'Florence Nightingale moment' for vaccination nurses

Private hospitals have been part of the fight against COVID-19 as the pandemic has hit different parts of Australia, with nurses from Ramsay Health Care stepping up to provide necessary immunisation services in Sydney's bid to increase vaccination rates during its current outbreak.

Nurse immunisers, registered nurses and pharmacists from the country's largest private healthcare provider have been working at the Sydney Olympic Park mass vaccination hub since it opened in May 2021.

They arehelping to administer more than 8,000 vaccines every day, seven days a week, as New South Wales battles to control a surge in cases.

Nicole Lovegrove, of Sydney's North Shore Private Hospital, said the pandemic had given her generation the chance to follow the example of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale.

The legendary 'Lady with the Lamp' came to prominence while treating soldiers with her revolutionary methods during the 19th-century Crimean War.

"It's an opportunity to be part of a really important thing, a once-in-a-lifetime thing,"MsLovegrove said.

"I'd recently completed the nurseimmunisercourse with a plan to be able to help vaccinate, so it was just a fantastic opportunity to be part of something that's vital for our country. This is our Florence Nightingale moment."

Michelle Pinci, a registered nurse with more than 40 years' experience, "jumped at the chance"to work at the vaccination hub.

"Since COVID-19 entered ourlivesI was feeling prepared in any way, small or large, to assist in either prevention, protection or caring for those impacted on our home soil,"said MsPinci, who works for Baringa Private Hospital on New South Wales' northern coast.

"It's been simply amazing to be involved in a highly-organisedand well-thought-out project like this.

"I consistently receive feedback from our vaccine recipients on how impressed they are by the whole process and I've been so encouraged by the public that they're taking responsibility to commit to vaccination to protect themselves and the community,"she said.

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Ann-Maree Lines, based at Mt Wilga Private Hospital on Sydney's North Shore, said the experience had been both rewarding and challenging.

"The best vision is watching people positively run up the Sydney Olympic Park vaccination hub ramp for their jab, smiling from ear to ear under their masks with a sparkle in their eyes as they say,'I am here for my vaccination.'

"This experience has been rewarding and challenging, opening my eyes to different forms of patient care available for nurses," she said.

"There is a diverse collection of nurses, General Practitioners, airline attendants, pharmacists, dentists, cultural workers and interpreters, and we all have a shared collective pride in what we're achieving at Sydney Olympicvaccinationhub."

Read more: Ramsay's key role at new COVID-19 vaccination hub

Read more: COVID-19 priority vaccines protect staff and patients

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