Friday 7 August is Aged Care Employee Day. To acknowledge and thank our vital aged care workers, healthy@home is profiling some of the valued staff employed by the service providers in our consortium.

After more than four decades of working in public and private health, from acute care to midwifery, there’s not much that Tina Lennon doesn’t know about nursing. But it has been the past nine years as a community nurse with Co.As.It that she has found the most profoundly rewarding.

It was not just the opportunity to help the elderly to stay in their own home for longer, that appealed to her, but also being able to see for herself that she was making a difference.

“It has been really good for me as I can see outcomes,” she says. “When I am doing wound care, for example, I can instigate treatment and then two or three weeks later I can see the result, a healed wound! It gives me a sense of achievement.

“In a hospital setting it is get ‘em in and get ‘em out as fast as you can and you never get to see the results of your efforts.”

Tina’s long and varied career began at the Calvary Hospital in Cairns. She did her midwifery in Sydney and then returned to Cairns where she worked as a midwife and in management as Assistant Director of Nursing. Then she set off south to Redcliffe and took up a position as Director of Nursing at Peninsula Private.

From there she became after hours manager at St Vincents when it was Holy Spirit Northside, before leaving the hospital sector for community health when the EACH home care packages were released more than a decade ago.

“For me, it was the chance to make a real difference and to be part of helping people to stay in their own homes,” Tina says. “I saw it as a chance to help the elderly and to put strategies in place to help them stay living at home.”

She happily admits that she tended to get the itch and would move on to another area of nursing – acute, clinical, management, education – every five or six years, until she landed in community nursing.

A registered clinical community nurse, Tina says that for her the job is about personal contact with the elderly population and being able to do the assessments with them. She can refer on to get things done so they can stay at home.

For example, this might mean having bathroom rails installed.

“A community worker helps with showers, and on many occasions I’ve done that myself, but I’m much better suited to giving them things to help them improve their lives for themselves. I organise things to help them cope at home,” she says.

Tina also sees social isolation as one of the most difficult aspects for those wanting to stay at home. This was made even harder during the lockdown.

“So many weren’t able to go anywhere for such a long time,” Tina says. “They came to really look forward to the nurse or community worker coming so that they had someone to talk to and listen to them.”

Tina also feels strongly about education and mentoring the next generation of young nurses. At one stage she worked at TAFE showing nursing students how to do procedures such as putting in catheters and taking out stitches. These days, she loves helping the Certificate 3 and 4 students achieve their goals.

“I’m the older nurse here. It’s up to us to help the younger nurses who are keen to develop their skills.”

“If we senior nurses don’t teach the younger ones, those skills will disappear,” she says.

“We have to be able to impart our knowledge so younger ones can be better carers. I really enjoy that too. We’ve got a great working team.”

Tina says she feels fortunate to work for Co.As.It as it means she has the resources to do her job well, and to help people feel safe and secure in their home environment. It has also helped her brush up on her Italian.

“Co.As.It. offers excellent free Italian classes to staff and this has been a great benefit to me,” she says.

But at the end of the day, her greatest reward is the sense that she has contributed to really helping the elderly, providing them with clinical care so they can stay at home.

“Community nursing is front line. I’ve done a lot of things over the years and had my ups and downs but I enjoy it. It is the pinnacle,” Tina says. “Of all the sectors I have worked in – and I loved midwifery – this is the most rewarding.”

Click here to for more information on how Co.As.It. can help you to stay healthy at home for longer.

MAIN PHOTO: Community Nurse Tina Lennon with long-term client Luigi and his wife Maria. (Credit: Co.As.It. Community Services)