ACN Nursing and Health Expo 2015

This year The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) held their 15th ACN Nursing and Health Expo and Tobin Brothers Funerals was pleased to have attended.

For the past fifteen years the ACN Nursing and Health Expos have brought together healthcare professionals from around the country and built a strong reputation for connecting visitors with a range of organisations from hospitals, health care services, educational institutions and specialty nursing groups. The expos are open to nurses, nursing students, or people considering a career in the nursing or health professions to gain information about the industry and their options.

So why would Tobin Brothers Funerals be at an expo about nursing and healthcare?

Tobin Brothers Funerals proudly offer a series of Free Education Sessions for Healthcare Professionals, providing them with information that can help them with what is one of the most difficult aspects of healthcare; supporting people as they experience the emotions of grief, death and dying.

As a registered nurse I have seen first hand, the importance of understanding grief, death and dying and am pleased to be able to offer these educational sessions to the healthcare and nursing community.

Nurses beginning their careers may never think to ask questions such as: What do you do when a patient is given a terminal diagnosis? How do you support them? How do you comfort their family and friends as they come to terms with the loss of their loved one? So Tobin Brothers Funerals is here to help, to offer our Education Sessions that will answer these questions with the hope of creating a healthy community when it comes to the experience of grief.

When grief is shut down, or suppressed, it can cause mental and physical health issues. Over the past 81 years, Tobin Brothers Funerals has, through funeral service delivery, gained a great deal of expertise in facilitating the expression of grief. We also facilitate after care services such as Christmas Remembrance Services, Remembering our Angels Services and our Art for the Heart Exhibition which are all initiatives to further guide individuals and families in their time of grief.

Most graduating nurses are unaware of all of this, so Tobin Brothers were at the ACN Nursing and Health Expo to let them know of our services and assist with answering questions surrounding the challenges they may face at the beginning of their careers.

Tobin Brothers Funerals is also well placed to be a part of the expo as we are responsible for the continuation of care for the deceased when they leave the hospital. Many nurses believe that the care for their patient and their family ends when they leave the hospital, but this is not the case. Care for their patient continues after death.

When the deceased leaves the hospital and is transferred into our care they enter another form of healthcare which includes the process of embalming. The role embalming plays is twofold. The embalming procedure is not only an important part of caring for the deceased physically, it also aids an important part of the grieving process for their families mentally - helping to make the funeral and viewing process as healing as possible for the family .

Tobin Brothers Funerals embalmer of more than 18 years, Jennifer Burge, attended the expo with me to answer any questions about her role and the process of embalming.

She describes embalming as ‘a vocation, not a job’ and she was happy to discuss the procedure with event attendees, and show some of the medical tools she uses in her procedures.

Embalming is an invasive medical procedure that requires two years of study and experience to receive a Certificate IV in Embalming. Tobin Brothers Funerals is the largest registered training organisation for this profession in Australia (FIDA). For more information visit: http://www.fida.com.au

Visit our website for more information about our Free Education Sessions for Healthcare Professionals.

“Through attending the ACN Nursing and Health Expo, we are placing Tobin Brothers Funerals into the healthcare system where it belongs.”

Samantha Rennie - Community Education Manager, Tobin Brothers Funerals