International Nurses Day

International Nurses Day

Whangarei nurse and midwife Donna Collins is currently helping earth quake victims in Nepal. On the eve of her flying out and for International Nurses Day this week, she spoke to Jodi Fraser about her career to date.

When she was young, Donna Collins wanted to be the elephant keeper at Auckland Zoo but her mother told her to ‘do something feminine for once in your life’ so she became a nurse instead.

Along with a zoo-keeper, a motor mechanic was on her future career list but after the lecture from her mother, Donna worked as a nurse aide in an old folk’s home.

“Because I had no grandparents and, therefore no exposure to older people, I was shocked and upset by ‘old age’,” recalls Donna.

“My very wise father told me to always take the time to listen to peoples’ stories and I would not see them as ‘old people’ but as people who have experienced things I couldn’t even dream of. He was so very right. I had found my calling. So in 1984 I rode my motorbike to North Shore Hospital nurses home and started my nursing career.”

She trained as a New Zealand enrolled nurse and qualified at the age of 19. Afterwards, she travelled around Australia and worked as a cook and, nurturing the tom boy in her, a deckhand on a prawn trawler off Darwin, as well as an enrolled nurse in NSW.

In 1987 she returned home due to her dad being unwell. He subsequently passed away, but Donna knew she had made him proud for undertaking training to be a New Zealand registered comprehensive nurse at ATI, qualifying at the end of 1989.

In 1990 Donna and her partner did their ‘OE’ for a planned six months but ended up staying overseas, mainly the UK, for six years. In that time they had their first child and, when he was six months old, Donna undertook midwifery, training at the University of Guildford, qualifying as a midwife in 1994.

From there her passion for women’s health grew. After returning to New Zealand in 1996, they had two more children and Donna worked as an independent (LMC) midwife.

“Looking for a new challenge in 2004, our family moved to outback Australia where we lived and worked for five years in remote indigenous communities. I was called ‘Sister’ and my partner was ‘Mr Sister’. This was the most amazing experience for us professionally and personally and our children thrived being immersed in a very different culture and language (English was a second language after Pitjantjara and Yolngu Matha).”

As a remote-area nurse, Donna was a ‘jack of all trades’. “We took x-rays, nursed patients with TB, leprosy, melioidosis - diseases I never thought I would encounter -attended vehicle roll-overs, triaged and treated emergencies and undertook primary health initiatives.

“I’ve even plastered a dog’s broken leg and bandaged a burnt snake (someone’s very important ‘dreaming’ snake). I felt very privileged to be invited into indigenous ‘women’s business’ as a nurse and midwife, and my passion for women’s health and indigenous nursing continued to grow.”

Returning to New Zealand in 2011, she commenced working again for Northland DHB as a breast care nurse and as a core midwife. She joined New Zealand Red Cross as a humanitarian worker which aligned well with her personal beliefs and philosophies.

Last year Donna went to Sierra Leone as part of the International Federation of the Red Cross Emergency Response and was part of the team to establish the Red Cross’ first Ebola treatment centre in Kenema.

“This was a stellar moment in my career. I was in awe of the people around me, the incredibly resilient and beautiful West African people, and the amazing and diverse Red Cross team and I faced the most challenging situation of my life with great vigour, enthusiasm and respect.

“I returned from West Africa proud to be a New Zealand nurse and midwife and privileged to have worked on behalf of our profession. I was over whelmed by the support shown to me by colleagues from around the country.”

Before she left for Nepal to work as part of the Red Cross Field Assessment Co-ordination Team, Donna said she was prepared to do whatever it took to help – whether it entailed sleeping out in the open or helping shift bodies from under rubble - citing humanitarian work as her passion.

“I’m not sure I would have experienced the full and rewarding life I have if I’d become an elephant keeper or a motor mechanic - I love being a nurse and midwife.”

ENDS

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