After 30 years as a nurse, Brenda Fithall never expected she would find a passion for teaching and her career would simultaneously take two different paths.
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But 17 years ago an opportunity arose to teach young nurses working in aged care and she found herself with a surprise second career - one that she's reached the heights of after being named one of three finalists for Teacher of the Year in the Victorian Training Awards.
The then-nurse was running an aged care facility that had untrained staff and Ballarat University, as it was then, asked her if she would train staff to certificate level.
It's so important to have good quality health care workers because they are looking after people who are extremely vulnerable whether that's acute patients or in the aged care sector. And there's a huge need for more carers now as they are diversifying in to community care as well.
- Brenda Fithall
"To do that I went and did various courses, then taught them and I found I actually loved it. I never thought I would love teaching ... it's become a passion of mine," she said.
"Then I went on and did many more teaching qualifications and became specialist in certain areas - nursing educator, certificate III in individual support, first aid, food handling and business management. I can do quite a number of things but my passion is the health industry."
Today she teaches the Certificate III in Individual Support and the Diploma of Nursing and First Aid at Federation University. She has also recently developed and led a pilot traineeship in Certificate III in Individual Support for personal care workers in partnership with Nazareth Care Residential Aged Care service, which has been adopted by the Pyrenees Shire.
Ms Fithall has now notched up 17 years of teaching including the past two back at Federation University TAFE.
Over 47 years in health care she has seen many changes, particularly the ageing population and their increased need for care, the upskilling of nursing staff and the shift toward patient-centred care.
"It's so important to have good quality health care workers because they are looking after people who are extremely vulnerable whether that's acute patients or in the aged care sector. And there's a huge need for more carers now as they are diversifying in to community care as well.
"I think people coming in to the industry now are much more career-focused than they used to be. For a lot of people coming in it was a shock that we are not looking after someone with a condition, but looking after people. The focus now is on person-centred care because people need to retain their independence as long as they can."
Ms Fithall is seeing more younger people and men stepping in to aged care nursing roles. "The students I teach have a huge age range, from 19 to 60, and I see people in all levels taking on the challenge," she said.
The winners of the Victorian Training Awards will be announced in Melbourne on Friday.
