2025 Excellence in Enrolled Nursing

Elizabeth Troester

Elizabeth (Liz) is an Enrolled Nurse in the Palliative Care Unit at Kalamunda Hospital where she plays a vital role in delivering compassionate, patient-centred holistic care to individuals and their families with life-limiting illnesses. Liz is open, friendly, honest, and empathetic allowing families to feel safe with her, thus allowing those confronted with life, death and dying to come to terms with their situation. Through listening and supporting, Liz collaborates with the multidisciplinary team to advocate for her patients and involve them, and their families, in their care. In distressing and challenging times, she can identify what matters most during a patient’s end-of-life journey, supporting decision making and fostering a positive and inclusive culture. Her positive influence ensures meaningful connections are made and positive and nurturing environments are established for patients. She considers it a privilege to be part of a patient’s journey while often helping a grieving and disconnected family to reconnect and care for each other. Liz consistently exhibits dedication, empathy, and innovation in practice. This sometimes includes sewing and crafting as she recently made colourful bags to hold subcutaneous pumps to enable patients the freedom to move around without fear of dropping the pump. Liz actively engages in professional development to grow and support her curiosity and knowledge which she shares with her colleagues and students within the palliative care team. She is a well-respected mentor and preceptor for the national Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach placement students and is often sought out by Clinical Facilitators to assist with student development while they are on practical placements within the Palliative Care Unit. In addition, she educates families and caregivers to ensure care provided to loved ones includes symptom management and coping strategies. Liz consistently displays and promotes exemplary patient-centred care. She advocates for her patients and her collaborative and supportive approach not only benefits the patient, but also the well-being of other healthcare professionals. Added to Liz’s skills is her passion for understanding and supporting dementia patients in health care and as such, she has taken on the role of dementia champion.

Karen Stewart

Karen has been an Enrolled Nurse at the Exmouth Health Service multipurpose site since 2013, working across aged care, emergency presentations, and acute inpatient care. She is a member of a small team taking responsibility for acute inpatients and residents while supporting the emergency department in patient management where she believes every day as a nurse is an achievement. Karen holds the Aged Care portfolio, and her gentle nature allows her to lead the way in implementing best care, ensuring excellence in resident care and effective communication with families. Karen actively enquires and comprehensively investigates the benefits of changes prior to their implementation and actively undertakes audits to ensure compliance and alignment with the National Safety and Quality Health Service Aged Care Standards. Whether in a one-to-one or group setting, she constructively feeds back to her colleagues when change of practice occurs and monitors all outcomes. As a long-standing community member, Karen has an intimate knowledge (professionally and personally) with most of the community aged care consumers. She uses this knowledge to assist individuals transition from the community into residential aged care, advocating for optimum personalised care so her patients can maintain an active lifestyle and ongoing friendships. In addition, she successfully influences others to recognise the importance of ensuring equity in care in residential care, where there is often a greater focus on acute care. Karen is deeply passionate about nursing, feels privileged to serve the most vulnerable members of her community, and consistently ensures consumers are positively impacted by their health service experience. She does this by taking a lead role in education and attends professional development so she can act as a resource and advocate in the aged care setting, actively seeking assistance to improve the multipurpose setting. Her attention to detail and support for colleagues make her a respected and well-liked team member. Karen’s proudest moment is being a nurse every day as this allows her to care, support, and advocate for patients of all ages.

Rachel Smillie

Rachel is a dedicated and respected enrolled nurse working in the Child and Adolescent Community Health – Aboriginal Health Ear Health Team undertaking ear health screening in schools. She is highly valued member of the team and is passionate in her desire to ensure children, particularly Aboriginal Children, are provided with equitable access to ear health screening to promote opportunities for good education and health outcomes. Rachael is an advocate for the children and their families and goes above and beyond to deliver evidence-based ear health screening, supporting families to access secondary and tertiary health care services. She demonstrates a strong commitment in providing culturally safe and secure care to Aboriginal children and their families, helping them navigate the complexities of health care systems. Rachel demonstrates excellence in communication utilising her skills to liaise with numerous schools to coordinate screening sessions in a way that ensures minimal disruption to the educational environment. These sessions require meticulous planning and Racheal’s attention to detail has been vital in ensuring their success. Racheal always presents professionally and is a strong, committed leader who demonstrates autonomy, authority, and accountability. She is known to motivate and acknowledge her co-workers, challenging them to achieve a high standard of care for Aboriginal children. She exhibits resilience to changes and challenges and makes a positive difference while maintaining professionalism and leadership. In addition to her clinical expertise, Racheal has taken the initiative to provide peer support while mentoring and supporting new team members, developing a culture of learning while providing valuable education and guidance to assist in the development of new skills. She is a passionate advocate for working together to achieve shared goals, promoting a positive and collaborative atmosphere, and encouraging and inspiring those around her with energy, enthusiasm, and drive. Rachael is proud to train and mentor staff and students and has enjoyed witnessing someone she mentored go above and beyond, demonstrating the same passion, nurturing spirit, and dedication she strives for in her own practice.