Alumni Profile
STEPHANIE MAHON R. M – CLASS OF 2000
What Year did you graduate? I graduated in the class of 2000 What did you study after Year 12? I went on to complete 1 year of Nursing, and transferred to Bachelor of Midwifery (my dream job since I was 13). Graduating from Bachelor of Midwifery in 2004. I have just completed a Post-Graduate Certificate in Health Services Management, June 2020. What advice would you give to someone considering undertaking this study path? Subjects such as year 11 and 12 Physical Education and Maths were the subjects that prepared me most for University. Physical Education gave me a sound knowledge of anatomy and physiology, this foundational knowledge led me to understand much 6
Always Aloysius – Summer Edition, 2020
more than if I was learning it at university for the first time. Knowing about chemical structures, muscles, bones and relationships between all these components was crucial in understanding the relationship and changes in a woman’s and babies’ bodies during pregnancy and postpartum. While university was wonderful, having this prior learning made it much easier for me to complete core subjects. What I didn’t realise at the time, was that all subjects are likely to help you in the future, despite your career path, as the more you learn the more adaptable you are to thinking broadly – especially in healthcare. I certainly wish I paid more attention in maths at school. This is crucial to health and safety in medication administration as a midwife. For example the amount of medication we administer is based on the patient’s weight, which means the amount of the same medication you administer to one patient could be entirely different to the next patient. Therefore, throughout the shift you will be calculating volumes and drip rates regularly. It’s not as hard as it sounds, but it is crucial that your calculations are correct. What influenced your choice of career? When I was a child / teenager I had an obsession with caring for babies and small children. I was the neighbourhood babysitter as a teenager. Every subject I chose at school was with the intention to set me in the direction of becoming a midwife. How did your experiences at St Aloysius prepare you for this path?
There are many ways you can achieve your goals and chosen career path in life if you remain focused and believe in yourself. What influenced your choice of career? Having teachers that supported my individual interests was crucial to my learning. What we understand in the workplace now is that the most optimal learning environment is that which has set up a space of what we call ‘psychological safety’ – i.e. at school would be the ability to ask questions comfortably and a curriculum that allows teachers to focus on individual student learning interests. There are some stand out teachers from my time at St Aloysius; In my mind I know for a fact they have played a big role in my success as a midwife. What impact has Covid19 had on you? I manage 4 departments in a large metropolitan maternity hospital. As we are an essential workforce (babies don’t stop coming due to a pandemic!), we still have to come in to work every day. One of the first things you learn as a nursing student is about something called “universal precautions” – this is the foundation of safety when it comes to prevention of spread of disease. Universal precautions works on the assumption that everyone we come in to contact with has the potential of carrying a contagious disease. So when the pandemic was declared by the world health organisation, as a workforce we were already donning Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) where appropriate, when
