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Profile Of Janine Lee
Profile Of Janine Lee
Janine Lee Charge Nurse, Same
Day Admission Unit (SDAU) and Day of Surgery Admissions Unit
(DOSA)
Born in Hamilton, attended Raglan District High School and Wintec (Bachelor of Nursing 2002), and currently studying for a Post-Graduate Diploma in Health through Victoria University. Lives on a Whatawhata lifestyle block with husband Jack, three alpacas and a beef cow.
Janine Lee heads up a busy team, but she wouldn't want it any other way.
As Charge Nurse of Waikato Hospital's Same Day Admission Unit and its new arm, Day of Surgery Admissions Unit , Janine manages a team of 20 staff, with up to 55 patients passing through their care daily.
The unit prepares hospital patients for surgery across 10 different specialisations.
"It's a very busy place," says Janine, as she looks over the unit's theatre sheet. In any given day they might see patients coming in for hernias, bowel surgery, hip replacements, tonsils and grommets, reconstructive surgery, the removal of cancerous growths and the fixing of fractures.
"Our aim is to prepare people for theatre who come in on the day of surgery, for things big and small," says Janine, a cheerful brunette. "We get all ages, from babies a few weeks old through to people in their 90s."
Janine oversees the nursing team at two different locations. The Same Day Admission Unit on Level 8 of the Menzies Building takes patients going to surgery in Level 8 operating theatres, while its new adjunct, the Day of Surgery Admission Unit on level one of the Waiora Waikato Centre, takes those coming for same-day elective surgery in the hospital's main operating theatres.
All of this keeps Janine very busy. "I do lots of walking around the hospital," she laughs.
She has been Charge Nurse at the Same Day Admission Unit for two years. "Our role is to try and alleviate people's anxiety," says Janine of the unit. "People come in and are often anxious about what will happen, and in a short amount of time we have to instill a sense of trust and reassure them. It's about helping people on the road to recovery and wellness."
With her beaming smile and caring, approachable manner, it's no surprise Janine enjoys nursing.
"I think it is a great privilege, looking after people," says Janine. "People trust you so much and that's very humbling. To empower people with their health and to help them move on is very rewarding."
Born in Hamilton and raised in Raglan, Janine started out as a caregiver, looking after a tetraplegic friend, and later working with the elderly and as a live-in caregiver. For more than 11 years Janine worked at the Raglan Trust Hospital & Rest Home.
"I've done lots of unqualified caregiving work and I wanted to develop that into a career," says Janine. "I realised that when it came to nursing, I had the skills."
She graduated with a Bachelor of Nursing from Wintec in 2002 and has been a nurse for eight and a half years at Waikato Hospital. "I love it here. Every day is different, it definitely keeps you on your toes," says Janine.
As a new graduate she did a six-month stint in both the hospital's Oncology and Haematology Department (Ward 25) and Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery unit (Ward 14). She stayed in the unit for four years as a staff nurse before moving to the Post Anaesthesia Care Unit , where she eventually became a nurse educator.
"Each area has something different that I enjoy," says Janine.
She was one of nine Waikato Hospital medical staff who flew to Samoa in October 2009 to assist for a week after a tsunami devastated the island nation.
Janine had seen a call for volunteers on the hospital intranet and didn't hesitate. "I had been a recovery nurse so I thought I'd put my name down and was lucky enough to be picked to go," says Janine.
The team, including surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses from Waikato Hospital, were based in Apia at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital. "It was a real privilege to go and look after people who had been so devastated by the water and had lost so much," says Janine, whose story was featured in New Idea magazine.
It was a difficult assignment. "We were treating some people with horrendous wounds," she says, including those with deep lacerations, infected wounds, fractures and amputations as a result of injuries received in the September 29 tsunami.
Many of those they treated had lost family members, including children who hadn't survived the deadly tsunami. "It was tragic," says Janine. The spirit of the Samoan people inspired her. "I was impressed by their stoicism," says Janine. "Their gratitude was humbling."
She travelled to Lalomanu on the southeast side of Upulo, one of the worst hit beaches on the island. The extent of the devastation was unbelievable, far worse in reality than could be conveyed on the television news.
The experience was life changing, both personally and professionally. "It changes you as a person, not just a nurse," says Janine.
She was impressed by the resourcefulness of her Samoan colleagues, who were ingenious in adapting equipment. There was a real "number-eight-wire approach," says Janine. "You realise you don't need high tech equipment in a situation like that, you just make do."
The assignment made Janine appreciate the state-of-the-art facilities at Waikato Hospital.
She credits the "fantastic team" of nursing staff, and highly skilled and approachable surgeons and doctors at Waikato Hospital for making the job so satisfying.
"People who come here for care get well looked after," says Janine. "I wouldn't want to work anywhere else."
ends
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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