From ‘rags’ to ED riches

If you weren’t a power worker in the Open Cut in the Latrobe Valley in the 1970s and 80s, you may have had a job at Diamond Cut, the lingerie factory in Morwell.
The rag trade is possibly the last industry you’d imagine Anne Galletti would work in, perhaps because she has been the face of Latrobe Regional Health’s Emergency Department for more than three decades. You really couldn’t imagine Anne anywhere else.
But there she was in a factory in the back blocks of Morwell and when Diamond Cut closed down, Anne turned to nursing. Anne was among the first cohort of nursing students at the then Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education in Churchill which later became Monash University and more recently, Federation University.
Anne worked as an enrolled nurse in her last year of university, before securing a graduate year at the former Central Gippsland Hospital in Traralgon. A placement in the Emergency Department led to a job offer at the end of Anne’s grad year and she’s been in emergency care ever since.
In the early days, it wasn’t unusual for Anne to be the only nurse rostered on a night shift.
“I like the fact that there is no routine in an ED and how it’s continually changing. There is a challenge every day. It’s an environment where you have no idea what or when something will happen.”
In Anne’s time at the frontline, she has helped the hospital transition to two new EDs, experienced natural disasters, power outages, external emergencies involving multiple patients, a cyber security incident which shut down hospital systems and COVID-19.
“I have never felt the need to go to another hospital to work. We know as a team we get everything possible here at LRH as they do in Melbourne. We are often told by visiting doctors and nurses that we give them exposure to patient conditions they would not get in city hospitals,” Anne said.
“Our ED staff are a resilient and adaptive team. As a manager my first priority is ensuring the team delivers a high standard of patient care. To do this, education and especially supporting the team is paramount.”
But in December 2022, Anne was presented with her greatest challenge of all, a breast cancer diagnosis. With the support of LRH’s cancer care team, her family and friends and her ‘work family’, Anne made it through a difficult year.
In a note to LRH staff on her return to work, Anne said: “Not having ever been sick before, it is very comforting to be able to have such an amazing regime of care delivered here.”
This week, Anne officially called time on 35 years as a nurse dedicated to emergency care. During three months on long service leave, she has discovered a wonderful life exists outside the ED.
“This has been a great job,” Anne said.
Farewell Anne Galletti.