Health & Wellbeing HUB team members receive scholarships to improve health outcome for the community

Tania Shepherd, Debra McCall and Kallie Howard have all been awarded scholarships to improve their skills in Diabetes Education and Wound Care Management

Tania and Deb applied for and received a scholarship for the Foundations of Wound Management course through Latrobe University.

Kallie received a scholarship which was funded through the Primary Health Network to undertake and 18-month Fundamentals of Wound Care Management with William Light Education.

Tania also received an additional scholarship to undertake a 12 month course to be a qualified diabetes educator provided by James Cook University Townsville QLD .

All three are delighted to have received this assistance to enhance their knowledge and skills in the respective areas.

Deb McCall who is employed at Grampians Health Edenhope as a District Nurse says “A large component of the care we give to our community is wound management. We need to keep upskilling to provide good evidence-based care to the community.”

“it will also help us to become more cost effective, utilising the knowledge to use effective products and reduce the time to healing”

Kallie Howard is Grampians Health Edenhope’s Post-Acute Care Coordinator and District Nurse says that she would manage wounds in the community on a daily basis.

“I feel that we already provide great wound care, however this course will allow me to take that care to the next level.”

“Once I complete this course I would be comfortable to provide advice and liaise with patients, residents and nurses in the acute and residential facility.”

“My aim with wound management is for people with wounds to be able to function as close to possible as normal.”

Tania Shepherd the District Nursing team leader at Grampians Health Edenhope will be busy completing both the 10 week wound care course and a 12 month course to become a qualified diabetes educator. Tania is excited to improve her knowledge with wound care and is looking forward to learning new techniques and strategies to improve the outcomes for our community.

Tania is passionate about diabetes and says “Diabetes is a poorly understood complex cluster of diseases, there are different types of diabetes, most common is type 2 diabetes, there is also type 1 diabetes and gestational diabetes, 

“Type 2 diabetes is a big concern in our community. It can be controlled with diet, exercise and oral medication. Poor management generally means greater poor health outcomes”

“If you have family history of Type 2 diabetes - keep an eye on your health and ask your doctor to be tested if you suffer from any of the common symptoms such as thirst, hunger, frequently trips to the toilet.”

Tania is looking forward to being able to provide specialists care to our community at their finger tips - utilising tele health and face to face appts to improve, control & maintain their health.