London nurse loves work and life in the Outback



By Marian Edmunds

Helping out as part of a bronco branding team is one experience that Registered Nurse Clair Nunn would never have had if she had stayed in the UK.

It’s an old fashioned style of branding that has now attracted the status of a sport with events held across Australia. And it’s a passion for Clair’s husband who she met when she moved to the outback to work for Queensland Health.

Claire spent her first two years with Queensland Health working as a nurse educator based in Longreach in the state’s central west. With an area to cover the size of the UK it was a far cry from her former role in the emergency department of a Central London hospital.

“I worked in the Emergency Dept and all that went with it – machete-wielding patients, London bombings and the like,” says Clair.

For the past year Clair has worked as acting clinical nurse consultant at Longreach Hospital.

“It’s completely different than working as a nurse educator. It’s a substantive position involving clinical work under the Director of Nursing. She is part of a team of 31 nurses.

“I’ve been working closely with them [the Queensland Health Work For Us team] to promote Longreach as a place for nurses to work,” says Clair.

Clair’s other roles at Longreach Hospital include assisting in emergencies, helping in theatre and providing clinical line management.

“It’s a job where you can never quite plan your day – but it’s been nice to come back to a clinical job and to refocus on patient care.”

“It’s also been a very good job to have leading up to maternity leave,” adds Clair, who is expecting her first child.

Clair loves rural life. “Longreach is a gorgeous place to live. I love that people know who you are, and people say hello and wave. And I love that neighbours will help if there is a drama – people care about each other.”

Although she’s giving the bronco branding a break for now, Clair enjoys the rural events such as the races and belongs to community groups such as women’s group, Zonta.

Clair met her husband, Luke, in Longreach. He was working as a bike mechanic and his parents have a property 170km out of town. “It’s far easier to drive out to visit the family here than it was to cross London,” she quips.

While Clair doesn’t regret her six years in London spent at the Royal Free Hospital and University College London Hospital, she says she wants other things now.

“Slowly but surely as you grow older you want different things and community and family values become more important.”

CareerOne.com.au, May 17, 2010.