Providing care through all seasons
Over the course of the pandemic, every school has found the need to adjust to meet the latest health advice. As did other nurses and other health professionals across the world, and in Australia.
Tessa Mansfield is the School’s Senior Registered Nurse and manages the Health Centres located across the Summer Hill, Strathfield and Woollamia campuses. As a part of the Health Centre team, Tessa is involved in providing care to students and staff every day.
“My role is ever-evolving,” she says. “We provide care at sports carnivals, facilitate student / staff vaccination programmes, and manage chronic medical conditions. We also manage the lost teeth, broken limbs, scraped knees, and concussions, as well as excursion medical management, medication administration, and more.”
When it comes to a large group of boys who love to explore, play, and indulge their curiosity, there are plenty of mishaps along the way, and Tessa and the team are there to make sure everyone stays safe and healthy.
Working in a school is not the typical pathway for a nurse, but for Tessa it was a great opportunity.
“I had spent time in the hospital environment and aged care facilities. I was ready and open for a new experience with new challenges.
“The opportunity to work at Trinity presented itself and I embraced it. The work / life balance of school hours was attractive, as was the opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary team to assist with the daily attendance of a student’s life at school.
“The pandemic has seen my place void of noise in the playground – we went from over 2000 students in the School playgrounds to under 50. However, it did mean checking in with our regular students offsite, along with their parents. We also had the time to review processes and procedures and implement any process and procedural upgrades during this time.
“The pandemic showed me that Trinity Grammar School staff, students, and parents are a community of people who care – in and out of the School.”
Even with all the many challenges, Tessa is glad to be working at Trinity throughout it all.
“I would recommend this path to other nurses. We look at diverse areas like diabetes management, allergy management, injury rehabilitation, concussion, health maintenance, and injury prevention. There are so many fields we are presented with and many we can champion.
“Trinity also supports me by providing me with the opportunity to further my professional development through educational opportunities and collaboration with other schools.
“Trinity staff and families have become a family for me.”
Want to know more about working at Trinity? Check out all the employment opportunities available.
