Julie Yap 

BSC-RN, MNSc
Clinical Nurse Specialist, Community Geriatric Service, Health of Older People, Counties Manukau District

I have been a regisered  nurse with Middlemore hospital since 2001. I started with one year new graduate nurse programme working in general surgical and othopaedic wards. I developed my acute general medicine experience working at a Haematology ward for 5 years. With motherhood, I moved into district nursing for more friendly working hours. I enjoyed providing nursing care to patients in the comfort of their homes. This empowers them to have control in their decisions making and to keep their independence living in the community.
After 5 years of district nurse, I was seconded to join community geriatric service, which later offered me a full-time position as a clinical nurse specialist. I have the opportunity to grow with the team and adapting to constant changing with gerontology topics and healthcare system. 

My most profound experience was setting emergency department geriatric service (EDGS); and worked alongside with Dr Jeremy Dryer (clinical head of ED). The other significant project was setting up HOP (health of older people) squad: a group of specialist clinicians from CGS, inpatient NASC, psych liaison CNS, etc working in partnership with general medicine ward charge nurse and allied team to discuss safe, effective and efficient discharge for patients to go home, rather than long-term residential care. My other projects included trialling early warning score in residential care facilities, comprehensive geriatric assessment for older people living in retirement villages to identify frailty – geriatric syndromes for early interventions for reversible clinical events, etc.

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