Sarah Dunn

Clinical Nurse Educator, Respiratory and Infectious Diseases

Prince of Wales Hospital

“A huge amount of my job is clinical supervision. I help orientate new nursing staff, do appraisals with the Nurse Unit Manager and get to know what people’s education needs are. It’s about nurturing and facilitating lifelong learning. 

There’s a natural reaction from people in the community when you say you work in infectious diseases. But you know, most of them aren’t contagious. Infectious diseases are actually fascinating and forever changing and there’s always wonderful new things to learn. You get to really specialise and learn about the disease process.

I was given a book called ‘What I wish I knew as a Nurse’ and I think I laughed and cried the whole way though. Its lots of little short stories and I could relate to so many of them. I wish I’d started jotting down stories (without names), because it’s not until you go out with previous workmates that a story comes up and you can’t believe you have forgotten it.”   

Sarah is the 2019 Nurse of the Year for Prince of Wales Hospital.