Born and bred in Griffith, Bethany Gill could never see herself working outside of a regional or rural hospital.
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Struck by the desire to become a nurse unexpectedly, she says the moment of inspiration has never let her down.
“Becoming a nurse was one of the best decisions I have ever made,” Ms Gill said.
“There were no real watershed moment for me, I just woke up one day and thought, I’ll be a nurse. I’ve never regretted it.”
Studying at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Ms Gill has been working at Griffith Base Hospital for six years, and is currently a Clinical Nurse Educator for the surgical ward.
“One of the best things about training, is no matter who you are teaching, there always comes a ‘click’ moment, where you can see in them the moment everything makes sense,” she said.
With a killer sense of humour and quick wit, Ms Gill enjoys building relationships with patients.
People will surprise you all the time. It can be confronting, eye-opening, but it is all incredibly rewarding.
- Bethany Gill.
“It’s always great when you can have a laugh with someone – there have been some incredible people come through as patients.”
And having such a focus on patient care, her most memorable moments come when patients show their gratitude for her help and care.
“I had one patient who wrote me a letter to say thank you. It’s a great feel good moment, and I still have the letter. It made my month.”
Working in a training roll, Ms Gill keeps up-to-date with all new information and procedures, and really likes the current patient-centric approach.
“Not that it wasn’t patient-centric before, but its a real collaborative and involved approach now.”
She thinks what people don’t know is how much critical thinking and prioritisation goes into nursing behind the scenes.
“It’s not just about giving out medication and showering the patients, but it’s so much more… it’s patience and compassion, and you never stop reassessing.”
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“It can also be hard, because you always want to give every patient 100 per cent, but when there are factors beyond our control that prevent us from doing that.
“It makes it really, really tough.
“But that is why having the team we have here is so great – we have that sense of culture and community.”
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