Welcome to Dr. Warrick's podcast channel. Warrick is a practicing cardiologist and author with a passion for improving care by helping patients understand their heart health through education. Warrick believes educated patients get the best health care. Discover and understand the latest approaches and technology in heart care and how this might apply to you or someone you love. Hi, my name is Dr Warrick Bishop and welcome to my podcast and videocast station. I'm delighted to have the opportunity today to speak with Kylie Ward, who is the CEO of the Australian College of Nursing. Welcome, Kylie. Thank you for having me, Warrick. Look, I know you're busy and I know you're in lockdown as well, but I really do appreciate this chance to catch up and have a chat. And what I thought I'd ask first of all is... Just in a very broad brush sense, what is the Australian College of Nursing, the ACN, and what do you do? What's your role? Look, great question. But firstly, thank you for having me. And, yes, I am very, very busy, but you're a great friend to the nursing profession, so it's a pleasure to be here. The Australian College of Nursing is the peak professional body for nurses in Australia. We are a member of the International Council of Nursing. We do that in collaboration with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. But really all things professional that matter to nurses matter to us. And the college part of who we are, we're an education provider. We're an RTO and a higher education provider doing postgraduate studies. So the educational role, does that mean you have guidance in some of the curricular activities that nurses undertake or you're providers of the actual education? Yeah, we have 21 postgraduate certificates for registered nurses. We have qualifications for enrolled nurses to do advanced diplomas. And then we provide hundreds and hundreds of sessions on continuing professional development. So there's accredited and non-accredited training, but basically. Any training that we provide, we have a fleet of 24 expert nurse educators on our team. We work with students not only in Australia but overseas, all around the world, and particularly in the Pacific Nations. We've been supporting them to get crit care and peri-op postgraduate studies. But anything that we do and that we develop, we get a team of experts from the nursing community and from the membership, and then we actually develop. our courses and education based on the best science and evidence-based practice. And a membership or being part or affiliated to the Australian College of Nursing is that a requirement for a nurse to be employed in a hospital or a practice setting? No and it's very different to my medical colleagues where to be a specialist and to gain fellowship you actually need to it's a requirement to go through the colleges. And what's different for us, it means that we have to compete on every market, whether that's for students or for membership. And so we have thousands of members who are nurses individually become members of the college. And then we have a corporate membership program called Our Affiliates. And we have almost 110 organisations that are corporate. affiliates, and I put that in a few years ago, and that gives us representation of another about 130,000 to 150,000 nurses as well. Yeah, okay. So the total number of nurses that the ACN would be supporting? Well, we support all nurses because we support the profession of nursing, and at the moment there's close to 400,000. registered licensed nurses in Australia, about 390,000. And in our membership, we also have undergraduate nurses starting to be enrolled or registered nurses. And then nurses who retire also stay on in our membership. So for registered nurses, almost 400,000. In our membership, we're catering to about 150, 160. But when we speak, we speak on behalf of the profession. It sounds like an enormous organisation and obviously you had it up. Just how did you get, how did you step into this role? Was it a gradual progression? What was your story there, Kylie? Yeah, look, in my nursing career, I've been, I've worked in the acute sector in intensive care. And in aged care, probably never thought I'd see myself in this role as we never do as we start off. Went into management. So I've been a nurse unit manager and after hours nurse manager and director of nursing and executive director of nursing and midwifery. So I had that very strong pathway through the public health systems and then went into senior roles with aged care and governed and oversaw both. I was years ago on the board of the College of Nursing. And as a board director on that board, there was the College of Nursing and there was the Royal College of Nursing Australia. And they were both formed in 1949. And they were both kind of like the peak bodies of the profession. But one was focused on education mainly and the other on policy. So I was on the board that created the unification to develop the Australian College of Nursing. And when we unified, I stepped back thinking I'd done my bit. And when this position became vacant, I was basically contacted by a lot of people, but particularly the recruiters and headhunter to take on the role and decided that I had a vision for what I thought I could contribute as the leader of the profession to take the profession forward. That certainly tells us about where you are right at the moment. But look, I'm sure there are people listening and almost certainly nurses. in their very early stages and nurses with daughters and sons who might be interested in the career as well. Where did it all start for you? I do know, because I met your mum, that she's a nurse as well. So I know it's a little bit in the family, but how did nursing, was it in your blood? Where did it all start for you? Yeah, look, it's a great question, and you're right. My mother is a retired nurse, but what a lot of people don't know is that I think I'm the first in the family, or at least in many generations, to go into nursing. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I left school, but I was very bright and got into a lot of courses, actually, dentistry and podiatry and other things. friends, believe it or not, Warrick, I'm almost embarrassed to admit, were going to the university. And so I did nursing because I got accepted into that at the university. So I think nursing found me. And then when I was 19 at the Western Sydney University, 19 going into second year, my mother obviously had guided me, but she'd always wanted to be a nurse. She really had the passion. And she had to leave school at 15. She's one of five and they had one brother and the opportunity to go on to school or university was only for him. And so I think mum had always had that desire to want to be a nurse and probably pushed me gently into putting nursing down and then watched me. And then my father really encouraged mum to do a transition program. And so she started first year when I started second year. As a mature age student, I was 19 and she was 40. And I couldn't be more proud of her because I can only imagine what that would be like going back. Wow. That's a great story, actually. There is nursing in your blood, Ben. Yes. And my sister went on to do nursing. My younger sister did nursing, worked as a nurse for some time, still registered now, but then she went on to do podiatry. So she actually works in her own podiatry practice. But the health lens, I think what stemmed from my parents and my family was a strong sense of social justice and humanity. And so nursing might have found me in the beginning, but I've stayed and I've loved it because of the profession and who's in it and what we get to do. Look, you know, and we've spoken about this, I've spent my entire working life working with nurses. Nothing happens without them. I'm always impressed by their giving, their care, professionalism. Yeah. Dedication. And that's what I see. But I'll give you the floor for a minute or two. For anyone who is listening to this and wondering about a career in nursing, what... What would you say? Your own experience is obviously huge. You've gone through the process. You've even studied with your mum and now you're really coordinating a political educational giant of an organisation. 400,000 odd nurses is huge, but you've seen so much. What are the keys that you would really flag for someone thinking of a career in nursing? Yeah, and I love from the first time we met and hearing the way that you spoke of nurses, it does mean a lot to me how nursing as a profession and nurses as individuals are perceived. Nursing is still female dominated around 90%, but we do have our great men in nursing and our non-binary nurses that really make up this community of diversity. And so for me, nursing is not for the faint-hearted. We definitely have, you need to be someone who really wants a life of service. You're going to be working with people who are at vulnerable stages and situations in their life. With them, their families, their loved ones that don't always cope best. You're delivering bad news. You're supporting them through very difficult or personal situations. So you need to have all of the elements of compassion and wanting to make a difference to people and to communities that are vulnerable. But you also need to be very resilient, very strong. And there is a toughness about us as well because to be able to deliver the best that we can for the communities and the people that we serve, we have to have that inner strength. You and I both know, especially with your specialty and expertise, you know, to tell someone to get out of bed and start moving and get to rehab when they don't want to requires that extra element of not only compassion but knowing. You're doing things for the right reasons and the long haul. Nursing is not an easy degree for registered nurses. There is a lot of science, but what we're complemented with is the behavioural sciences. And so we very much work in our philosophy as a holistic approach. So looking after the physical, the mental, the spiritual and emotional well-beings of a person to make sure that they can live or die as holistically and with the dignity that they deserve. I think that sums it up. Look, we've had the chance to speak for over 10 minutes and it's gone in a flash. In the interest of time, I'm going to wrap this up, but there's still so much I'd love to... chat with you about if you're open i'd love to invite you back would you be open absolutely open it'd be my pleasure let's uh let's make a time to talk again i'm going to uh finish up now for those listening uh what a great journey uh through the australian college of nursing what it provides and um kylie ward's own journey and of course a touching on the tough love of nursing as a profession. Thank you for those listening. If you've got any queries or questions, drop us a line, of course. Until next time, wishing you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now. You have been listening to another podcast from Dr. Warrick. Visit his website at drWarrickbishop.com for the latest news on heart disease. If you love this podcast, feel free to leave us a review.
