West Coast

For me this started on the South Island’s beautiful West Coast in 1998-My first job was in a town-based General Practice in Greymouth, where my love for Primary Health Care was born.

I worked there for 3 years, before leaving to have our third child. I then went back to work in a different practice (smaller and in a small rural town) part time and decided to do other work to add to my repertoire of skills.

This involved multiple roles, with rural general practice as the grounding pad. I did my first ‘on-call’ in rural communities, with a fantastic GP for back-up. I ran a Polytechnic clinic 1 day a week. This was the first time I was paid as a contractor. ($25.00 for the hour) I worked part time for the DHB  Sexual Health Clinic and the Family Planning clinic.

These offered such valuable learning that would remain with me throughout my career. I set up and ran a FPA clinic in Westport once a week,  run out of the Hospital. This was manly for the students across the road at the local High School. Greymouth had a “Well women’s health clinic. and I took part in the roster, providing a clinic in weekends doing cervical smears for women of all ages.  All of these part-time roles added to my ‘kete of knowledge’ that would provide me with a wide range of nursing knowledge and skills.  I worked in the various roles for 8 years before deciding it was time for a change …