Neysa King: embracing a new career as a nurse... after retirement
Neysa King聽embraced adventure and a 'retirement career' at 70.
With a deep commitment to life-long learning, Neysa ventured out of retirement to complete her Master of Clinical Nursing at the University of 糖心vlog官网 in 2022, launching a new career in nursing. She's now an Intensive Care Nurse at the Lyell McEwin Hospital (NAHLN), where she's worked since April 2024.
Neysa started nursing in the '70s before changing tack and pursuing a corporate career in the1990s. Upon retirement, Neysa decided it was time for a new career and more adventures... and enrolled at the University.聽
鈥淚 realised that my life experience and maturity enabled me to connect and establish trust with people easily, which then opened the opportunities for me to deliver a deeper level of holistic care. I felt honoured to be able to connect with people鈥檚 humanity when they are so vulnerable.鈥
What have you been up to since graduating?
Following graduation, I accepted a position in the New Graduate nursing program at Alice Springs Hospital. My studies at university awakened the realisation of how little I knew about the indigenous peoples of Australia and their struggles, culture, and history. I came to the realisation that if I am to call myself Australian, which I do, then I am connected to this ancient line of peoples, if not by blood, I am by heritage and history. I wanted to learn and understand more about this heritage and perhaps see how I can contribute in a positive way.
Can you share a little about your University of 糖心vlog官网 journey?
I came from NSW Central Coast and when applying to universities there, I experienced what I could only interpret as ageism expressed via the level of discouragement that was communicated to me when enquiring about applications. My internet search led me to the University of 糖心vlog官网 鈥 when I called and enquired and was upfront about my age, I was warmly and strongly encouraged to apply. So, right from the beginning my experience was very positive.
The first week was a little daunting, as I felt like an imposter being so much older, yet all the fellow students I met were friendly and welcoming. One of the best parts about studying at University of 糖心vlog官网 was the fabulous diversity of backgrounds and cultures. In my nursing cohort peoples background ranged from Accountants to Graphic designers to Engineers and cultures included Aussie farms to Nepal, India, Asian and African nations. The cohort of cultures really reflected the diversity of people we would be taking care of as nurses. This made for some rich and insightful discussions about the cultural challenges we would encounter when delivering healthcare as nurses.
The best part of studying nursing at University of 糖心vlog官网 was the depth and breadth of lived nursing practice the lecturers and tutors brought to their teaching. There is always a gap between theory and practice, and it is quite wide in nursing. There are so many pressures on nurses that force minute by minute decisions that compromise 鈥渂est practice鈥, causing great personal anxiety. The lecturers and tutors frequently referred to this tension and didn鈥檛 shy away from this reality. Instead, they kept referring us back to the core principles that we can draw on to ensure our decisions and compromises maintain a high standard of nursing care.聽
When did you know you wanted to pursue nursing?聽
My first career was nursing, I undertook hospital-based training in the early 70s. However, in 1990 I switched careers and entered a corporate life. I retired for various reasons in 2017, however by 2019 I felt my life lacked purpose and structure. COVID was ramping up and I saw an advertisement for personal homecare workers. While the role was primarily delivering fundamental cares such as showering, cooking, and cleaning, I quickly realised that just like me, clients mostly craved social connection and opportunities for a meaningful existence. I loved the challenge of improving my clients' quality of life not just delivering fundamental cares.
I realised that my life experience and maturity enabled me to connect and establish trust with people easily which then opened the opportunities for me to deliver a deeper level of holistic care. I felt honoured to be able to connect with people鈥檚 humanity when they are so vulnerable. At the same time, I felt frustrated at my lack of knowledge of health conditions, treatments, and the ability to make simple decisions like giving Panadol for pain or organising a GP appointment for a client who I felt needed review. This led me to the decision to pursue my nursing registration as an RN.
What are some career highlights to date?
I have only been practicing as an RN for 14 months however so far working at Alice Springs Hospital and being offered a position in ICU at Lyell McEwin hospital have been highlights.
Working at ASH was an incredible experience that I would recommend to any new graduate. The graduate programme is so well supported, with clinical educators available to call for help on every shift. The complexity of patients' health needs affords experiences you would never encounter in cities. The opportunities for learning and the speed with which I was able to build my knowledge and capabilities was extremely satisfying. Similarly, the complexity of cultural needs rapidly built my skills to deliver culture centred care. The hospital system is strongly connected to the vast range of community health services including all the remote services. As a nurse, you get to work closely with all the healthcare teams from remote clinic nurses to the in-house specialists and the RFDS to ensure patients get comprehensive healthcare and are followed up out into their remote communities. This provided very rich and broad learning for me.聽
It also ignited a desire for me to dive deeper into being able to deliver more complex nursing care, which led me to apply for a position in the ICU novice to proficiency nursing pathway at Lyell McEwin. I was accepted and started mid-April. So far it is a little overwhelming, however once again I find myself incredibly well supported by a huge team of highly competent, and welcoming nurses. I am both daunted and embracing the challenge of such a steep learning curve. At my age, it is not as if I have 15 years ahead of me to slowly build my competency, so I say, 鈥渂ring it on鈥!
What challenges have you had to overcome to get to where you are now?
The biggest challenge and most memorable experience I faced in my studies was having to do written exams. As an adult we rarely if ever need to rely on pure memory 鈥 in my working life it was all about putting together pitches, cost-benefit analysis, learning resources and designing experiential learning. Always with data at my fingertips. So, a written exam was daunting. To make it even more challenging, I was 30 minutes late to my first exam. I had failed to pay attention to detail. The email had communicated the time and date for both the written exam and the OSCE 鈥 and I mixed the times up. So, I arrived 30 minutes late. Expecting a smallish room with all my fellow students only to be confronted by this huge hall with hundreds of students all seated in straight lines and deathly silence except for the soft scratching of pens and occasional nervous cough. Here I was bolting through the door which loudly squeaked and then slammed closed, creating a crashing wave of sound across this silent cavernous hall. Only then did it dawn on me that I was late!聽 Mortified, I was guided to my seat and then had to complete the exam in 30 minutes less time than everyone else.聽 Passed thank goodness!
Memorable experiences:
- Winning the Kitson Award for academic achievement.聽 That was a real surprise!
- Many conversations with fellow students and thinking if this is the calibre of nurses and leaders in Australia then the future of this country is in good hands!聽
Where do you hope to see yourself in five or 10 years?
Wow, at my age that is a hard question. I don鈥檛 really think about 5-10 years out. I feel my life is very balanced and happy where I am. I am continuing to learn and be challenged. Nursing gives my life purpose, structure and daily rewards. I find excitement and fun in riding and exploring SA. I am alone, yet not lonely. I am pursuing how to connect socially now I am back in 糖心vlog官网. As I look back on my life I have loved, been loved, lost, and grieved. I have faced health challenges and now feel blessed with health and am determined to remain fit and independent.聽 My independence is my freedom. I have a family filled with love who I don鈥檛 see enough 鈥 so I guess a goal is to see them more often. I would also like to see more of Australia and use my nursing to achieve this. There is a little nagging voice in my head that urges me to go back to the beginning of this nursing journey and pursue some research into how quality of life can be enhanced in aged care services rather than just the current focus on quality of care. They are intertwined yet vastly different.
Do you have any advice to current students?
Nursing is as much about the practice 鈥 especially the practice of communication as it is about the theory that you are studying in your degree.聽 The richest learning comes from the clinical placements. Drive your own learning in this space. Your buddy nurses will tend to only give you as much as you ask for. Be bold, push for more learning. When they ask you鈥 Do you want to take two or more patients this shift?鈥 lean in and say yes even if you feel totally unprepared! They will support you and you will learn so much more about time management, patient communication, and situational awareness. All critical to your success and not taught at university.
Don鈥檛 write yourself the simplest learning objectives, set yourself meaningful challenging ones, like how to read the patient notes and identify the nursing challenges and goals, or to interview a patient to collect a comprehensive history and perform a nursing assessment. Inherent to these types of objectives is the practicing of asking questions within the course of a comfortable conversation, observing the patient as they stand, bend, and walk, observing for how they interact with family and carers. You can learn so much about your patient just through what seems like an unstructured simple chat.