http://www.tasmaniavaccinesolutions.com.au/

Tasmania Vaccine Solutions, Launceston (2026)

10/03/2026

Bookings are now open.

Flu season is approaching, and many parents want to protect their kids early. But for children who hate needles, vaccination can be stressful.

This year we’re offering FluMist®, a gentle nasal spray flu vaccine for children aged 2–17 years, available at weekend clinics.

No injection.
No tears.
Just a quick spray in the nose and they’re done.

Tasmania Vaccine Solutions will be running community FluMist clinics across Tasmania, designed to make flu vaccination easier for families.

✔ Needle-free nasal spray
✔ Quick appointments
✔ Online consent and booking
✔ Nurse-led clinics

Bookings are now open for clinics in:
📍 Launceston
📍 Devonport
📍 Hobart

Additional clinics may be scheduled in other locations based on community demand and interest.

These clinics provide another option for families, particularly for children who dislike injections. FluMist has been widely used internationally in school vaccination programs.

Scan the QR code on the flyer to book.

Important:
Children under 5 may be eligible for free influenza vaccination through GPs or participating pharmacies under the National Immunisation Program. This clinic is a private service offering FluMist as an alternative option.

Feel free to share this with other families who might find it helpful.

—
Tasmania Vaccine Solutions
Local, nurse-led vaccination clinics

08/03/2026

Founder Story

This started with taking my dog to the vet.

While we were waiting, the vet asked what I did for work.

“I run workplace flu vaccination clinics,” I said.

He didn’t miss a beat.
“Could you vaccinate my team tomorrow?”

Simple question.

My answer wasn’t.

“I’d need to check with the mainland company I contract to.”

He looked at me, genuinely puzzled.
“Isn’t this your business?”

That was the moment.

I was the nurse turning up.
The one staff trusted.
The one accountable if something went wrong.

But the decisions didn’t sit with me.

They sat interstate with corporate teams, people with capital, and layers of approval who weren’t clinicians, weren’t immunisers, and weren’t the ones delivering the care.

I was the face of care without the authority to act.

Healthcare was being decided by people furthest from the patient, while the nurse at the bedside carried the risk.

That didn’t sit right.

So I stepped out of the middle and built something of my own.

I registered my own ABN.
Bought a vaccine fridge.
And took on the full responsibility for the work: clinically, ethically, and financially.

Tasmania Vaccine Solutions exists for one simple reason.

If you’re the one delivering the care, you should be the one making the call.

This is my founder story. And a reminder that nurses don’t need permission to lead.

(Oscar didn’t know it that day, but he sparked a movement.)

05/03/2026

🦸‍♀️ Healthcare Heroes Friday — The Story of Nurse Practitioners in Australia

Today’s hero isn’t one person.
It’s a profession that had to be imagined, argued for, piloted, and defended long before it was accepted.

The Nurse Practitioner role in Australia did not appear overnight. Its foundations were laid in the early 1990s, when a small but determined group of senior nurses recognised a growing gap in healthcare delivery particularly in rural, remote, emergency, and underserved settings.

In 1990, the first national Nurse Practitioner committee was formed, marking the beginning of formal advocacy for advanced nursing practice in Australia. This eventually led to the establishment of what is now the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners (ACNP) an organisation that would become central to shaping NP education, regulation, and legitimacy.

The 1990s were marked by pilot programs, intense scrutiny, and no shortage of scepticism. These early Nurse Practitioners were closely monitored, required to justify every decision, and often worked in environments where their role was misunderstood or resisted. But they persisted not for status, but because patients needed care that the existing system wasn’t reliably providing.

A pivotal moment came in December 2000, when Australia officially authorised its first Nurse Practitioners:

Sue Denison, working in rural and remote health

Jane O’Connell, working in emergency care

Their endorsement was more than symbolic. It proved that advanced nursing practice could be safe, effective, and essential.

In 2001, Olwyn Johnston became the first Nurse Practitioner authorised to practise in remote far-west New South Wales further cementing the NP role as a solution to geographic inequity in healthcare access.

What followed was not rapid acceptance, but steady, evidence-driven growth. Over the next two decades, Nurse Practitioners expanded into primary care, mental health, aged care, emergency departments, chronic disease management, and community-based services often where traditional models struggled to reach.

The story of Nurse Practitioners in Australia is ultimately a story about nursing leadership:

Nurses who saw gaps and refused to ignore them

Nurses who built governance, education, and accountability into their practice

Nurses who didn’t wait for permission to care but demanded the framework to do it safely and properly

Today, Nurse Practitioners are no longer a “new” idea but the work of explaining, defending, and expanding the role continues. And every NP practising now stands on the shoulders of those early pioneers and the advocacy of ACNP, who pushed forward when the path was anything but clear.

This is what nurse-led innovation looks like.
Quietly radical. Evidence-based. And here to stay.

03/03/2026

Business Wednesday: why Nurse Practitioner fits entrepreneurship (especially in Tasmania)

Entrepreneurs spot gaps and build something useful.
That mindset already exists in nursing especially here in Tasmania.

Nurse Practitioners are trained to work where systems are thin, stretched, or missing altogether.
We assess complexity, manage risk, and design solutions when there isn’t a neat pathway to follow.

That’s entrepreneurship just with clinical governance attached.

NP endorsement doesn’t suddenly make someone innovative.
It gives credibility, scope, and accountability to work many experienced nurses are already doing identifying gaps and building services that actually fit the community.

In the business world, you ask:
Where’s the gap?
Who’s being missed?
What would work here, not just on paper?

In advanced clinical practice, it’s the same thinking with higher stakes.

That’s why NP-led businesses make sense in Tasmania.

We don’t have the luxury of endless layers, duplication, or waiting for mainland models to fit.
We need practical, locally grounded solutions that work in real places, with real people.

I feel at home in the business community because the language is familiar:
problem-solving, responsibility, relationships, and outcomes.

NPs don’t just deliver care.
We build it, safely, ethically, and with the community in mind.

That’s not leaving nursing.
That’s nursing, evolved.

01/03/2026

Myth Busting Monday: Skill stacking isn’t random. It’s strategic.

For a long time, I didn’t have the financial or educational freedom to “level up” the way I wanted to.

Courses cost money. Time off costs money. Travel costs money.

When you’re a single parent and building something from scratch, you don’t casually add certificates for fun.

So this season feels different.

Huge thanks to The People Project for backing my growth. That support has allowed me to build capability in ways I simply couldn’t before.

This isn’t about collecting credentials.
It’s about building a toolkit.

So far this year:

• Suturing
• Micro ear suctioning
• Sexual health training with Family Planning NSW
• Four-day audiometry certification

Next on the list:

• Spirometry
• Blood borne virus management
• TB management
• Skin cancer training

Every one of these skills connects back to access. Rural access. Workplace access. Early detection. Preventative care.

If I’m serious about building a nurse-led mobile service that actually reduces barriers, then I need depth. I need range. I need competence.

Skill stacking means when someone presents with a problem, I don’t say, “You’ll need to book somewhere else.”

It means more can be done in one visit.
It means fewer gaps.
It means nurses expanding scope thoughtfully and safely.

24/02/2026

Being Backed to Do the Work

This week’s win isn’t flashy but it’s a big one.

I’ve been awarded a Primary Care Nursing and Midwifery Scholarship, which means my Nurse Practitioner training is 100% paid for.

That matters. A lot.

Not because it’s a personal milestone, but because this is what real workforce investment looks like. Removing financial barriers so clinicians can focus on building the skills that keep care local, accessible, and safe especially in primary and community settings.

This kind of backing allows me to put my energy where it belongs: developing advanced assessment and decision-making skills, growing into the responsibility of NP practice, and staying grounded in care that actually serves Tasmanian communities.

I’m grateful for programs like Primary Care Nursing and Midwifery Scholarship Program that understand the long game and for the ongoing support of Mission Health, where nurse-led care is genuinely valued.

This is a win for primary care.
A win for nurses.
And a win for Tasmania.

Onward.

22/02/2026

Why I nearly talked myself out of NP school

I’m a single parent.
Every decision I make has a cost, time, energy, money, or all three.

So when NP school came up, my first instinct wasn’t excitement.
It was caution.

I earn an okay wage.
I’ve done postgraduate study, but not a Masters.
And somewhere along the way, I absorbed the idea that academia was for a certain type of person, confident writers, natural academics, people with fewer responsibilities.

Not people like me.

I hate writing essays.
Give me an exam. Give me a patient. Give me a problem to solve.
But essays? They’ve always made me feel like I don’t quite belong in that world.

So I asked myself why I’d voluntarily make life harder.

Why not stay comfortable?

But here’s the thing about nursing.

If you stay long enough, you’re forced to make a decision about where your career goes next.

One path leads to management, desks, meetings, policies, KPIs, and pushing paper for systems that everyone knows are broken.

The other path stays clinical but without real authority to change what you’re seeing on the ground.

Nurse Practitioners sit in a different space.

They’re still clinicians.
But they’re also problem-solvers.

They get to plug gaps where services don’t exist.
They catch people who fall through the cracks.
They work with complexity, vulnerability, and real-world mess, not just flowcharts.

And that matters to me.

Real change doesn’t come from waiting for systems to change, it comes from doing things differently.

I want to shape healthcare in ways that actually help people especially those who don’t fit neatly into the system.

So instead of trying to squeeze myself into a table that was never built for nurses like me, I built my own in the community, not the boardroom.

And now I’m inviting others to sit with me.

NP school isn’t about fitting into academia.
It’s about changing who academia is built for.

19/02/2026

What scared me most this week.

It wasn’t the workload.
It wasn’t the reading list.
It was realising how much there still is to learn.

The shift from being experienced and comfortable
to deliberately stepping back into a learner space again.

Nurse Practitioner study isn’t just adding knowledge.
It’s learning to sit with uncertainty, slow down your thinking, and question what you thought you already knew.

That’s uncomfortable.

It means letting go of easy answers
and being willing to say, “I don’t know yet.”

This week reminded me that growth in healthcare isn’t about confidence alone.
It’s about humility, curiosity, and knowing when to ask better questions.

Feeling a bit unsettled isn’t a sign something’s wrong.
It’s usually a sign you’re paying attention.

So I’m taking this week as it comes
learning, listening, and staying open to what this role actually asks of you.

17/02/2026

BUSINESS WEDNESDAY

I drove to Hobart this week to meet some of the nurses joining the team… and it felt a bit full circle.

One of them I worked alongside at Blundstone Arena during the COVID vaccination days. Long shifts. Huge clinics. Controlled chaos at times. We just got on with it and got the job done.

Another nurse I went to nursing school with 20 years ago. Twenty. Years. We were babies with stethoscopes back then. Reconnecting now as experienced clinicians choosing to back something nurse-run feels pretty special.

These aren’t random hires.

These are nurses who’ve led mass clinics, worked large community rollouts, handled pressure, and understand what safe, efficient practice actually looks like.

It just reinforces what I’ve believed for a long time:

Nurse-run services should be run by nurses.

We understand governance because we live it.
We understand safety because we carry the responsibility.
And we know you can run an efficient clinic without cutting corners.

I’m genuinely excited to work alongside some legends this season.

15/02/2026

First Week of Nurse Practitioner School

Day one of Nurse Practitioner school and I won’t pretend this feels small.

It feels big. Heavy. Exciting. A little terrifying.

This step isn’t just about study or a new title. It’s about stepping into deeper responsibility, clinical, ethical, human and doing it in a way that actually serves Tasmania, not just ticks boxes.

Today feels especially significant because of the people beside me.

Having mentors like Jane, who has walked this path with integrity, courage, and an unwavering commitment to patients, makes this leap feel possible. Not easy but possible.

And standing alongside people like Emily, who represents what’s next for nurse-led care, is a reminder that this work isn’t theoretical. It’s real. It’s happening. And it matters.

I’m also incredibly grateful for the backing of Mission Health, a place that genuinely values nurses, community care, and doing things properly. Knowing I’m supported by a team that believes in nurse practitioners and nurse-led models gives this jump a solid landing zone.

Why does this matter for Tasmania?

Because Nurse Practitioners mean better access to care.
Because they help close gaps where services are thin.
Because skilled nurses staying local strengthens communities.

I’m stepping into something bigger than myself with a lot of gratitude, a healthy dose of nerves, and a very clear sense of why this work matters.

Here we go.

10/02/2026

Business Wednesday

Really grateful to have been part of Launceston Chamber of Commerce Members Connect, kicking off 2026 with such an important conversation.

When people hear psychosocial risk, it’s often talked about as an individual issue resilience, coping, wellbeing. My lived experience has shown me something different.

Across a career in public and private sectors, interstate and internationally, I’ve seen incredibly capable, committed people working in systems that quietly create harm. Not because people don’t care but because work is designed with constant demand, high responsibility, limited control, and inconsistent support.

In these environments, people are often expected to absorb pressure, frustration, and even abuse as “part of the job”. And when concerns are raised, how organisations respond really matters.

That’s where psychosocial risk actually lives in system design, workload, decision-making, and culture not in individual “fragility”.

It was a privilege to be part of an honest, practical discussion alongside Courtney from Safety Forward, focused on simple, effective changes leaders can make to better support their teams.

Psychosocial safety isn’t built through posters or mindfulness rooms alone.
It’s built through how work is structured, how pressure is managed, and how people are supported when things get tough.

Thanks to Alina Bain, Bianca Welsh, Naomi Walsh, and the Chamber team for creating space for real conversations, and to Telstra and St Lukes for their support.

A strong start to the year and an important reminder that safer systems create better outcomes for everyone.

09/02/2026

Flu Deaths Are Rising and Nurse-Led Solutions Matter

The latest national data is a timely reminder that influenza is not a mild illness for everyone.
In 2025, Australia recorded more than 750 flu-related deaths, with July marking the highest monthly toll in years.

That matters especially for the people we care for most.

What we’re seeing

Vaccination uptake has declined, particularly among adults

Older Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and those with chronic illness remain at highest risk

Access remains a barrier for many limited appointments, travel distance, time off work, or cost

Influenza outcomes are shaped as much by access as they are by awareness.

Where nurse-led programs come in

This is where nurse-led vaccination services play a critical role.

Across workplaces, community clinics, aged care settings, and mobile outreach, nurses are delivering vaccinations in ways that fit real life not just clinic schedules.

At Tasmania Vaccine Solutions, the focus is simple:

bring vaccination to where people already are

reduce friction and delay

support early, preventative care before flu season peaks

It’s flexible, practical, and grounded in public health principles and it works.

Why this matters in Tasmania

Tasmania’s geography and population profile mean access gaps are felt quickly, particularly in regional and rural communities.

When vaccination is harder to access, entire communities are left more vulnerable.
Bringing care to people rather than expecting people to navigate complex systems is one of the most effective ways to lift coverage and reduce preventable illness.

What helps

Booking vaccination early, before flu activity escalates

Encouraging workplaces and community groups to plan ahead

Supporting nurse-led programs that expand access

Sharing accurate information without alarm

Flu season returns every year.
Preparation doesn’t need to be complicated it just needs to be accessible.

Preventive care works best when it’s local, timely, and delivered by the right people, in the right places.

That’s what we’re focused on building.

Tasmania Vaccine Solutions

10/03/2026

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