Alumni and Supporters

Bachelor of Nursing (2006)
Master of Clinical Nursing (2016)
Master of Nursing (Nurse Practitioner) (2022)

They say being a nurse is not what you do, it’s what you are.

That is certainly the case for ECU graduate Lucy Stopher, who has worked her way through three degrees while simultaneously dedicating her career to caring for other people.

“I really find it rewarding looking after patients both in and out of hospital and being able to provide them with a better experience throughout their healthcare journey,” Lucy explains. “And I really enjoy being able to have them get better and feel like I've made a difference in their healthcare.”

Lucy counts herself lucky to have been able to experience a wide range of specialties early on in her career, which set her on the path to where she is today – a Nurse Practitioner in Vascular Surgery with North Metropolitan Health Service.

“I worked through orthopaedics, mental health, cardiovascular medicine and vascular surgery, all within my first two years of working as a nurse,” Lucy explains. “Over the years I developed an affinity with vascular surgery and the patients that present with vascular problems, and I developed a love of helping those patients through their journey.”

While medical professionals encounter tough situations on a daily basis, one particular experience stands out to Lucy, confirming how she had a made a difference in a patient’s life who was faced with losing their leg.

“Over my journey, I've gotten to be able to follow patients from being in a really catastrophic moment in their life,” Lucy recalls. “This particular patient was confronted with this when he developed an ischemic leg and I got to look after him right at that beginning moment when he was really struggling with what he was facing, and follow him through the course of many, many months.

“When he had finally healed and kept his foot, he sent me an email saying that I was his special angel, thanking me for all the care and support I'd provided him - both medical nursing support as well as emotional support over the past 18 months - getting him to heal and getting him back playing golf.”

Lucy says nurse practitioners provide holistic, autonomous care for their patient, and feels the profession will grow, easing the burden on the medical system as a more collaborative approach to patient care.

“Nurse practitioners can assess, diagnose and treat patients with many medical conditions. They consider the whole patient, not just the medical condition you're currently treating.

“I think nurse practitioner roles are integral across health provision throughout WA. Nurse practitioners can add great value to all patients’ care by improving their best practice medical care, whilst also providing that unique connection with patients and their family members that will help improve their access to care and help improve their outcomes.

“I believe that as time moves forward, we will be able to improve placement of nurse practitioners where they are really needed most, to decrease the wait times for health care to be provided to patients and to improve how patients are treated.”

All three of Lucy’s degrees were through ECU, crediting the world-class teaching facilities, hands-on experience and support from staff as to why she keeps returning.

“I keep coming back to ECU because I've had a really positive experience throughout all of my degrees here,” she says. “I met multiple instructors and assessors through ECU that have a wealth of knowledge in their fields and were able to really impart on me all of their advice on how to manage so many different conditions.

“I feel that ECU has really supported me through all of these journeys.”

With all of her learnings and experience, Lucy herself is now well-placed to offer advice to fellow nurses starting out on their own career path.

“Find something you're passionate about and embrace it,” she says. “Learn everything you can about whatever part of medical nursing care you're passionate about and then work on how you can improve your knowledge and your skills in that area.

“Extending into an advanced practice nursing role and then stepping up to nurse practitioner has been the most rewarding moment of my career.

“I have felt so honoured to have been so appreciated, supported and respected by my colleagues and my patients. And being able to provide this level of advanced practice care has really given me a great amount of enjoyment in my work and in my everyday life.”