Pitt Island

I spent two years on a remote Island known as Pitt Island (aka “my home”), which offered me a multitude of skills, not only autonomy and advanced nursing skills but also the difficult and often trying skill of how to be a nurse and not a family member when a relative needs serious health care. There was no other health care provider on the small Island with a population of just 40 people and a few visitors the work was irregular but often serious. This was due to the rough and rugged lifestyle on the Island. 

My first ‘patient’ was my 3.5 year old nephew who fell off a scooter going down a steep dirt road. He had deep grazes to one side of his entire face. A large haematoma in the middle of his forehead and was in extreme pain. I had panadol and some simple dressings to use.  We made it work.  

An example of my ‘changing hats’ occurred one night I was at home with Dad and he had an MI. I had to switch from daughter to nurse and deal with the “patient” in front of me. I had no Oxygen, no morphine, no IV kit and no defibrillator. Luck alone was on our side and we were able to get Dad onto a fishing boat at 10pm at night and across the straits to a waiting ambulance. He was stabilised at the local Chatham Islands hospital by the GP and life-flighted out to Wellington the following day and to the cath-lab where he had 3 stents inserted. Back to the Island he came! For a time I was daughter again. These skills were pertinent in maintaining a professional and safe relationship with the community. They had to trust that when needed I was able to be the nurse  and treat their health need.

Another person who became critically ill but could not be evacuated off the Island due to the severe weather conditions. IV Antibiotics and other medications were bough over from the Chathams by a brave fisherman and thrown onto the wharf in a container without getting to close due to the huge swells. I was then able to treat the patient.  I had a number of rough fishing boat trips across the straits accompanying a ‘patient’ from Pitt Island in need of health care on the Chatham Islands. One young chap had dislocated his shoulder as he was thrown overboard on a small dive boat by a rogue wave. He was in shock, hypothermic and in pain.  I had blankets and entonox.

One skipper told me I had clocked up enough sea hours that I could qualify for my deck hand ticket!!                  He was my go -to person when I needed someone evacuated from the Island (and a cousin). The small  6 -seater Cesnar plane was often unable to fly in the winter months as the grass airstrip was too wet. 

While on the Island the GP would come over once every three months and run a clinic at our home. While I was there we set up a drug cabinet, had a oxygen concentrator and defibrillator kept on the island. There was also a PRIME kit kept at a central house that was able to be accessed in an emergency and was available if a medical team were bought to the Island. It was an amazing experience and many lessons were learned.