Army Nurse Helps Pacific Colleagues Hone Their Skills
Captain Hayley Claridge, right, at work with US Army colleagues in Pohnpei. Over six days, in two locations, the PP15
team from the USNS Millinocket worked alongside Federated States of Micronesia medical personnel to provide medical and
dental treatment to over 1700 people. Photo: NZDF
Army nurse Captain (CAPT) Hayley Claridge, who grew up in Napier and now lives in Palmerston North, is spending much of
the winter in warmer climes.
CAPT Claridge is working in several Pacific nations as a member of the New Zealand Defence Force contingent taking part
in the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) preparedness mission Pacific Partnership 2015 (PP15).
All but one member of the nine-strong contingent are aboard the high-speed vessel USNS Millinocket, which has just
completed a two-week stay in Pohnpei, one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia.
Pohnpei was the second of Millinocket’s destinations for this year’s mission, the first being Kiribati. The ship is now
in Solomon Islands, where the team is split between the islands of Guadalcanal and Malaita.
At each port of call her team is working with American and Australian colleagues conducting a wide range of medical
engagements alongside local health providers.
While the team was in Pohnpei CAPT Claridge’s tasks included working at outreach clinics, mentoring clinic and hospital
nurses as well as teaching Basic Life Support and other nursing skills to nurses, nursing students and support staff.
“It has been incredibly rewarding,” she said.
“The focus of what I do is to help improve the expertise of local nurses, so they can best help their communities not
only in their day to day nursing care, but also to respond to crises such as severe weather events, which sadly the
Pacific region is all too familiar with.”
CAPT Claridge was born in Portsmouth, England and moved to Napier with her family when she was seven. She attended
Napier Girls' High School, studied at the University of Otago then completed her nursing training in Napier.
She joined the Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps in 2002 and her operational deployments include service in Banda Aceh,
Indonesia, after the 2005 Boxing Day tsunami.
“There are no two days alike in military nursing,” she said. “I love it, it’s a great career.”
The team is expected to return home at the end of July.
BACKGROUND TO PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP 2015 (PP15)
The purpose of the mission is to build capacity and resilience to disaster in Pacific nations as well as enhancing
co-operation between partner nations.
As well as New Zealand and the US, Defence personnel from Australia, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea and
Timor-Leste are involved this year. They are engaged in a variety of local outreach efforts in the seven host nations.
The host nations this year are Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, the
Philippines and Vietnam. PP15 medical, dental, engineering and veterinary personnel team are assisting each host nation
with a wide variety of projects designed to improve their capability and ability to respond to natural disasters, and
build regional relationships.
ENDS