2020 International Year of the Nurse & Midwife – August Edition
We continue to celebrate ‘The Year of the Nurse & Midwife’ by showcasing Hurstville’s very own Hayley Murray. Hayley is one of our Midwives at our Hurstville Private Hospital and has shared her story of how she begun her nursing career and details her achievements along the way.
What year did you commence your nursing career?
I started university in the UK in 2007 and qualified in 2010
What hospitals have you worked at?
I worked at an NHS hospital in Taunton, Somerset of which I commenced employment as a health care assistant in 2007 working across the hospital before beginning my midwifery career across the maternity unit, community and birth centre areas from 2010 to 2019. During this time I specialised in A smoking cessation midwifery role and spent the last three years in a managerial role as a unit manager leading the community and birth centre teams.
What year did you commence employment at Hurstville Private Hospital?
I commenced employment with Hurstville in 2019
Why did you choose to become a midwife?
I chose to become a midwife because I loved the thought I could make a difference to a family, whether it be from the start, case-loading them through their pregnancy, or at a snap shot glance celebrating their new life, being the first to touch life, or simply being there to help a woman overcome the transition to motherhood, which can have a few adaptive bumps along the way.
Being apart of a family’s journey and knowing I can make a difference that they will never forget is such an honourable feeling and that’s what brings me to work everyday. Even if the outcome is not the desired one and there can be heartache along the way, knowing that I can be there to empower their strength to make it through and just being there to care makes their moments however hard, big or small, matter.
Where did you complete your training?
I completed my training in Plymouth University in the UK in 2010
Provide us a highlight in your career that you would like to share
The highlight of my career was being nominated for three tremendous achievement awards by my hospital, which I came runner up in the collaborative working and innovation award and I won the emerging leader in 2015.
One of these awards was later recognised at national level in 2017 coming runner up for the best product or innovation for patient safety awards by the Health Service Journal (HSJ), for my innovative creation of a placental teaching aid.
The thought that my simple innovation put into practice on a creative level could help resonate with women about the harmful effects of smoking at their individualised learning level, to empower them to quit and potentially save their baby’s life was such a euphoric feeling that I’m proud to have been able to have been apart of. A little bit of ‘Try’ and a lot of ‘Umph’ introducing a new care product and pathway and collaboratively working with my team meant we lowered our smoking rates in pregnancy from one of the highest to the lowest in our country, a triumph celebrated by all to show that making a difference and leading a team can embrace positive change no matter how big the challenge!
Coming to Australia I am now able to see midwifery from a different perspective and I can continue to learn and make a difference, being more hands on, learning new cultures and a new way of life.