Fish a final gift to patients from nurse Bec

FOR Northern Territory primary care nurse of the year Bec Earle, work doesn’t stop when she leaves the clinic in the afternoon

Bec Earle is NT Health Professional nurse of the year

FOR Northern Territory primary care nurse of the year Bec Earle, work doesn’t stop when she leaves the clinic in the afternoon.

Ms Earle, who works at the Julanimawu Primary Health Care Clinic in Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island even takes her work fishing with her.

The remote area nurse takes patients’ family members and carers out on the water with her and brings back fish for the final meals of her terminally-ill charges.

Ms Earle said the patients weren’t the only ones who needed her care.

“We know there is so much stress and carers rarely get a break,” she said.

Originally from South Australia Ms Earle followed her mother’s footsteps into nursing.

But the path to becoming the Territory’s best primary care nurse wasn’t always easy.

She failed her indigenous health unit at university the first time around and was told she would “never amount to anything” by her first hospital placement teacher.

She completed her university studies at the University of South Australia before heading north to Alice Springs with her best mate to start their nursing careers.

Shethen spent a few years travelling and nurse volunteering overseas in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka before returning home to the Territory.

After a two-year stint in Palumpa, she headed to the Tiwi Islands and couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

“Now with a partner following on, we love the Tiwis and knew this was where we wanted to be,” she said.

Other winners of the NT Health Professional of the Year awards were Danila Dilba Palmerston Clinic’s Dr Meredith Hansen-Knarhoi, who won GP of the year, Rrapa Dhurrkay from Miwatj Elcho Island Clinic (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner of the Year,) James Arratta from Belyuen Health Centre (Primary Health Care Support Person of the Year) and Central Australian Aboriginal Congress’s Rebecca Matthews (Allied Health Practitioner of the Year).