Deserved recognition: Bamaga clinical nurse consultant Shirley Kusu (centre) is presented with her award for diabetes education by TCHHS director of Nursing Northern Primary Health Care Bernie Feenan and TCHHS director of Primary Health Care Programs Maleta Abednego. Photo: TCHHS.
A Bamaga nurse diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes early in her studies has been awarded for her educational work in the chronic disease.
Shirley Kusu was named Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander Credentialled Diabetes Educator of the Year at an annual diabetes national conference.
She received the award during the recent Australasian Diabetes Congress on the Gold Coast.
Ms Kusu, a clinical nurse consultant and credentialled diabetes educator, works in a small team of health professionals supporting about 400 people living with diabetes across the Northern Peninsula area.
Originally from Thursday Island, Ms Kusu has been working at Bamaga Primary Health Care Centre for the past five years.
She said her role in helping to improve the quality of her people’s lives made her proud.
“When I started the additional training to become a diabetes educator, it was because I wanted to learn how to manage my own diagnosis better,” Ms Kusu said. “It’s such a life-changing and scary diagnosis; it turns your life upside down and managing it is a full-time job.
“I can speak to patients from personal experience. When engaging with them, I can empathise with them because a lot of my clients just need the right tools to self-manage. They want understanding.
“I’m able to tell someone who has just been diagnosed that I know exactly what they’re going through.”
Ms Kusu enjoys attending as many educational events as possible to ensure “I have all the latest information and tools to provide my clients to help manage their diabetes”.
Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS) executive general manager North, Marita Sagigi, said Ms Kusu was well deserving of her award.
“As a health service our primary focus is around closing the gap in terms of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health,” she said.
“To have someone with such a direct link to the patients she treats is such a unique and amazing benefit for the communities where she works.
“Shirley and her team work tirelessly to support their patients and improve their health outcomes.”
She described Ms Kusu as “an invaluable educational asset to her colleagues given her dedication to expanding her own knowledge of this disease”.
“I congratulate Shirley on this incredibly well-deserved award.”
While many Type 1 diagnoses occur during childhood, it can strike at any time of life.
Type 2 diabetes, which can increase the risk of serious health problems including heart attacks, kidney failure and blindness if left untreated, is quite prevalent in the First Nations population.
