Beck Brisbane, a nurse practitioner candidate at GV Health, benefited from the 2024 funding.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
The Good Friday Appeal has announced a second wave of funding to keep sick regional kids closer to home.
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A $3 million investment has been made to regional Victoria’s health services, including Goulburn Valley Health, through the Good Friday Appeal.
The funding will continue to support regional health services to fund critical projects such as upgrading lifesaving equipment, offering additional training and providing scholarships for healthcare professionals.
This follows the $2.5 million that was shared between GV Health’s six hospitals in 2024, through which chief executive Matt Sharp said the service was able to offer four paediatric nursing scholarships.
“Thanks to the Good Friday Appeal’s generosity, Goulburn Valley Health has been able to hire a dedicated nurse practitioner candidate for the Shepparton hospital’s emergency department, with recruitment under way for another, as well as support postgraduate nursing scholarships and upskilling of staff delivering hospital-in-the-home care,” he said.
“These initiatives will help to ensure clinicians can care for children largely outside a hospital environment, and closer to children’s homes, thereby improving health and wellbeing outcomes in our region.
“We appreciate and thank the Good Friday Appeal for this significant support.”
Beck Brisbane is enjoying her new position at GV Health.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
The nurse practitioner candidate, Beck Brisbane, started in the role in December 2024, and is a registered nurse working towards her endorsement as a nurse practitioner.
A nurse practitioner is an advanced practice registered nurse who is trained to access patient needs, order and interpret diagnostic tests, diagnose illnesses, formulate treatment plans and prescribe medications.
This new position helps her support sick kids in the emergency department, find out the best care for them and aim to keep them locally, instead of transferring their care to The Royal Children’s Hospital.
Mrs Brisbane’s role is fully supported, as she works to finish her study this year to be a fully qualified nurse practitioner.
“This supported position gives me the ability to come to work, learn on the job, be supported so when I am endorsed I will be more confident in my advanced practice skills,” she said.
Mrs Brisbane has been nursing for 17 years, and has been in paediatrics for almost all of that time.
“I’ve worked in the emergency department now for seven years as a clinical nurse consultant in paediatrics, and as a paediatric liaison nurse,” she said.
“In the last four years, I’ve sort of got thinking that I feel like I needed to do more, and I wanted to get back into that patient care aspect.
“A lot of my colleagues were pushing me (to go for nurse practitioner), saying ‘you’d be brilliant at this, this is something you should do’.”
Mrs Brisbane is grateful for her candidacy and the funding through the Good Friday Appeal, saying she feels well supported as she continues to finish her final year of study.
“I would never look back,” she said.
“I’ve had the best support in the emergency department through all my colleagues, the patients and parents; the care that I’m providing them has given me so much enjoyment in my role.
“If I didn’t have a candidate position I’d be doing extra hours in my own time, as well as study, as well as working and a family life, so it was quite a lot, whereas this supported position gives me that ability to come to work and learn on the job.”
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