General News
20 December, 2024
Donna Bell marks 40 years with MDHS
As part of their recent awards night, MDHS recognised Director of Nursing — Dunolly Campus Donna Bell for 40 years of service.
Ms Bell has moved up the ranks across different campuses over her career at the health service, working in Maryborough for 29 years before moving to Dunolly.
As she reflected on her four-decade career, The Advertiser sat down with Ms Bell to grab an insight into her life of nursing.
What does it mean to you to reach 40 years of service at MDHS?
It makes me quite emotional because I still remember starting as a young girl and seeing the older staff members and thinking ‘how could you work at one place for all that time’.
Times go so fast and I’ve loved my time here, it’s been amazing.
How did you come to work for MDHS?
Back then Maryborough took in two schools of enrolled nurses each year and they had six in each school, so I applied and got accepted.
When I started as an enrolled nurse, there was very little scope on what we could do.
We couldn’t even check blood pressure.
I originally wanted to be an air hostess but I hate flying so that quickly went off the list.
How has MDHS and the health industry changed since you first started?
When I look back at some of the things that we used to do, a lot has changed.
I remember working back in outpatients and if someone came in and we needed to do portable X-rays, we had a little dark room and would have to develop the X-rays.
A huge change in the way we do things from back then is wounds — years ago we used to dress wounds every four hours and you had to dry them out.
Now it’s about keeping that moisture balance and we might change a dressing once every seven days.
There has been a huge difference in aged care from when I started.
Where our community services are now used to be the nursing home, there were two wings and there were four big six-bedroom wards and you just had a curtain between each other.
What has kept you wanting to be involved with MDHS?
I married a local which helps but also I wanted to give back to the community that we live in.
Going back to aged care, when my time comes and I need aged care, I will have to go into one of our local aged care facilities.
I’ve worked in most of the departments, I’ve worked in theatre, outpatients, acute wards, district nursing and aged care which has kept me motivated.
Do you have any favourite memories during your time at MDHS?
I just love what I do and I still love what I do.
I especially loved my time in district nursing and I’ve ventured into aged care and I love what I do there.
Every aspect I have done has been very rewarding, palliative care was probably the most rewarding and we do that now in aged care.
What advice would you give to residents looking to start a career in nursing?
When you start your career, just embrace it and really enjoy it because it does go so quickly.