Delegate Christine Hansson

Your HACSU workplace delegate

CHRISTINE HANSSON

Registered Nurse Hobart Private Hospital

I'VE BEEN at Healthscope Hobart Private Hospital for 22 years, but I've worked at seven hospitals during my 41 year career.

I have been nursing since 1980 and have been a perioperative nurse since 1985 and am currently employed as a registered nurse perioperative scrub/scout. I start my day organising the equipment and sterile supplies needed to complete my operating list. This includes making sure all the prostheses are available and liaising with other operating theatres and other health professionals such as x-ray and endoscopy. The skill mix must be suitable for our case load and tea and meal breaks must be factored in whilst ensuring the list runs smoothly. I've been involved in enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations since I joined HACSU in 1996 whilst working at Calvary Healthcare Lenah Valley. I became a delegate to join the negotiations, but soon realised it enabled me to gain knowledge about our working conditions and how to improve them. When I began nursing, 'someone' out there fought really hard to gain the conditions that protected and rewarded us. I want to ensure that nurses in the future can care for their patients within a reasonable work load so they'll stay working in this fabulous profession. I want to be able to retire knowing the nurses who follow will be able to continue to work safely and look after me if I need a knee replacement. Whilst at the Hobart Private I've been involved in negotiating all the staff agreements for the past 22 years, but I've never been more humbled by the unity and support members have displayed during this year’s negotiations. It’s been very stressful and challenging, but we are pushing forward and we demand that our voice is heard. We deserve to be able to work safely with a reasonable work load that's measured to the acuity of the patients we care for in all areas of the hospital, and our patients deserve this too. I'm extremely passionate about infection control and hand hygiene and enjoy mentoring beginner practitioners into the world of perioperative nursing. With the ever changing world of the procedures that we perform, it’s extremely important to keep up to date. When I'm not working I enjoy dabbling in a few of my passions – I love knitting, millinery, sewing and baking cakes and bread. My husband Brett and I have two adult children and an 8 month old grandson who lives with his parents in Adelaide. We've visited him five times since his birth and I'm totally besotted with him and am always looking forward to our next visit.