Brookfield nurse Juliet Fieldew marked her first year of work at Westcare Medical Centre in Melton by winning a national award for a medical screening tool she developed.
Ms Fieldew has spent the past few months perfecting the Westcare Health Assessment Tool (WHAT), a questionnaire that screens for several chronic diseases.
The clinical nurse was rapt to have received the Bupa Health Dialog Best Practice Award for her work, which is based on the Australian Type 2 Diabetes Risk Assessment Tool (AUSDRISK).
“We already use the AUSDRISK, which is great, but after attending a workshop on heart and kidney disease, I realised we were ignoring these diseases – but that could be changed,” she said.
Scores on such screening tools, usually single-page questionnaires, are used to refer patients to lifestyle modification programs.
“It assesses whether they’re low, moderate or high-risk, and we go from there,” Ms Fieldew said. “Rather than saying, ‘Thanks and here’s another test’, we can now screen for multiple tests at once in just a few minutes.”
Melbourne’s west is above the state average for obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption, low physical activity, poor nutrition and for having four combined risk factors.
It is hoped the improved WHAT tool will improve health outcomes for these patients.
“We’re hoping eventually the whole country will use the test to detect these chronic illnesses,” Ms Fieldew said.
“I love having a big old yarn that results in someone changing their life for the better, taking those first little steps to prevent diseases or any illness worsening.”
The awards were announced on June 1 in Sydney at a ceremony hosted by the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association.
Each of nine winners received $5000 towards their continuing professional development.
