Lesley Wood is on her fairy tale adventure of a lifetime. The enrolled nurse is travelling around regional and rural New South Wales as part of NSW Health’s Deployment Program.
On her working itinerary, Lesley has been deployed all over the state, from the deserts to the dunes. Currently, Lesley is loving being a part of the Taree community at Manning Base Hospital.
The employee from Royal North Shore says her time on deployments has given her a new lease on life, putting a pause on the wide wards of the city for a much smaller setup in rural NSW.
“I went to Vegetable Creek at one of those wonderful little and small multipurpose hospitals. Each hospital I've been to has been quite a different experience, but in every one of them, I've learned something new. I find the patients and the staff both so fabulous, and very supportive management", explains Lesley.
The aim of the deployment program is to assist local health districts that are facing the challenges of staff shortages. It is people like Lesley that have hit the ground running in these isolated pockets of the state, helping communities both in and out of working hours.
“I was deployed to Parkes Hospital near Eugowra NSW and heard this story from a nurse from Eugowra Hospital. There was a young pregnant nurse that couldn’t swim, so when the floods came through, she had to sit on the roof of her house, she even rang India to say goodbye to her family because she thought she wasn’t going to live,” said Lesley.
“She was up there for over five hours before she was eventually rescued but she had lost everything. A few people and I contacted her to see how she was going and found out her passion was sewing.”
“We managed to track down an almost brand-new sewing machine and the local craft centre donated threads, fabrics and embroidery cotton so even though she had lost everything, she had a lovely sewing machine to continue her passion for dressmaking.”
“You feel really pleased to be part of something like that. Part of something bigger, even if you're only this tiny little cog, it's really good to know that you feel like you've achieved something, even in a small way.”
Lesley says her day-to-day work is much more hands-on than back in the city, and while she loves the care she helps provide to remote patients, she has also fallen for the rural settings.
“Just after work yesterday I went on a rainforest walk to a bat colony and to see that instead of coming out into a suburb in Sydney where you see the same telegraph pole outside your window every day is just stunning", Lesley beams as she explains.
“I would rather do that than sit in my car in heavy traffic trying to find a car spot to get to work for 30 minutes. I'm five minutes in the car and I'm at work, and I also work with an amazing team. The nurses and managers have all been very positive. It’s fabulous. I just love it.”
Opportunities for nursing, medical, allied health, and non-clinical staff to locations across the state are available and deployment is an experience Lesley says that has turned into her dream career.
“Every day it's like a magic carpet ride. I honestly recommend this to young nurses that really want to experience new things and gain valuable work experience. I also recommend it to people who are closer to retirement age like me, because it is invigorating,” concluded Lesley.
