Mater Mothers appoints two new neonatal nurse practitioners
Friday 10 December 2021
Mater Mothers Neonatal Critical Care Unit (NCCU) recently announced the appointment of two new neonatal nurse practitioner candidates to commence in February 2022.
The appointment of the two new candidates comes as welcomed news to the existing team of nurse practitioners at Mater Mothers NCCU.
Neonatal Nurse Practitioners Donna Hillyard, Jade Barrett and Tenille Cross provide acute clinical care to Mater Mothers’ littlest and most vulnerable patients on a daily basis.
Each year, more than 2000 seriously ill and premature babies from across south east Queensland and northern New South Wales come to Mater Mothers’ NCCU at South Brisbane to receive around the clock specialist care from the team.
Mrs Hillyard was the first ever neonatal nurse practitioner to work at Mater Mothers NCCU.
Mrs Hillyard said, “Before I was a neonatal nurse practitioner, I was a registered nurse working within the critical care unit for 20 years.”
Collectively, the three neonatal nurse practitioners have close to 50 years of nursing experience.
As nurse practitioners, they bridge nursing and medical roles to provide acute and continuous clinical care to seriously ill and premature babies and their families within the neonatal critical care unit – care which in the past would traditionally be provided by doctors.
Neonatal nurse practitioners are able to assess patients and plan and implement care management plans within the neonatal critical care unit to provide excellent care to newborn babies and their families.
Ms Barrett and Ms Cross were the first ever nurse practitioner candidates to complete the neonatal nurse practitioner training program at Mater Mothers’ Hospital.
Assistant Director Clinical Services, Lynne Elliott, said Mater is committed to the NCCU nurse practitioner candidate program.
Ms Elliott said, “We are excited to see the program continue to grow with a further two candidates commencing in the new year.”
Neonatal Nurses Mattea Farrugia and Kimberly Butler will commence the nurse practitioner program in February 2022.