Born with the dream of being a nurse, she is now loving every moment.

“I just loved it, always have,” Miss Dove said.

She completed her training at Griffith University on the Gold Coast, and after their recommendation for rural or regional placement, was sent to the next Griffith in her life.

“As part of my new graduate program, I got to do a rotation through the hospital which was a real privilege, because back on the Gold Coast we wouldn’t have been able to do that,” she said.

“I went to day surgery, then the surgical ward and then theater… and that’s how I discovered really loved theatre and decided to stay.”

The best part of the job for her is the changing experiences and the “special moments” each day brings.

“You come to work and you don’t know that the day is going to be like, but you always learn more skills about how to care for people and the human body.”

Nurses working in the operational theatre often field questions relating to ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ versus real life – and she says “it’s quite different.”

“I think the show is quite dramatized, and here it’s about working although we still have that family and connection.”

And that’s the beauty of the theatre for her, with the really great team environment making it like a home away from home.

“You get to know everyone that you work with really closely, so it’s like a little family.”

But with the good comes the not so good –  and although she would never see it as a hardship, being exposed to heightened emotions in difficult periods of people’s life can be tough.

“Seeing patients at their lowest can be challenging – when they are in excruciating pain, even the family members - it can be a balance managing the social and emotional aspect as well as the actual physical toll of the situation.”

“It's really important you have that empathy for your patients.”