As Nursing Review goes to press, the day when the West African Ebola outbreak is contained and controlled still looks some distance away.
Kiwi Red Cross nurses Donna Collins and Sharon Mackie returned in October from their stint of Ebola nursing in Sierra Leone – safe, sane, and good mates. But as Donna describes in an article this edition, “it was one hell of a mission to cut your teeth on”. Still, she would “absolutely” return to support local healthcare workers turning up day after day against all odds to fight a virus that has taken their neighbours and workmates.
This edition was to feature a light-hearted ‘Day in the Life’ of an outback nurse on race day. Kiwi Andrew Cameron is nursing director in Birdsville, which hosts an infamous outback race meeting each year. But instead of recovering from having the settlement’s population swell from 172 to 7000 racegoers, Cameron took up a Red Cross invitation to head to Sierra Leone. Joining him will be Wellington ED nurse Liz McDonald who, like Donna and Sharon, is on her first Red Cross mission.
Cameron has already been awarded Red Cross’s highest nursing award, the Nightingale Medal, for his work in war-torn Sudan to Afghanistan and Iraq to Yemen. But this time, he won’t be dodging bullets but a virus. As this time, the aftermath of war is not mine amputees or the bomb-injured but a rundown health infrastructure being hit by a devastating and “disgusting” viral haemorrhagic disease with no vaccine or proven cure in sight.
While the first world debates how we could or should help this third world tragedy, we can only be deeply grateful for volunteer nurses like Donna, Sharon, Andrew, Liz, and the many others.
Fiona Cassie
