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St Vincent’s nurse becomes volunteer and stops to smell the roses

St Vincent's Private Hospital Northside

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After a long and successful career as a nurse at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside, Bernie Priest is enjoying a new phase of her life, where she gets to smell the roses – literally and figuratively – working as a volunteer back at the hospital for the past three years.

 

Bernie was one of the original staff at Northside when it opened as St Vincent’s Private Hospital in 2001, after previously operating as Holy Spirit Hospital. She worked in the cardiac ward as a nurse for 13 years – and at one stage the nurse became the patient!


“I was working at the Wesley Hospital in Brisbane as a registered nurse with Sheree Todoreskov (now St Vincent’s Northside General Manager and Director of Clinical Services) and we both left there and joined St Vincent’s at the same time when it opened in late July, 2001,” recalls Bernie.

 

“We both moved to St Vincent’s in the cardiac ward looking after post-op patients who were recovering from vascular or cardiothoracic surgery.

 

“It was challenging and interesting work – it was what I trained to do and I would have looked after thousands of patients during my time on the ward over 13 years.

 

“There was quite a lot of night shift which I didn’t mind. Although I did mind when just over a year after I started working there (I was aged in my 40s by then) when I started to get some chest pain one day.

Bernie with her grandchildren

“I just thought it was indigestion at first – yes, I know being a cardiac nurse I should have known better. I was in complete denial.

“Once they did scans/an ECG and I saw a cardiologist, Dr Con Aroney, they found one of my arteries was 70% blocked and I had a stent inserted. Suddenly I was a patient in my own ward for a few days!!”

But after a quick recovery, Bernie returned to work on the other side of the hospital bed and life returned to normal. She continued to work at St Vincent’s until retiring at the age of 65 in 2014.

She was enjoying retirement with a more leisurely pace, some travel and looking after grandchildren. That was until she had another cardiac episode in 2017 when she again experienced chest pain. The same artery was blocked again – but this time it was 90% blocked!

“That was another wake-up call for me. And after the surgery was all done and I’d recovered, I started to experience anxiety and a depressive disorder. I realised that maybe I needed some structure again in my week and some new purpose – so in 2023 I volunteered to work back at St Vincent’s Northside,” says Bernie.

“My role is one day a week. I’m part of the Monday volunteer team and I look after changing and arranging the flowers in the wards which is great.


Bernie Preist

Bernie (left) with the Monday volunteer team

“I literally get to stop and smell the roses these days. It brings back beautiful memories for me as I walk around the wards. I’ve still got quite a few friends there.

 

“It provides me with fulfilment and I also take the time to stop and chat with the patients and staff on the wards. I aim to leave ‘my old nurses hat’ at the door – although sometimes I can’t help myself with just a little bit of quiet, friendly advice to patients.

 

“I’ve been a cardiac nurse as well as a patient myself so I can bring that all round empathy and lived experience when it comes to being around the patients.

 

“And hopefully I also bring with me as a volunteer, a pleasant scent from the flowers to the hospital, as well as trying to put the patients at ease a little bit and maybe bring a smile to their faces - which everyone needs especially if they’ve been unwell and are recovering from surgery.”