A nurse practitioner with 16 years of emergency nursing experience, Corinne Dunningham is committed to growing the nurse practitioner workforce.
“Nurse practitioner is the most autonomous clinical nursing role within Australian healthcare,” she says.
“It is an advanced practice role where registered nurses have undergone further postgraduate education and clinical experience to become autonomous clinicians who can see, treat, diagnose, investigate and refer patients within the healthcare system.”
“We have a just over 3,100 nurse practitioners in Australia, so the workforce is small but growing and I am proud to be training and preparing future nurse practitioners to support patient care in areas they are most needed.”
As Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator for La Trobe’s Master of Nurse Practitioner, Corinne’s passion comes through in her teaching.
“I try and bring a sense of fun and enthusiasm when teaching. I am genuinely passionate about nurse practitioners and their importance to the healthcare landscape, so I try and instil that passion in my students.”
“Progress over perfection is the mantra I have with students. Excellence to me is students achieving their best, and I try to support them in any way I can.”
She says that the best part about teaching is the seeing the ‘lightbulb moment’.
“That moment when students have been slogging at something or trying to apply theory to practice and you see it just click for them. The joy they express knowing they have achieved this is the most rewarding thing.”
“I am the biggest champion of our students. I am so proud that they chose this career path and La Trobe University to support them achieve their goals. It is a wonderful thing to be part of someone’s progression and I never take that for granted.”
