Clinical Midwife Specialist Jennifer (Jen) Hocking was awarded the prestigious Irving Buzzard Midwifery Prize on Tuesday night at the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation annual general meeting.
Jen, who has been at the Women’s for more than a decade, said she was humbled to receive the Prize.
“I absolutely love being a midwife,” Jen said. “I feel very humble to have been honoured in this way for doing what I love.”
Maternity Team Leader Maree Dell nominated her colleague for the Prize and said it was because of her professionalism as a midwife.
“During the last two years Jen has completed her Masters in Midwifery and it is the way that she approaches her work; her clear thinking that really makes Jen a shining light within the Yellow Team.”
Jen is now moving on to start her PhD at La Trobe University where, for the next four years, she will be researching the role of the lactation consultant.
Jen said she will miss the clinical side of things and said it was very difficult to walk away from a hospital such as the Women’s.
“Breastfeeding is my passion,” she said. “To be able to spend the next four years researching that is such a wonderful opportunity.”
Jen has come full circle. She completed her midwifery training at the Women's through La Trobe University in 1996 and came back to work at the Women’s in 2003 after having her two children.
Although Jen is not the first midwife from the Women’s to be awarded the Irving Buzzard Prize, Tanya Farrell, the Executive Director, Nursing and Midwifery at the Women’s, said it was a terrific honour for Jen and for the Women’s.
It is a pre-eminent Australian midwifery award acknowledging clinical and theoretical excellence in Midwifery named in honour of Dr Irving Buzzard who started his medical training in 1913 at Melbourne University and helped to promote midwifery and assist hospitals to recruit and retain suitably qualified midwives.