BCH salutes retiring nurse

HEALTHCARE provider Bellarine Community Health is honouring a cherished team member who retired last week after half a century of dedicated nursing service to the community.

Barb Wiltshire, 68, has hung up her uniform after a 50-year career as a nurse that saw her work in hospitals, aged care, medical clinics and, for the last 15 years, community health at BCH.

The community health model – which she says places importance on building relationships with clients – is one she believes in strongly.
“People heal 100 per cent better at home than in the hospital,” Ms Wiltshire said.

“After that first visit, they feel safe with us. They come out of hospital, and they’re stressed or not eating or sleeping properly, and we can provide reassurance.”

It is challenging and varied work, but Ms Wiltshire knows she will miss it.

“I love the variety of being a community nurse because we have to have every skill. We do palliative care, we give medication, support people with showering, deal with complex dressings and wounds, and IV monitoring.

“Every day you get thrown something different, and you think ‘Oh, what am I going to do here?’ It makes it interesting, and I will miss that.”

Pursuing her childhood dream of working with babies and young children, Wiltshire begun her nursing career in 1975 at the Royal Children’s Hospital, completing a four-year training course, before making the transition into general nursing.

As she steps into retirement, she says it is the relationships she has built, particularly those with BCH’s supportive nursing team, many of whom she has mentored, that will be the hardest to let go.

“Our nursing here at Bellarine Community Health is one of the best you can get,” Ms Wiltshire said.

“BCH nurses are very supportive of each other. Nothing’s too much trouble.

“I will miss the company of all the nursing team at BCH because I just love them, and I will miss my clients because there’s a few that I have been looking after for quite a while.

“You don’t realise how important you are to these people, because you are chatting to them the whole time you are with them, and you develop a relationship.”

Labelling it “the end of an era”, BCH thanked Wiltshire for her expertise and “warm, compassionate approach to nursing”, and wished her a “well-deserved and joyful retirement”.

“Barb brings wisdom, warmth, and a great sense of humour to everything she does,” community nursing and palliative care manager Jacob Miller said.

“She’s been a huge support to so many of us, and she’s told me just how much she values being part of this team, which she called the most supportive and wonderful group she’s worked with. High praise from someone with a career as long and meaningful as hers.”