A conversation with new board member Ms Jennifer Wood

14 Dec 2015

Ms Jennifer Wood is a new practitioner board member from Western Australia. Jennifer was appointed on 31 August 2015, for a period of three years.

Jennifer is a registered nurse and midwife, and has been involved in regulation at a state level for over ten years, as a member of the Nurses Board of WA, the Nurses and Midwives Board of WA and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia WA Branch both before and after introduction of the National Scheme.

She studied as nurse at Curtin University when a university pathway to the profession was very new to WA. Following this she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Midwifery. Since this time midwifery has been both her profession and passion, working towards, ‘what we can offer women that can have a positive influence on their childbearing experiences,’ said Jennifer.

Jennifer then went on to complete a research Masters of Science and a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching at Curtin University, where she spent 15 years being instrumental in developing an undergraduate midwifery program in WA. Jennifer has recently returned to a clinical role as a Clinical Midwifery Consultant on the Labour and Birth Suite at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Subiaco.

She chose to become a member of the NMBA after attending the inaugural NMBA conference in 2014, where she found the robust discussion about driving consistency within the National Scheme to better serve the Boards stakeholders exciting.

When looking to the challenges the NMBA and AHPRA face, she added, ‘I feel that one of the main challenges will be to strike the right balance between the two professions, nursing and midwifery. We need to ensure that nurses and midwives are offered consistent decisions across Australia and I look forward to contributing to this.’

She continued, ‘I believe there is great potential for other boards in the National Scheme to engage with one another. Many other professions engage with nurses and midwives at the front end of service delivery, for example medical practitioners and allied health professionals. There is every reason that this collaboration can also work at a regulatory level.’

In professional life Jennifer’s advice to colleagues would be to get involved and do not sit back, listen to the people around you and actively contribute. Finally, Jennifer references Lieutenant General David Morrison who famously said, ‘The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept’. She feels this is a powerful message for all health professionals for building a positive workplace culture.

To view other members of the NMBA go to the Board member page.