitals across Melbourne and abroad in the UK, Celina still finds happiness in meeting new people every day. She never tires of seeing the joy on the faces of parents after their child has just been born, no matter if it’s their first or 5th child. “I love helping new parents and providing them with the tools they need to comfort, nurture and care for their new little person. Seeing the excitement in their faces as they learn new techniques is priceless.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic begun unfolding in Australia, Celina felt uncertainty set in. With increasing government restrictions, elective surgeries being postponed, and agency shifts increasingly getting cancelled, she was concerned about how she would support her family.
Fortunately for Celina, Programmed has a number of contacts outside of the traditional healthcare industry, including warehousing and manufacturing. With these industries continuing to function throughout the Victorian lockdown, a short term contract became available for registered nurses to work onsite at one of these facilities, performing pre-start health checks for factory employees. When Programmed called to offer this role to Celina, she jumped at the opportunity.
“I decided to work in a COVID contact tracing and screening role as it was a contracted position that guaranteed work when all of my normal work was so uncertain. With four children and a husband to support it felt like the best option for me at the time, so I took the chance to try something totally different to anything I had done before.
The fact that I had regular contracted shifts was a real comfort to me and I’m so very grateful to Programmed for allowing me to take on this new role. I hope I’m able to help in this area again if I’m ever needed as it was enjoyable to work outside of my normal scope of practice and pick up skills in another area of my practice.”
As Melbourne came out of lockdown and pre-start health checks were no longer required at warehousing and manufacturing facilities, Celina was again offered a role which was different from past experiences. This time she was deployed as the on-site nurse at a controlled burn of outdated pharmaceuticals, collected from Victorian hospitals and pharmacies. Celina found this next opportunity interesting and “a real eye-opener. I had no idea this process even occurred and was extremely surprised at the level of waste from our state’s hospitals.”
Although working in different nursing environments was exciting, it presented its own unique set of challenges. Celina admits it was daunting not knowing if she would come into contact with someone testing positive to COVID-19 and the need to constantly triple check PPE protocols and proper hand hygiene was tiring at times. With nursing shifts returning to normal, Celina is looking forward to getting back into her traditional nursing/midwifery role, however, she remains open to new short-term contracts outside of her normal scope of work.
“I like to challenge myself and try new things. It was very different but at the same time, it gave stability in an unstable time…Having a contracted number of days and set hours was easier with the family at the time and was extremely helpful in a time where shifts were uncertain and ever-changing.”
Programmed Health Professionals place nurses, carers and other healthcare professionals into a range of temporary, contract and permanent employment to suit all working preferences. With Programmed you can work as much as you like, no matter your trade. Just provide your availability, and we will take care of the rest.
