M
eet Richard Bates, YNA Community Services Manager who shares his story about how he entered the nursing profession and his journeys along the way.
Richard Bates – YNA Community Manager
Where did your nursing career begin, and where has it taken you?
My nursing career began as a teenager in the final Registered Nurse training group at the RAH before the undergraduate programme shifted across to the universities. It was a great time to train with broad exposure to nursing across many areas, and plenty of fun times were enjoyed. Nursing can lead people on an interesting and diverse career journey.
I have worked in metropolitan and country regions across Australia and supported nurse development overseas. I have been privileged to work with people in acute, community, aged and disability settings and had the opportunity to contribute to service and business development. A further career highlight has been the opportunity to be a mentor and provide leadership development support for many quality clinicians.
How has flexibility in where or how you work shaped your professional journey as a nurse?
The acute nurse in my early career was nurse, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, social worker and intern protector! As other professions entered the acute domain, the nurse remained the fountain of all knowledge, and junior doctors would rely on nurse guidance to survive their gruelling hours of work and training. Flexibility has been key to shaping a nursing career. Being adaptable and accepting challenges when they are presented has been key to an interesting and rewarding nursing career thus far.
How has nursing empowered you to expand your career into related fields where your expertise can save lives on a broader scale
As a youngster, saving lives and being involved in the adrenaline of resuscitation was exciting. It is what initially drove my pathway to post graduate cardiothoracic study and ultimately being involved in the development and management of a brand new acute cardiology unit. Once the need for an adrenaline filled day at work waned, I started to appreciate the broader nursing supports that “save lives” in different ways. My passions shifted to supporting people to live their best life through managing complex health issues in the community well, the context of living with disability.
