During her time as a nurse, Helen Church enjoyed her time with the patients and doing what she could to help them feel better.
“Patients look to the nurse,” says the 101-year-old Chalmers Home resident.
“If someone was having an operation done under local anaesthetic I’d reach out and hold their hand.”
Helen starting working as a nurse when she was 19 and did most of her nursing during World War II. She initially worked at Wellington Hospital before moving south to take a job at St George’s Hospital in Christchurch.
“There were a lot of new treatments, medicines and medications brought in,” she remembers. “It was amazing to see antibiotics first introduced in New Zealand during the War.”
Enliven, which operates Chalmers Home, is marking the World Health Organisation’s International Year of the Nurse and Midwife by profiling nurses who work for the organisation and former nurses who live in its homes and villages.
Helen says she and her nurse colleagues would work hard to make the hospital wards “cheery” for the patients, including playing music.
In her time nursing she worked in the theatre and would be on-hand during brain surgery.
“Sometimes I’d have to go running all over the hospital to find a certain doctor when a more junior doctor was out of his depth.”
Chalmers Home manager Jenny Darby says Helen sometimes helps with the interview process for potential new staff.
“She asks very good clinical and management questions.”
Since moving into the New Plymouth rest home four years ago, Helen says she enjoys the company and the stunning view of the ocean.
“I’m very happy here – I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else!”
