Yvee Thomas

Yvee has been in nursing and primary health care since 1994. She has recently returned to New Zealand after spending eight years living in Australia where she worked in remote areas with indigenous communities. She has worked in managerial and clinical leadership roles and has a strong focus on womens’ health, sexual health and interest in wound care. During her time in Australia she spent four years working in a male prison in North Queensland, some of this time as a Clinical Nurse specialist.

Yvee began working at Oamaru Hospital in October 2018 and began her role as Director of Nursing and Operations in January 2019. Yvee brings a broad background in nursing to her role and is passionate about nursing and nurses sharing their knowledge with others. She believes in the statement; ‘what we walk past today is what we accept tomorrow’.

She loves the culture and diversity nurses get working in rural hospitals and rural nursing. She believes that in today’s world, we need to be mindful as we walk through our day-to-day and not accept poor standards or negative behaviour, but support and share with each other to encourage positive change at Oamaru hospital.

As Director of Nursing and Operations, Yvee is passionate about enabling the nursing staff to upskill and share their knowledge in a positive way. Her goal is to have a strong team providing excellent patient care and have everyone working collaboratively as a team to achieve this.