From early shifts to endless memories

Annette Blythman is saying goodbye to 55 years of nursing and hello to gardening, swimming and volunteering.

Imagine having to sharpen steel needles for a syringe or make a chest poultice from old sheets for patients with pneumonia?

Such were the skills Annette Blythman developed while she trained in nursing at the old Traralgon and District Hospital.

She also delivered meals to patients and filled a giant teapot and jug of hot water to distribute tea, coffee or Ovaltine for supper. Then, washed and dried all the cups.

“When a doctor came to do his round, as the most junior nurse I was sent to the ward kitchen to make him a cup of tea or coffee to have while he walked around,” Annette said.

“But we managed to have a lot of fun. The hospital was multi-storeyed and sometimes we would sneak up the fire escape into the back of another main ward, crawl under a bed and ring the patient’s bell. When the nurse came, we would grab her ankle and give her the fright of her life.”

While the experience at Traralgon Hospital may have been a baptism of fire for a young nurse, it did bring a significant benefit: Annette met the love of her life, David who was recovering in her first ward, Men’s Surgical. The couple would eventually head to Albury Wodonga where Annette worked at the base hospital in Intensive Care before returning to the Latrobe Valley.

Annette has now called time on a nursing career spanning 55 years, 41 of them at LRH (and its former sites, Central Gippsland Hospital in Traralgon and Latrobe Valley Hospital in Moe). In that time, she managed to squeeze in tertiary education including a Bachelor of Applied Science (Nursing), Graduate Diploma in Advanced Clinical Practice and a Master of Nursing.

“A nurse is never bored and if you are, you need to move into another area of nursing. It has so many doors to explore.”

And just as one door closes, another opens – at LRH. Annette has joined the Community Champions volunteer program. She also volunteers for the historic Traralgon Courthouse, a Satellite Rotary Club and keeps fit with a personal trainer and a local swimming club.

“I would like to thank everybody at LRH for giving me such a rewarding career…I would like to hope everybody has the opportunity to look back on the same fulfilling and satisfying experience as I have had.”

Brenda Connelly has a rare gift for turning someone’s bad day into a good one.

That’s a great skill to have in her workplace of 19 years, the Gippsland Cancer Care Centre where physical and emotional challenges abound.

As Brenda cleans, she talks and listens to patients, their families and staff.

“It just comes out of me,” Brenda laughs. “I’m just a talker. When I see someone struggling, I know how precious it is just to smile and ask how they are. When I applied for this job, I knew straight away this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to care.”

Brenda started out in the kitchen at LRH 23 years ago before switching to the Environmental Services team where she has mastered the art of putting smiles on faces. She is also widely known for the care and compassion shown to patients waiting nervously for cancer treatment and their families or supporters.

“I’ve had the privilege of being with family members who are going to lose their loved one. They’ve asked me to be there with them as they pass. Not many people get that chance,” she says.

“I lost my son five years ago and it opened me up to be even more compassionate. You lose someone you love so much and you learn how precious life is. So, reaching out to other people is a very important thing in my heart.

“There’s a lot of love missing from the world. It’s just vanished. There’s so much nastiness. I feel for our children and grandchildren.”

Brenda’s family will be her priority as she ends her shift today and begins retirement, plus there’s a trip to Turkiye in a few months. She may even join our Community Champions volunteer program.

“I’ve met some beautiful people along the way and it’s important to show people who you are and what you’re made of. My heart is big and it will always be that way.”