specialty focus
Registered nurse Cora O ’ Brien has a background in theatre nursing and has lived in 20 countries . Picture : Supplied
On call
Meet the telehealth nurse who saves lives from home .
By Elise Hartevelt
From children swallowing coins to a man being crushed by his truck – a telehealth nurse ’ s life is unlike any other .
Cora O ’ Brien , the clinical lead of 20 triage nurses at Medibank Health Solutions , keeps herself busy managing the day-today processes of helping people in need .
A registered nurse for 20 years , Cora ’ s worked across the world in places like Canada and the Middle East , but she enjoys her current job the most .
Nursing Review caught up with Cora to find out what it ’ s like working as a telehealth nurse in Australia .
NR : Tell us about your experience in nursing over the years . CO : I received my Bachelor of Science and Nursing in Canada . I started my career up in Nunavut , a town in the remote northern part of Canada , working in a rural outpost . From there , I travelled to the Middle East , where I supplied medical equipment for the army in Israel .
After nursing in New Zealand for a while , I ended up in the rural outback of Australia . I cared for the Aboriginal population there , which was a really exciting opportunity . And then I started to work for Medibank , which I find the most enjoyable job I ’ ve had so far .
What would you say are the necessary skills for working as a nurse in telehealth ? You need to have very good communication and clinical assessment skills . Critical thinking is also important and
you need to be patient . Interpersonal skills are also necessary , especially with children , as they sometimes make an appearance on phone calls .
What skills have you found harder to develop for the job ? Being able to communicate with the caller without seeing them . As nurses , we ’ re used to looking at our patients during an assessment , and removing that major aspect is by far the most challenging .
Showing empathy to people who might be in a challenging situation must also be hard via telephone . It can be , but as a registered nurse , you develop these skills over time and with experience . You have to have the ability to convey empathy regardless of whether it ’ s in person or over the phone .
We have to show compassion because we sometimes have people calling about their mental health , such as people wanting support after a loved one has died .
What types of phone calls do you receive on a day-to-day basis ? On a typical day , we get everything from little ones swallowing coins , car accidents , febrile children , mental health callers , maternity issues and sports accidents . It could be someone who ’ s had an injury who wants to speak to us before going to the emergency department .
Abdominal pain and chest pains are also common , but there are many respiratory illnesses at the moment because of the season . We receive anything from neonates , maternity , aged care , emergency calls , general health inquiries and queries about provider referrals every day .
Is there a particular call that you still remember clearly to this day ? One that stands out for me was a very urgent call wherein a parent said their child was blue and not breathing . I transferred them to the emergency services and the child survived . It showed me how important we are in the community – that we provide an essential service to the Australian public and that it matters .
How has the current flu season , in combination with COVID-19 , affected telehealth ? Our calls have dramatically increased due to COVID , and we had to adapt our calls to respond to the crisis . At the moment , we ’ re having more calls concerning colds and cases of flu than before because of the season .
What does telehealth service look like for someone living in rural Australia ? Say a caller is in a rural area and has an injury or an accident ; they might not have the resources you would have in an urban setting . So , they would call us and we would do two things : we first prioritise the symptoms and give them a timeframe in which to be seen by a doctor . Then , we tell them where to go and video call with that provider to inform them that the caller will come to their service .
What do you love about working as a telehealth nurse ? Nursing is both an art and a science : understanding the science of physiology and the art of how to speak to someone after their loved one has just died . Both are equally important skills to have in telehealth . ■ nursingreview . com . au | 17