Image Caption: Acting Nurse Unit Manager at the Cloncurry Hospital, Theresa Scobie.

Cloncurry Nurse Celebrates 30 Years of Providing Care

Acting Nurse Unit Manager at the Cloncurry Hospital, Theresa Scobie, recently celebrated her 30^th anniversary working as a nurse for the North West Hospital and Health Service [NWHHS].

Mrs Scobie started work with the NWHHS in 1991 as a rural and remote area nurse incorporating all areas of nursing, including medical, surgical, maternity, theatre, palliative care, aged care and accident and emergency.

Acting Chief Executive of the NWHHS, Dr Karen Murphy, praised Mrs Scobie’s remarkable achievement and thanked her for her contribution in caring for thousands of patients over the years.

“Theresa has made an incredible contribution to our community, especially when you consider how much her compassion and expertise has touched people’s lives over the years,” Dr Murphy said.

Mrs Scobie said she feels very fortunate to have found nursing as a career.

“For me, being a nurse is more than a career. It’s a calling,” Mrs Scobie said.

“It’s not always an easy job, but I genuinely consider it a privilege to be a patient advocate when necessary and to administer care to my patients through both challenging or happy times throughout their hospital stay.  

Her love for nursing is at the core of why Mrs Scobie is celebrating an honourable milestone; even more inspiring is her dedication to the same health service for more than three decades.

“The diversity of hospital presentations in rural and remote areas, within a single day, requires a nurse to be equipped with a multitude of skills. Rural and remote nursing requires you to be a Jack or Jill of all trades and master of many,” she said.

“That’s why I love rural and remote nursing; you develop a broad skill set and scope of practice that you wouldn’t get in a metropolitan area.

Mrs Scobie looks back fondly on her time abroad working as a nurse in Scotland during the earlier years of her career.

“I worked in acute geriatric care, the operating theatre and a rehabilitation unit which specialised in all types of traumatic head injuries or illness related debilities”. Mrs Scobie said. 

“That was a really special ward, and on completion of my first shift there, I felt a strong sense of job satisfaction when I was advised the ward staff had phoned the agency I was registered with to ask if they could have me back.” 

Affectionately known as the ‘feel-good’ nurse, Mrs Scobie has a robust reputation for being caring, kind and compassionate. 

“Over the decades, it’s been a blessing to serve the North West Queensland region. Cloncurry in particular, my patients and colleagues here are family,” she said. 

Nursing has been a big part of Mrs Scobie’s life; her mother is also a nurse with an incredible fifty-three years’ experience.