By PSS | Posted: Wednesday March 7, 2018
Dawn Acker has a career in nursing spanning 25 years and multiple areas, ranging from ward work to clinical education, to most recently, Clinical Nurse Specialist in the respiratory service, and now, aged care.
Dawn started with Enliven in January 2018 as the Nurse Practitioner Candidate where she will be working across four Enliven facilities (Peacehaven Village, Vickery Court, Walmsley House and Resthaven Village).
As she puts it:
“I’ll be working closely with Dr Adam and Dr Tyree as they provide clinical supervision for me as I work towards going to the Nursing Council to become a Nurse Practitioner later in the year.”
The move into a career within aged care was something that had interested Dawn since she was a young woman living in Melbourne.
Working as a care assistant in “an 80 bed concrete block residence, sharing the roster with only two other girls” was what initially sold her on a career in nursing.
“It was called a Special Accommodation, a “half way house” for those who didn’t have anyone who could care for them but weren’t sick enough to be in the public system”. The residents were aged between 38-90 years with the younger ones having mental health or intellectual disabilities.
The three care assistants looking after the residents were responsible for everything – administering medications, dressing changes, hygiene, their washing, and helping in the kitchen including meal preparation, “there was no registered nurse employed and we were working on our own each shift”.
“We became very close to the residents… and when one ended up having a stroke and another a heart attack, all I could do was ring the ambulance… I felt so helpless (I couldn’t even take a pulse let alone know how to interpret it!) and it made me realise I wanted to be a nurse.”
Twenty-five years later and Dawn has built a long and varied career in nursing with the District Health Board (even winning a Southland Nursing Excellence award in 2008), and now, she is both enthused and motivated by her new role at Enliven.
One of her key focusses will be on decreasing polypharmacy (the concurrent use of multiple medications) among Enliven residents.
When Dawn isn’t working or studying, she enjoys walking her family’s two dogs, Chihuahua Maltese crosses, catching up with her mum for Sunday lunches, camping at Mavora with her husband and spending time at her mother-in-law’s holiday home in Arrowtown.
Dawn lives with her husband and their two children in Invercargill, and they are also busy renovating their home.
Dawn already had a connection with Enliven before taking up her new role; her father was a resident at Peacehaven Village where she says he was “beautifully taken care of”, and her mother lives in a cottage at Peacehaven.
Life tip: Always treat others as you would like to be treated
Most played song: Paradise by Cold Play
Favourite colour: Autumn
Ideal holiday destination: Greek Islands
Favourite hobby: Reading research articles (yep)
Why you have a love for older people: My parents were from England and emigrated to NZ just before I was born. This meant I didn’t grow up with grandparents (or extended family) so have adopted them where I could find them!
Last book you read: “clinical geriatrics” - l haven’t read a fiction book in over four years due to studying and that was “The girl with the dragon tattoo” series by Stieg Larsson.