Krishangi White is on a mission to improve retention of early career nurses and move towards a more efficient healthcare system. The Master of Healthcare Innovations graduate has just started her new role as an Entry to Practice Facilitator on the Gold Coast. She found her passion for healthcare in an unexpected place.
Krishangi has barely disconnected her last Triple Zero call when the line rings again in her headset. It's 2016 and she takes a deep breath before answering— ready to support someone through one of the most challenging moments of their life. Women in labor, families navigating mental health crises, and confused elderly people are a small snapshot of the callers she regularly assists.
In her role as a Triple Zero operator, Krishangi has developed a deep appreciation of the needs of her South East Queensland community. She has witnessed firsthand how the healthcare service strives to meet these demands under pressure.
Hands-on help
Krishangi's experiences ignited an ambition to explore how care could be delivered more efficiently and proactively, to not only meet people in their moment of need but to improve outcomes long-term. She is now an Entry to Practice Facilitator supporting newly registered nurses joining Gold Coast Hospital and Health Services. But her journey hasn’t been straightforward.
For Krishangi, nursing seemed like the most obvious path to further helping her community. She became a nurse and began working at Gold Coast University Hospital where she felt she had a tangible impact.
“I had a different level of control where my hands could do some of the work my voice alone couldn’t as a Triple Zero operator,” she says.
She enjoyed educating and advocating for her patients, ensuring they had the necessary medications, dressings and follow-up appointments to reduce the chance of returning to hospital unnecessarily. Working in a hospital setting, Krishangi began to see opportunities to make broader system-wide improvements.
She began investigating future study that would allow her to help shape and lead change in healthcare.
“I wanted to find ways to sustainably, practically, and innovatively solve the problems, and Bond offered me a program of units that was able to do that,” Krishangi says.
The bigger picture
Krishangi enrolled in the Master of Healthcare Innovations and began gaining the knowledge and skillset she needed to really create change.
Professor of Healthcare Innovations Nasim Salehi says the Master of Healthcare Innovations blends health and business. A range of healthcare professionals and leaders join the program with different objectives, from upskilling to driving broad changes.
“Innovation doesn’t always have to be these big or technological advancements. Sometimes it’s a small solution with a big impact,” Dr Salehi says.
She says students have opportunities to brainstorm with other healthcare professionals and collaborate with industry partners on evidence-based publications and practical frameworks to transform healthcare practices.
One of the key issues that stood out to Krishangi when she worked in hospitals was that early career nurses were leaving the profession at an alarming rate. This was reflected in a 2024 survey of 20,000 Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union members which found 46 per cent of Queensland Health nurses and midwives were considering leaving in the subsequent 12 months.
As part of her master’s degree, Krishangi was required to study a topic and write a research paper. She chose to do a scoping review on interventions that support early career nurse retention.
“This project was my passion piece. It was a way for me to look at that gap, identify why it was happening and investigate ways to improve the outcome, guided by research.”
Switching up systems
Krishangi’s passion piece helped land her new role as an Entry to Practice Facilitator. She supports student nurses on placement and new graduate nurses as they begin their careers.
“I went through that same Entry to Practice program not so long ago, so I know how valuable it is. Being in a position now where I can contribute to enhancing that experience using what I’ve learned, that’s incredibly rewarding,” she says.
She is passionate about creating systems that nurture and retain new nurses, not just for the benefit of the health workforce, but for the individuals themselves.
“Student nurses who get to the end of their degree and decide the career isn’t for them is devastating for both the healthcare system and the individual," she says.
"As a health service, we lose valuably trained people, but it can also leave that individual feeling like they’ve failed, when they may have found a rewarding career with the right support.”
Krishangi talks to Professor Salehi about implementing changes to retain nurses.
Krishangi talks to Professor Salehi about implementing changes to retain nurses.
She hopes to implement tools to improve retention throughout Entry to Practice and for those who transition to other specialties throughout their careers. She aims to do this by exploring ways to foster paired mentorship between new graduates and experienced nurses, something her research shows has a strong impact on retention as well as clinical competence.
“My research indicates consistency is better for long-term retention,” she says.
Longer term, Krishangi hopes to see a more connected and preventative model of care. One where community-based, government-funded services can ease pressure on hospitals and GPs. She is also passionate about developing systems to prevent and treat post-traumatic stress disorder and nervous system regulation in emergency care workers.
She credits the Master of Healthcare Innovations program with helping her unlock this pathway.
“I don’t think I would have achieved what I have without the healthcare innovations program,” she says.
“I never imagined myself doing a master’s degree. But here I am, not only doing it, but using it to contribute to something that matters deeply to me.
Published on Wednesday, 16 July, 2025.
Published on Wednesday, 16 July, 2025.
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