Allied health grads join Townsville HHS team

The ranks of allied health professionals at the Townsville Hospital and Health Service will swell by 23 today with a new batch of graduates taking their first steps in their chosen career.

This year’s intake brings a range of skills bolstering the hospital’s physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, medical imaging, dietetics, psychology and speech pathology workforce.

Among the new graduates is speech pathologist Brittany Vella who is looking forward to honing her clinical practice after excelling as a student at James Cook University in Townsville.

Ms Vella was awarded the JCU medal for outstanding academic achievement where she received the top mark for her honours project as well as an overall GPA of above 6.5.

“When I started out I always saw myself working in the public health system in Queensland but I really didn’t expect it to be my first job,” she said.

“It is really exciting to get started and I’m really looking forward to putting into practice the clinical skills I’ve studied a long time to get.”

Ms Vella will begin her career doing a six-month rotation in the paediatric speech and language clinic.

The role helps children with developmental difficulties aged up to six-years-old develop a treatment plan to improve their speech.

Ms Vella said her passion in life was performance having been in rock eisteddfods, musicals and is a member of the Townsville Choral Society.

“Being able to communicate effectively is something that many of us take for granted and can be hugely distressing to not be able to do,” she said.

“For me this job is a perfect pairing of my love of the arts and my desire to work in the healthcare sector.”

Executive Director allied health Danielle Hornsby said this year’s intake would provide a valuable boost for the care provided to the community.

“It is such a wonderful time of year to have this great injection of young clinicians ready to start their careers with us,” she said.

“They bring such a wonderful enthusiasm and passion to our workforce and we are blessed with some world-class allied health practitioners who will take them under their wings and help continue their development.”

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