On Friday 1 May we acknowledge the incredible contribution of our administrative professionals across NSW Health Pathology. From reception to rostering and support services – their work matters and we appreciate all that they do!

Our admin­is­tra­tion super­stars are the peo­ple who keep our col­lec­tion cen­tres, lab­o­ra­to­ries, call cen­tres and cor­po­rate and clin­i­cal oper­a­tions run­ning smooth­ly every day, often work­ing behind the scenes!

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy Chief Exec­u­tive Vanes­sa Janis­sen thanked all admin­is­tra­tive staff across the state for their hard work.

“Our admin pro­fes­sion­als make a real dif­fer­ence every day,” Vanes­sa said.

“The work they do undoubt­ed­ly plays a large role in help­ing NSW Health Pathol­o­gy deliv­er high qual­i­ty patient care and I hope they know their hard work nev­er goes unnoticed.”

We spoke to some of our admin super­stars – Lisa, Les­ley, Clare, Shireen, Joan, Meli­ta, Vir­ginia and Katie – about the impact their work has on our patients and the valu­able con­tri­bu­tion they make to patient care.

A spe­cial con­grat­u­la­tions to Les­ley, Clare and Lisa on their incred­i­ble years of ser­vice and wish them all the best as they pre­pare to retire in the com­ing weeks!

Les­ley has an amaz­ing 48 years of ser­vice, Clare has 30 years of ser­vice and Lisa has 27.5 years of ser­vice– an out­stand­ing achieve­ment for which we are huge­ly grateful!

Meet Lesley Maclaren, Administration Officer, Gosford Anatomical Pathology (recently retired)

How long have you worked for NSW Health Pathology?
48 years! I have worked for NSW Health Pathol­o­gy since 1 Sep­tem­ber 1978, I was only out of school for 11 months. I start­ed as a trainee blood col­lec­tor, lab aide and cler­i­cal assis­tant, doing mul­ti­ple jobs which kept my work­day very inter­est­ing! In 1992 I moved to Gos­ford and worked in blood collection/specimen recep­tion until around 1994 when I moved to Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy (AP) as a typ­ist at Roy­al Prince Alfred Hos­pi­tal for nine months. I was also sec­ond­ed to Con­cord when two of their three sec­re­taries retired. I lat­er moved there per­ma­nent­ly, hav­ing bought a home in Gos­ford.  Then I got a call out of the blue in 2010, telling me there was a job for me at Gos­ford AP, where I worked until I retired recently.

What are some of your career highlights?
All of my work­ing life has been reward­ing and very inter­est­ing so it’s hard to select a sin­gle high­light over my career in pathol­o­gy. My begin­ning in pathol­o­gy is strange, I went for an inter­view for a trainee­ship, and was suc­cess­ful with two oth­ers, I was lucky to be giv­en pathol­o­gy. My boss at the time Mr Mayes, asked me if I knew what pathol­o­gy was, I said no, and he said to me “walk this way” and a very inter­est­ing walk it has been ever since!

What are your plans for your retirement?
My retire­ment plans are trav­el­ling around Aus­tralia, it’s such an amaz­ing coun­try, basi­cal­ly camp­ing and vis­it­ing retired friends who have moved all up and down the east coast, also vis­it­ing friends in the Aus­tralian outback.

Meet Clare West, Senior Human Resources Consultant, based at our Westmead Laboratory

How long have you worked at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy?  I began my career in Novem­ber 1996 in the Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy Depart­ment at West­mead Hos­pi­tal, work­ing as a Histopathol­o­gy Typ­ist. In Decem­ber 1999, I trans­ferred to Nepean Hos­pi­tal, where I ini­tial­ly worked as Sec­re­tary to pathol­o­gists Prof Roger Wil­son, and lat­er to Prof James Bran­ley. I hold many fond mem­o­ries of this time and the fan­tas­tic peo­ple I worked with.  In June 2020, I made a sig­nif­i­cant and some­what daunt­ing career change, join­ing the Metro North West Human Resources (HR) team. While step­ping into HR was a big and scary shift, it proved to be exact­ly the change I need­ed and has been an incred­i­bly reward­ing expe­ri­ence pro­vid­ing me an oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with more fan­tas­tic peo­ple. My enjoy­ment of work­ing with­in pathol­o­gy ser­vices goes right back to my ear­ly career with Queens­land Pathol­o­gy in Townsville. I have always loved work­ing with pathol­o­gy staff and deeply val­ue the vital con­tri­bu­tion we make to health­care and the community.

What are some of your career high­lights? One of the most reward­ing aspects of my career in pathol­o­gy has been gain­ing a true under­stand­ing of the immense con­tri­bu­tion our ser­vice makes to patient care and the broad­er com­mu­ni­ty. Pathol­o­gy staff are often under­val­ued and work large­ly behind the scenes, yet their role is absolute­ly crit­i­cal to the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of patients. Pathol­o­gy staff are often under­val­ued and work large­ly behind the scenes, yet their role is absolute­ly crit­i­cal to the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of patients.

What inspired you to pur­sue a career in pathol­o­gy? While work­ing as a casu­al med­ical typ­ist at Townsville Hos­pi­tal, I was for­tu­nate to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to back­fill a pathol­o­gy sec­re­tary role. From that moment, I fell in love with the “pathol­o­gy vibe” and knew this was where I want­ed to build my career.

What are you look­ing for­ward to in retire­ment? As I look ahead to retire­ment, I am most excit­ed about spend­ing more time with my elder­ly par­ents and parents‑in‑law, and wel­com­ing my first grand­child, who is on the way. I’m also look­ing for­ward to spend­ing more time on myself and doing more quilt­ing, per­haps get­ting a dog, enjoy­ing sleep‑ins, and tak­ing the free­dom to do what­ev­er I feel like each day!

Meet Lisa McElligott, Executive Assistant to Nepean Local Pathology Director, Prof James Branley

How long have you worked for NSW Health Pathology?
I start­ed on 2 Novem­ber 1998 – which means I’ve been here for 27.5 years! I’ve been the Exec­u­tive Assis­tant to A/Prof James Bran­ley for the past five years, man­ag­ing a busy diary, solv­ing prob­lems as they arise and keep­ing things run­ning smooth­ly behind the scenes. A big part of my role is build­ing strong work­ing rela­tion­ships with the pathol­o­gists, Senior Med­ical Offi­cers and lab man­agers, which I real­ly val­ue. Pri­or to this, I spent 22 years as an AP typ­ist, where I tran­scribed dic­tat­ed reports and pro­vid­ing essen­tial sup­port to the team, includ­ing trou­bleshoot­ing day-to-day issues.

What are some of your career highlights?
In my pre­vi­ous role as an AP typ­ist, I found it very reward­ing know­ing that my work con­tributed to accu­rate and time­ly patient results. I’ve always tak­en pride in being effi­cient and pro­duc­ing high-qual­i­ty work. In my cur­rent role as an Exec­u­tive Assis­tant, my focus is on sup­port­ing A/Prof Bran­ley in his day-to-day respon­si­bil­i­ties, along with the broad­er needs of the pathol­o­gists. While the focus has shift­ed, I bring the same effi­cien­cy, knowl­edge and atten­tion to detail to every­thing I do. I’ve always approached my work with a strong sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty and of doing what’s required to the best of my ability.

What inspired you to pur­sue a career in pathology?
I didn’t orig­i­nal­ly choose pathol­o­gy as a career path- it was more that an admin­is­tra­tive posi­tion became avail­able at a pri­vate pathol­o­gy provider in Emu Plains, close to home, and it suit­ed my cir­cum­stances at the time. How­ev­er, once I was work­ing there, I began to under­stand the impor­tance of pathol­o­gy in health­care and devel­oped an inter­est in the field. After about four years, I was look­ing for a more secure role and saw an AP typ­ist posi­tion adver­tised at Nepean Pathol­o­gy in the local paper. I applied, was suc­cess­ful, and that’s how my longer-term career in pathol­o­gy real­ly began.

What are you look­ing for­ward to in retirement?
Retire­ment feels like the begin­ning of a new and spe­cial chap­ter. After 41 years, it will be a lit­tle bit­ter­sweet to leave my home, as it holds so many mem­o­ries. I’m mov­ing to Lake Cathie, where I’ll be close to both the lake and the ocean, and I’m real­ly look­ing for­ward to the peace and sim­plic­i­ty of that lifestyle. I’m espe­cial­ly excit­ed to spend more time with my chil­dren, my grand­chil­dren, and extend­ed fam­i­ly. I’m hop­ing to enjoy the lit­tle things – qui­et beach walks, fresh air, and a slow­er pace. I’m look­ing for­ward to the change and what’s ahead.

Meet Joan Blight, Administration Manager, Genetics, Prince of Wales Randwick

How long have you been work­ing for NSW Health?
I com­menced my career with NSW Health in 1995 at Prince of Wales Hos­pi­tal in Med­ical Imag­ing as a Med­ical Typ­ist. I’ve been the Admin­is­tra­tion Man­ag­er for Genet­ics at Rand­wick since Feb­ru­ary 2023, play­ing a key role in keep­ing the ser­vice run­ning smooth­ly behind the scenes. When I first joined, I was seek­ing a part-time role that would allow me to bal­ance work with rais­ing my young fam­i­ly, and this was per­fect. As an admin­is­tra­tive all-rounder I sup­port­ed med­ical report tran­scrip­tion, patient book­ings, pre­pared x‑ray clin­ic lists and front office operations.

In 2002, I worked with the Direc­tor of Med­ical Imag­ing, fur­ther devel­op­ing my admin­is­tra­tive and office man­age­ment skills. In 2008, I bal­anced my hos­pi­tal role with study­ing Small Busi­ness Man­age­ment while also sup­port­ing the estab­lish­ment and oper­a­tion of a fam­i­ly tim­ber and build­ing sup­plies busi­ness, which I lat­er man­aged full-time from 2012.

After return­ing to NSW Health in 2019 in Child and Fam­i­ly Health, I tran­si­tioned into a full-time role in the Eye Clin­ic and com­plet­ed an eight-month sec­ond­ment in Social Work. I com­menced my cur­rent role in Genet­ics in Feb­ru­ary 2023.

What are some of your career highlights?
Work­ing close­ly with the Lab Man­ag­er and the broad­er Genet­ics team, I thrive in a fast‑paced envi­ron­ment where no two days are the same. From organ­is­ing and coor­di­nat­ing day‑to‑day oper­a­tions to sup­port­ing staff and clin­i­cians, it’s my job to make sure every­thing stays on track. What I love most is the peo­ple. The Genet­ics team is incred­i­bly sup­port­ive and friend­ly, and that makes it a great place to work. I enjoy organ­is­ing, coor­di­nat­ing, and help­ing things run smoothly—while always learn­ing some­thing new along the way

How does your work help us deliv­er excep­tion­al care to the community?
To me, care is being reli­able, pay­ing atten­tion to detail, and sup­port­ing oth­ers. When every­thing runs smooth­ly, it helps the team do their best work and cre­ates a pos­i­tive, respect­ful envi­ron­ment. It’s also about the details, the kind that make a big dif­fer­ence to how a ser­vice runs.

Meet Virginia Keeley, Executive Assistant, Director of Finance & Corporate Services

How long have you worked at NSW Health Pathology?
Six years.

How does your work help us deliv­ery excep­tion­al care to the community?
I’ve loved being in a sup­port role to the Finance & Cor­po­rate Ser­vices Port­fo­lio over the past 6 years. This includes Cor­po­rate Finance, Rev­enue and our Com­mer­cial Teams. I receive requests for help on a wide vari­ety of top­ics. No two days are the same, which makes it an end­less­ly inter­est­ing job.

The team is focussed on ensur­ing that we main­tain a finan­cial­ly effi­cient approach to deliv­er­ing our ser­vices, and when­ev­er I am in a meet­ing (usu­al­ly doing the min­utes and actions), I know that our patients and their best inter­ests are gen­uine­ly present in the room, from the deci­sions being made.

I help deliv­er excep­tion­al care to the com­mu­ni­ty by tak­ing care of all the behind-the-scenes admin­is­tra­tive tasks and sec­re­tari­at sup­port that absolute­ly needs to be done but would take time away from the staff in my team mak­ing impor­tant deci­sions on behalf of our com­mu­ni­ty of patients (and the employ­ees of NSW Health Pathology).

Meet Melita Rowland, Executive Assistant, Newcastle Corporate Office

How long have you worked at NSW Health Pathology?
I’ve been with NSW Health Pathol­o­gy for 22.5 years, but who’s counting?!

How does your work help us deliv­er excep­tion­al care to the community?
My role is about sup­port­ing our lead­ers and teams so they can focus on what real­ly mat­ters. I love work­ing with peo­ple at all lev­els of the organ­i­sa­tion from ‘lab land’ to the cor­po­rate office.

If I can make life a lit­tle eas­i­er behind the scenes, I know I’m help­ing sup­port the essen­tial care we pro­vide to patients and the com­mu­ni­ty. I enjoy the vari­ety that comes with work­ing for Australia’s largest pub­lic pathol­o­gy ser­vice – it keeps my job interesting!

Meet Katie Adams, Executive Assistant, Northern Sydney and Central Coast Operations

How long have you worked at NSW Health Pathology?
I’ve worked at NSW Health for 10 years in Exec­u­tive Assis­tant and admin­is­tra­tion roles.

What do you love about your work?
I love to organ­ise train­ing and study appli­ca­tions for the Staff Spe­cial­ists, allow­ing them to access study and train­ing opportunities.

When you hear the word ‘care’ in our work, what comes to mind for you?
Care is about recog­nis­ing that even behind the scenes work has a direct impact on patients, and approach­ing every task with pro­fes­sion­al­ism, and con­sid­er­a­tion for the some­times vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple who rely on us. I real­ly enjoy sup­port­ing doc­tors by man­ag­ing admin­is­tra­tive tasks, allow­ing them to focus on deliv­er­ing the best pos­si­ble patient care.

Meet Shireen Hitchen, Administration Officer at Orange Laboratory

How long have you worked at NSW Health Pathology?
I’ve worked with NSW Health Pathol­o­gy for 29 years!

What do you love about your work?
I have always enjoyed work­ing in NSW Health Pathol­o­gy and take immense pride in being part of the NSW Health Pathol­o­gy net­work. I find the patient care pathol­o­gy strives to achieve dai­ly is very rewarding.

How does your work help us deliv­er excep­tion­al care to the community?
My role involves a range of tasks from data entry to answer­ing enquiries from patients and clin­i­cians, results deliv­ery, fil­ing, rev­enue and audit­ing. As the test­ing is becom­ing more com­plex, keep­ing up to date can be very chal­leng­ing but also sat­is­fy­ing. I feel like I am a very small part of a big­ger pic­ture mak­ing a difference.

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