Biography

Nyree Parker is a Registered Nurse/ Clinical Nurse Specialist and Emergency Management Consultant within the Emergency Department and Emergency Preparedness Unit of Peninsula Health. Commencing nursing in the Northern Territory gave her a much more diverse perspective of nursing than the standard metropolitan university degree. Returning to urban Victoria the last twenty-five years has provided her the opportunity to rise through the ranks practicing health promotion strategies through to Clinical Nurse Educator and nursing research roles for several years. However the phenomena of disaster health underpinning hospital Code Brown practices and business continuity planning intrigued and inspired her interest as a void in hospital practice. Dramatically within the last decade, the perception of emergency preparedness has expanded. The need for preparing staff for impacts caused by climate change has become somewhat urgent. From bushfires, heatwaves, storms to pandemics and annual winter demands, the effects on population health needs more recognition. Nyree believes the shift of hospital emergency training necessitates the move beyond the annual internal fire drill to more relevant practices in preparation for environmental disasters that are now increasingly recognised as impinging on the health services of today. That is what inspires Nyree Parker as a health practitioner.