Rebecca's career path to becoming a midwife
In the 20 years since Clinical Nurse Midwife Rebecca Finlay joined St John of God Health Care, her career has gone from graduate nurse caring for patients with cancer, to now looking after our youngest patients and their mums.
11 Apr 2022
Rebecca first joined the organisation as a graduate registered nurse finding her place in oncology before choosing to continue her career by studying midwifery.
“I feel great satisfaction in my work especially when we have a very unwell patient in the antenatal period, and they go on to have a safe delivery of a healthy baby,” she said.
“When we see that through our care of mum and baby we are making the difference and the results are positive outcomes.”
Rebecca said she loved being a midwife because of the variety.
“I’m constantly learning and being challenged,” she said.
“It’s a privilege to be a part of caring for a new little family. I love supporting the patient and partner and giving them the confidence to care for their baby and stay in their little joy filled bubble.”
Rebecca said the experience of working in health care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in Perth was quite different to those experiences for other Australian, and international nurses and midwives.
“We have been so fortunate in Western Australia to have had very little exposure to COVID with such a small percentage of hospitalisations compared with the east coast of Australia and internationally,” she said.
“Our issues have been around a shortage of health care workers due to closed borders.
“When we started wearing the N95 masks and shields, it was hard initially to adjust, but we were all very aware that our colleagues worldwide had been wearing them and full PPE for months and years longer than us.
“On our hardest days, we are there for each other, we keep each other going and we are of course fuelled by coffee. There is a unity among the staff as we’ve had to navigate together the ever changing COVID circumstances.”
In reflecting, on why she loves working at St John of God Health Care she said it was the Values.
“The Values of St John of God Health Care appealed to me when I first chose to work here,” he said.
“We are a great team, from the midwives to the PCAs, food service, cleaning staff, we are like a work family. Our managers are supportive, understanding, empathetic, and present, and always make us feel valued.”
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