Cassie Jewell’s new senior role at Portland District Health represents a homecoming for the former local.
Ms Jewell was born at PDH and has now returned to the health service as the new Urgent Care Centre Nurse Unit Manager.
Ms Jewell lived on a farm at Bessiebelle until she was 12 years old and then moved with her family into Portland.
After completing her under-graduate training at Deakin University in Warrnambool, Ms Jewell moved to Melbourne and worked at the Northern Hospital in Epping for 11 years, along with some casual agency work at other metropolitan hospitals.
She progressed from graduate nurse through to various positions at Northern Hospital within the Emergency Department, before being appointed as an Associate Nurse Unit Manager, and also working as the after-hours coordinator for the hospital.
However, after enduring the social isolation and challenges that came with living in Melbourne during the pandemic, Ms Jewell decided to look further afield and wanted to move back closer to family.
“Having had the progression of my career at the Northern, I was interested to see what other opportunities were out there,” she said.
“I did some casual work at PDH over the past few years. Having worked with the team and finding they are a hard-working and close-knit group of nurses and doctors; I thought it was a nice opportunity to work here close to home and a good opportunity to further my development.”
This is Ms Jewell’s first appointment as a Nurse Unit Manager and she expects her extensive metropolitan experience will hold her in good stead.
Ms Jewell replaces Deb Tozer who is helping her to transition into the new role and she will work with other Urgent Care Centre staff and across the broader health service to foster her development
“I’m looking forward to getting my head around the differences between metropolitan and small-town management of patients and the diversity that this role will provide,” she said.
