Queensland adventures

Part B ...

Well, I've done a lot of thinking about this position. I've come up with a listing of the positives and negatives about the job and think I have come to a decision as to what I'll do. So here's the listing (fascinating reading I'm sure!)

 
 
So as you may have gathered, I don't think I'll go for this one. Had it been at a different time and when I'd published a few more articles, I might seriously consider it.  But it probably makes sense to settle in this role, to publish like Hades and to move myself through to more senior status the right way and to ensure that I don't get stuck in this type of administrative position.

I'm still chuffed that they thought of me though!!!!

All my love

Naomi

Well holy crap

Now that I've startled everyone with that heading, I'll explain.

So we know that know how excited I have been about this new position. And how I was of course going to use this position to move my way through the academic circles to become a more senior staff member. And that I was/am becoming much more confident in my ability to be able to provide good/excellent education to our beginning nurses. Well it seems that I need to be careful for what I wish for. A new position of Senior Lecturer and Clinical Director is becoming available fairly soon ... (in June).  And I have been encouraged by the Director of Academic Programmes (DAP) and someone I am quickly developing a great deal of professional respect for, to apply for the position.

So what does this mean, I hear you ask. Well, " ... the appointee will engaged in activities normally undertaken by a Senior Lecturer as well as specific duties related to the role of Clinical Director". The Clinical Director role liases with academic, research and administrative staff, with undergrad and postgrad students and staff at external health care facilities. It sounds like a big role. And probably is. Actually, I know it is. Is this too fast? I'm already trying to figure out where everybody fits in with each other, so that would continue. I'd drop my existing role as co-ordinator of the final CP5 unit and assume a broader overseeing role with the view of providing a smooth transition to practice. I'm not sure how my ECARD position would fit into all of this ... the formally organised mentor/support/early career researcher one that was one of the very strong drawcards to come up to QUT in the first place. Maybe that could be a negotiation. If successful, to keep the ECARD, drop the teaching load and assume the new position. I speak like I a) know what the hell I'm talking about and b) am a serious contender.

The word around the place is that the job will not be easily filled. Hospital clinical staff - n0 academic record i.e. a completed PhD. Within school - there are some people who could take it up within school, but that they are moving out of academia themselves or not interested. Hmmmm. Is this all moving too fast? Or is this another one of those opportunities of a lifetime ... the second in these last couple of months????

To be continued ...

HI!!

Hello Nangs!!

 

now I must admit I've not blogged before - but I'm gonna try it!!

 

Have a great day

Lisa x

A pretty positive place to be

Well, I have to say that everyone (no exceptions so far) has been incredibly positive, upbeat and amazingly supportive of the new kids on the block. I'm one of four who have come on board in the last fortnight and we all seem to be trouping on together ... chatting to each other, giggling at our collective mistakes and learning from each others' very steep learning curves. I keep asking questions that begin with "I know you've told me this already but ... " and people don't look at me like I've wounded them with a savage blow from Excalibar. Today has been the first real day that I feel like I've taken some ownership of the (very long and seemingly ever growing) list of things that I need to attend to. I think what is facilitating this is the following:

1. I'm pretty personable.
2. I don't attack people when asking questions.
3. I at least make some effort to solve the problem before I ask the question.

It's nice to be in an environment where this seems to be appreciated rather than ridiculed. The powers that be are open and interested and want to listen to what I have to say. The people running the courses are kindly and very patiently waiting for me to ask the questions will enable me to do my job effectively. The people that I have very little to do with professionally but whose offices are around mine invite me fairly regularly to coffee at "Beedles" (gotta love the name) to inject their insights into their own courses and more widely about tertiary education and the state of nursing in QLD. It's a bit like I'm being welcomed into a professional home ... an invitation which I am delighted to have extended to me and using my best academic voice am saying "yes" to.

Hello Nangs!!

Hey Nangs, I am officially part of your blog party now!! I hope I am doing this right.. :) Glad to hear about your new accomo... when you moving to the new one again?? Off to sunny NZ we go tomorrow... and away from this heat!! Woo Hoo!! Hows the job been??

Is there a person in your life who always has a hug and makes you feel better when they're around? Who is it – and what do you love about them?

This is my first blog to anyone. If this is a way to keep in touch with Naomi the fantastic I will do it.
Mum xxx

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The first post

Well, I thought I had better let people know that I was safe and sound up here in (rainy, hot, cycloney) Brisbane. I’m pleased that I’ve arrived even though the start was a little bit bumpy. Let me begin at the beginning. It all started one Friday morning in Sydney ...

1.      The drive ...

So we left Sydney on 28^th January. Bundled everything up into the car, on the roof (in the pod), in the backseat, in the boot. Didn’t seem like a lot, but I was going to a fully furnished place. Realistically I just needed my clothes, toiletries and some little things to keep me company. Photos, momentos, you know – all the important things. We drove up as far as Lismore (Jiggi to be precise) where we stopped at Tanith’s relative’s place. Very kind of them to put up a couple of strange looking women (OK, so I’m the strange looking one) who came hurtling down the dirt road listening to the newly installed voice of “Olga the Hungarian grandmother” on the GPS say things like “Listen to me. In 500m, you’re going to have to turn left”. Perhaps we were cackling like mad things. Maybe we’re just mad. We got there and that’s all that needs to be said. Anyway, Tanith’s aunt and uncle fed and bedded us and were generally lovely. Thanks so much for your hospitality! We left there at about 0900hrs ready to mosey on into Brisbane. Stopped in at Bangalow (yes, I can hear you asking, it is where the lovely sweet rolled pork comes from) for a delicious coffee and apple turnover at the local patisserie (who in the hell has a local patisserie?!?!?) and moved on to the Gold Coast. We had a look at the pile of rocks now a retaining wall at the front of the property in Jefferson Lane and mooched off into the sunset. OK, so there was no sunset, rather a hot wind but these are semantic differences.

2.      The accommodation ...

So you know how I was talking up my accommodation before I left Sydney? Lovely big room, built ins, fan, 5 towels, sheets provided, iron and ironing board in each room, a cleaner for the common areas once a week? Yep. Keep this in mind. I had paid my bond as well as 2 weeks in advance to secure the upstairs area. I was all set to settle into my new room. A few days before I took a phone call from the landlady (I’ll call her .. “the big E” from now on) asking if she could move me from an upstairs to a downstairs room, and after she assured me that they were mirror images reflected on different floors, I reluctantly agreed. Hmmm. Alarm bells should have been (and were) going off even then. When we arrived on Saturday afternoon at about 1400hrs, of course the downstairs room was nothing like the upstairs one. Approximately 1/3 of the size, no towels, linen on the bed that I am not convinced had been washed, no ironing board, no fan, the room was a mess, the bathroom stank and it was a very weak representation of what could be described as a rental accommodation. I messaged the big E asking if I could be moved back upstairs – this was clearly not what I agreed to when we came up just after Christmas. And the resounding answer was no. As I learnt from one of my then flatmates, the fellow who was in my room and who had been causing a great deal of trouble/disturbance had been moved into the room that I was allocated upstairs. This was the big E’s way of “solving the problem” – shafting me ... an out-of-towner without actually addressing the issue of the fellow being a young man with no life experience and no consideration for other people’s space. Probably not a good candidate for share accommodation but who the hell am I to judge?

So every waking moment that I’ve had, I’ve scrambled to find some alternative arrangements. I’ve seen 9 different properties in 3 days (after work), and which included the potential of living with the CFMEU Secretary of QLD, a group of pot-smoking fine arts students as well as a nurse who went to the same uni that I am now teaching at and who didn’t think particularly highly of the course. I settled on a Chinese lady and her 7 year old son who owns the townhouse that I’ll live in (with them both) and who comes from Cherrybrook in Sydney. She bought the place 3 years ago when she moved up. It’s closer to work, living with less people and a thoroughly lovely place. I’ve put some pictures up here.

 

 

 

 
I move my stuff in on Friday evening an event I am very much looking forward to!

3.      The job ...

Oh yes ... the reason for the season. Well, it’s day 4 now and I have to say that I love it, love it, love it, love it, love it. The role is a huge, but I think I’m up to the challenge. I’ll be managing a cohort of 550 (approx) this semester and a second cohort of 300 (approx) next semester in their final clinical placement blocks. I’m teaching in 4 different subjects (104hrs/semester) and participating in the ECARD programme which is an early career academic and research development stream designed to support new academics in their various roles within the university/tertiary sector. People are amazing. I’m still figuring out where everyone fits in the grand scheme of things, but the QUT website is replete with pictures of staff members which makes life a lot easier. My mentor is a wealth of knowledge. She’s young enough to still be in touch with excellent clinical matters, but incredibly experienced as an academic. I’ll work (very) closely with her in this first semester and she will merely shadow me in the second. The course structure means that there are two intakes per year, so it’s running the same course again in the second half of the year. I do hope that I’ll be able to do as good a job as she does. The course will have my own slant on it soon ... just not in the next 15 minutes!

Well, I think that’s all I’ve got for the moment. I’ll be back in touch soon. Drop me a line if you feel inclined!

All my love,

Naomi