RFDS nurse doing it all in rural Queensland

Over a 13-year career with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Courtney Bylett has followed a lifelong passion for rural nursing.

“I just love that we are someone to someone”. It’s a sentiment that has driven rural nurse Courtney Bylett over her 13-year career at the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Based at Charleville in Queensland’s south west, a town of 3500, Courtney knew she wanted to join the RFDS from very early on.

“I always had a passion for rural nursing. I did my midwifery qualification pretty close to finishing my nursing because that’s what I wanted, that’s where I wanted to be,” Courtney said.

Courtney Bylett is a flight nurse for the RFDS at Charleville. Picture: Supplied

From flying across the state doing CPR to delivering babies, it’s a career that has no typical day, but Courtney primarily offers antenatal and postnatal care to rural women, vaccinates kids and does school screenings.

“I just love that we are someone to someone. I’ve worked in big hospitals where you’re just a person on shift, but now for the RFDS we fly out to people, we know people, and when you get a job you know who that is,” she said.

“Being important to someone or being there for someone in their worst time is what I love about it. We can help them out. Talk to them, bring things down to a basic level.”

In addition to her nursing career, Courtney also helped raise more than $30,000 for the RFDS last month at Charleville’s charity ball, with the money going towards clinics serviced by the RFDS.

“We’ve bought ECG machines for our outreach clinics, we’ve bought pathology chairs, we’ve bought equipment. We supply maternity packs, education packs for kids. The money raised goes back towards the community,” she said.

“It’s the people’s ball. It’s for the people, it’s about the people.”

A community champion, Courtney is also actively involved in running social tennis at the local club runs social tennis in the town, and runs her boutique and cafe, Charlotte’s Nest.

The Shine Awards is a joint partnership between The Weekly Times and Harvey Norman that is a true celebration of women right across rural and regional Australia.