APC Staff Stories

My prosthetic career started when I decided to find a job in the school holidays to purchase a new surfboard. I took a job as a trainee woodworker at Appliance Limb Centre shaping and sanding the old wooden legs. After 6 weeks in the job, I decided to leave school and go to college to pursue a career in prosthetics.

Back when I started, there was no university course, but rather an apprenticeship or traineeship where you undertake practical experience working in a business 3 days a week, and attend college 2 days a week to learn theory. I have what you call a “Limb Makers Degree”.

From my experience, it takes at least 5 years for a prosthetist to become competent and confident in creating high quality prostheses. Prosthetics isn’t about replacing parts but rather the skill developed over many years. No individual is the same and therefore their prosthesis has to be made especially for them, so it takes a lot of time and experience.

What I find most rewarding working at APC is the company we built and the people in the company. Although we have grown tremendously since we first started in 1998, we are still a family practice. I am proud to let people grow in the business as I believe it is important to allow our staff to utilise their skills to define their own roles and contribute to the success of APC. At APC we employ people based on the person rather than their skill set; we can train people, but we can’t train people to be good people. My focus is to mentor our new graduates, it has energised me to see them learn and feel confident. I want to see the next generation of APC prosthetists trained to be highly skilled delivering high quality products. I will train them as my mentor trained me, so that APC goes on delivering the best outcomes for our clients.

I started working at APC as one of the first employees. After graduating La Trobe University in Melbourne, I chose to complete my final clinical placement at APC as I was passionate about learning sports prosthetics and wanted to learn from David Howells, who at the time was doing all the work with Paralympic athletes and is a pioneer in the field.  I worked as a technician in the first 2 years of my professional career before taking my first cast. The early days at APC wasn’t what everyone expected; between the 5 staff, we were the receptionists, cleaners, technicians and prosthetists. It was a small and very tight knit team where we would often work weekends, do long hours, then stay back and have a beer with each other afterwards. It was a real family vibe. We worked really hard to get the best outcomes for clients, and that is the core value that’s continued through the years.

I am motivated from the people we treat, I come back to work every day to help them because they need it. They may first arrive in a wheelchair but my job is to help them get out of here, not in a wheelchair, but to walk out of here. That’s a big driver for me, the pleasure you get when helping someone either get back on their feet or get back on their lost limb, whether it be an arm or leg.

APC as a company is built solely on its people, and it’s nothing without good people, great people skills, and how they interact with other people. By creating the family environment, looking after their staff, whether it be providing lunch or sending us to conferences for professional development, this isn’t taken for granted. You feel you owe it to them to give back and give the respect back to the company, or to the clients.

I’ve spent a lot of time working in the Paralympic Games and personally the 2000 Sydney Game was the start of it all for me. It’s been great to be associated with the Paralympic committee and being a part of making the best possible prosthesis you can for our athletes; aligning them the best possible way you can, and using the best possible technology to give them their best chances. We’ve seen some pretty amazing results from the Paralympic team that come to APC and to see people like that break records on that extreme level was very encouraging. We always learn that their technology filters down to your everyday clients as well.

I’ve also enjoyed working with children. I’ve seen very inspirational kids come through, with all sorts of difficulties coming up against them, but they’re kids and it’s amazing to see how they get on with it and do incredible things. They are an inspiration to everybody that works with them, but also to our older patients who may be struggling with what they’ve got to deal with.

I started in July 2000 and worked at Kleins Rd for the first 8 years before moving to the new facility on Redbank Rd. I enjoyed working at Kleins Rd; it was a very tiny, intimate office especially with the patients who would love to sit and chat because we had formed close relationships. I started as the only receptionist, doing data entry work and arranging client appointments. We would have lunch provided for us and would all snuggle into the tiny kitchen together everyday for lunch.

The company was growing so big we had to expand to Redbank Rd in 2008. Over the years I’ve seen lots of changes, including changes in prosthetic components, but in particular the number of staff. It’s always been a very happy and vibrant place with everyone having a positive attitude and great team camaraderie, which is why we tend to see a lot of staff stay long term.

I’ve also seen some funny things in the office over the years. One that always sticks with me is the story about Erwin, always the prankster, who tricked me into thinking he got into a fight with Harvey. One day Erwin came to me with blood covered all over his shirt and singlet and told me that Harvey had been punching him. I only had just been working there a little while, so I thought, “They might break up and my job will be gone!” It wasn’t until I heard the real story about a bike falling on him earlier from a prank gone wrong. Probably serves him right! I also recall Erwin being very unhelpful when it came to someone being injured. If anyone got hurt or injured he would run out the door straight away and wouldn’t stay around for any problems. I fell over once, and he was gone and left me on the floor!

I started at APC in 2006 working as a receptionist 1 day a week, which was the day Jane, our other receptionist, didn’t work. As the work became busier, it progressed to 2 days and when moving to the new building in Redbank it progressed to 4 days a week. At Kleins Rd it was a tiny and new facility, and also my first job getting back into the workforce after having kids. It was tricky at first because I was only doing 1 day a week and had to remember everything I’d learnt the week before! Over the years I have grown a lot in my receptionist role, and had even gotten the opportunity to be involved in setting up the new APC website.

At APC we were one family and that was what Harvey, Richard, David, and Erwin, the founders of APC, always stressed on. We were family and they looked after us when we needed it. I’ve found the good thing about working in this environment with people going through difficulties, is that when you are having a tough day personally, whatever it may be, you come to work and see other people’s situations that are more change for life than what you’re going through. It gives you a reality check and it makes you realise that whatever you are upset or worried about, you can’t let that bring you down.

APC has a great relationship with their clients. Clients come in and they all know our names. I believe it is important to treat people the way you’d like to be treated yourself. I’ve met a lot of fantastic people over the years, though we have lost a few clients along the way. We see clients who started at APC as toddlers crawling around the floor and have now grown up to become teenagers. An example is our client Harry Clist who is now 14 years old. Harry is the reason why we started our annual Bandaged Bear Breakfast, which started off as a fundraiser to support him. It’s wonderful to see Harry now grown up and doing chair rugby. I have also become friends with our other clients. One of our clients, Peter Murphy, owns a Harley and took me on a ride one day. He is the reason why I now own one too!

Some of the best memories were at Kleins Rd. We would have a long bench in the kitchen with 12 people sitting around, packed and cramped like sardines, and we would have some great food adventures. Our former colleague Carol used to make homemade soup and share it around or we’d make pikelets on pancake day, it was always fun. Every Friday we would have a small BBQ consisting of a couple sausage sizzles, a chicken stick and a bread roll. When we moved to Redbank Rd it got too busy for Friday BBQs. David Howells used to duck out and get fish and chips, so when we started picking up that he was doing this, we’d con David to get a couple potato scallops for some of us. When everyone else got wind of it we would then take everyone’s lunch order from the fish and chips shop. This started what is now known as “Fat Shop Friday”.

Every year we would always organise Kris Kringle for Christmas where we would sit around a little table with everyone’s present in hand. I will always remember my first year celebrating Christmas, my Secret Santa (Harvey) gifted me a child’s costume rainbow butterfly wing, and a bright blue hair wig with plaits. What I found out quickly was that if you were given something you could wear, you had to wear it in front of everyone! Christmas parties was my highlight of the year because we got to go somewhere special in town, and everyone would have a good time.

At APC we push the limits in what we provide and we like to learn as we go. We are at the forefront of our socket designs, there wouldn’t be many places in Australia that are making subischial sockets for transfemoral amputees, or bikini hip sockets. Our future at APC is to keep innovative. If something is new out there, we jump on board with it, allowing growth for both clients and staff.

It’s good to see staff get involved and grow as individuals in their skill levels, not to just provide their skills in prosthetic prosthesis, but they might take on a role tutoring students, or develop into a senior role helping a new employee, or perhaps take hold of their own clinic for the first time. Whatever it may be, it’s really nice to see the staff grow in themselves and we try to provide them with the opportunities to help them do so. That’s the part of the job I like, being able to assist in people’s development and showing them what potential they have. If everybody takes the best bits, we get better and better.

It’s rewarding going out to clinics and seeing the amount of people at the clinics we attend grow and grow. This says something about our service delivery. We’ve had lots of fun along the way, including driving through floods and fires to get to clinics. A great memory was about 4 years ago when Wingham Hospital was flooded out so we couldn’t reach our clients. We decided to create an impromptu clinic at a car park in a golf club just to make it happen because we knew our clients had travelled a long way to get to us.

One of our great successes is the establishment of an APC clinic in Port Macquarie which was derived from having a lot of clientele coming from the north coast, and we believed it would help with our service if we opened up a clinic closer to them. It’s a 2-day clinic and we travel up and stay overnight. We see clients in the afternoon on the first day and morning on the second day. APC now has 3 branches and we collaborate freely and share experiences. There’s a lot going on with the NDIS, and it’s been great to share our experiences and learn from one another to navigate the NDIS system that little bit easier. The NDIS outcomes for clients has been amazing, for example people are now having access to water limbs so they can travel and shower without carrying water chairs. They can go to the beach or get access to a foot that allows them to walk up hills easier. The NDIS has enabled us to provide better technology than the previous system, so we’ve had better outcomes for clients.

I’ve been in the prosthetics industry for over 25 years and I’ve seen lots of changes over this time. Back in the day we used to make wooden legs with basic componentry as opposed to what we are producing now, which are high tech carbon fibre computer-controlled prosthesis. What has been really interesting in the last few years is the way people use their prosthesis. For upper limb amputees, grip patterns are now easier to change, allowing them to type easier, hold keys to open doors, hold plates, and so much more. For lower limb amputees, the use of an app on a phone allows users to change from walking mode to push bike mode so that the knee swings freely. The control systems are getting easier to use and best suit lifestyles – that’s where the advancements will be.

I initially completed my clinical placement at APC Hunter in 2009 and spent some time with Ron Wright and Ian Robertson as part of my university course. I then moved to Sydney to start working at Westmead Children’s Hospital in Orthotics before starting at APC Northmead in 2010. There, I spent 3.5 years attending Liverpool Hospital with Stefan, David and Richard. I enjoyed the diversity of client load in Sydney as well as the joking nature of the workshop. In 2014 I moved back to Newcastle to take up a position at APC Hunter, where I am now working more offsite to see clients. I like this part of the job as you are required to think more on your feet with limited tools, limited components, and therefore having to be a little bit more inventive.

It’s rewarding to see clients being able to do more and more with access to better componentry. Clients are able to run more, access pools and beaches with their water proof legs, and do other activities that previously their prosthesis was unable to keep up with. It’s always great to see clients come back and have a positive outcome, and then wanting to do more. It challenges us to try and find different ways to get them to achieve more goals.

What I love about my job is the patient interaction. I enjoy seeing clients get up for the first time and seeing them achieve their goals and hearing their life stories. Whether I’m with them for their first year, next 5 years, or 10 years, the relationship you build with people is very rewarding.

APC is very client driven and want to see the best outcomes for their clients. The culture and atmosphere at APC is also very open and relaxed whether you are chatting with management or with junior staff, everyone gets on well. Going to work doesn’t feel like a chore, you’re coming to work and enjoying your time here.