Cathy Pickering, Justin Gaffney and Brittany Carpenter
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Three Darling Downs Health nurses have recently returned from Cambodia where they took part in a week-long volunteer healthcare clinic.
Nurse Educator Paediatrics, Justin Gaffney was instrumental in starting the now biannual healthcare clinics in 2013 and has continued them through the development of the not-for-profit organisation AUS-SSC.
“The program continues to expand each year. In our latest tour, we took a group of 26 clinical and non-clinical volunteers. Each trip consists of providing health education and support to locals and conducting free health assessments.
“We also work closely with local rural hospitals, with the aim of building their skills and capabilities.
“Recently, we’ve started purchasing retired medical equipment and taking them with us to Cambodia. Earlier this year, we took an ECG machine and defibrillator to a rural hospital and gave the local team a demonstration on how to use them. A few days later, I received a text message to say they had used the machine for cardioversion on their first patient. It’s lifesaving stuff.
“Cambodia has a very basic medical system, there’s no free health treatment options available for most people, meaning we can often be the only healthcare professionals they see,” Mr Gaffney said.
This year, Mr Gaffney was joined by Clinical Nurse, Cathy Pickering, and Registered Nurse, Brittany Carpenter.
Ms Pickering said it was the second time she’s been involved with the program.
“I find it is a good reality check; it’s really made me appreciate the medical services we have access to in Australia.
“I feel the experience has made me a better clinician, patients come in not having been previously assessed or triaged by other healthcare professionals, it’s just you.
“A typical day would start at 8am when the healthcare clinic opens, we carry out assessments through until lunch time, have a short break and then get back into it. It gets very busy, and we would sometimes have to shut the clinical admissions because patients would just keep lining up,” Ms Pickering said.
This was the first time Registered Nurse, Brittany Carpenter has been involved in the program, she said it was an incredibly eye-opening experience and has come home having learned many valuable lessons.
“What I didn’t expect was the relationships we built with the people in the villages, there’s just a different appreciation for what you do.
“It was good to get back to the basics of healthcare and see the joy in people faces when we provided patients with items, we consider essentials like a toothbrush and toothpaste.
Registered Nurse, Brittany Carpenter
“What I found quite challenging was witnessing firsthand the progression of diseases like mumps, breast cancer and scarlet fever and having limited options for providing ongoing care to patients,” Ms Carpenter said.
To enquire about becoming a volunteer, contact AUS-SSC.