If you want to save lives, you need to be ready at a moment’s notice. Stuart Teather found out that, for some, the thrill of making a difference was worth getting up in the middle of the night.Why would anyone be a nurse? Nurses have one of the toughest jobs around — they spend their days caring for people on death’s doorstep, and are often put in positions where one mistake can cost a life. It’s a tough, unforgiving job.
But Allison Hutton, an associate nurse unit manager at MonashHeart at the Monash Medical Centre, wouldn’t have it any other way.
She has been at MonashHeart, the hospital’s dedicated heart unit, for three years and loves the rush. During her shifts she often deals with the simpler part of her job, admitting patients, doing angiograms, even putting in pacemakers.
It’s usually when she’s on call that things get crazy.
‘‘Most of the time when you get called in, it’s someone having a heart attack,’’ she said.
But that’s what she loves about the job, and why she’s prepared to sacrifice her spare time for it.
‘‘I love the adrenalin side of my nursing work. I love the action and interest we get here. It gets your heart pumping and at the end of it you’re able to help someone.’’
Ms Hutton sacrifices a lot — MonashHeart nurses who are on call have to be within 30 minutes of the hospital at all times.
A Caulfield North resident, that means she can stay at home, but heading out for dinner or to a family event can prove a challenge.
Generally, Ms Hutton is on call one night a week and one weekend a month. That means clearing the schedule.
‘‘When I’m on call I make sure I don’t plan to do anything. It’s difficult socially. There are lots of things you miss out on. Those with kids have to make sure there’s always someone around.’’
She said most of the time she was on call, she ended up being called in — which, apparently, is a good thing.
‘‘You’ve planned your weekend to be quiet, you’re missing out on something socially, so you’d prefer to be at work and earning some money. It’s not a good wish. You’re wishing for someone to have a heart attack,’’ she added with a laugh.
She’s not alone. It is the passion for the job, the desire to make a difference, that attracts people to on call work.
Cathy Warbuton can relate. As an emergency veterinarian at Mt Waverley’s Animal Emergency Centre, she is often on call when critically ill patients come in.
Ms Hutton does not have a family; Ms Warbuton, however, does. With three children, she said working in her job, as she has for 12 years, makes being a good parent difficult.
Asked if she had missed any milestones because of work, Ms Warbuton laughed.
‘‘Absolutely. You can ask my three kids that,’’ she said. ‘‘Yes my social life is affected by my job and my kids are affected by it, but on the other hand I can be flexible so during normal hours I can do things that a lot of people who work full-time can’t. I can get to the school sports, that sort of stuff.’’
A vet with Ms Warbuton’s experience could make a healthy living working at a clinic during business hours, but the easy stuff isn’t for her.
‘‘The thought of going and talking to people about fleas, heartworm prevention, vaccinations, all that sort of preventive medicine, someone’s got to do it. ‘Someone likes to do that, great, but I don’t.
‘‘Probably in 80 per cent of things presented to vets you don’t make a huge difference to whether the animal lives or dies. We deal with the 20 per cent of things where what we do makes a huge difference.’’
A self-declared adrenalin junkie, Ms Warbuton loves the thrill of her job. But equally as satisfying is the gratitude she and the other vets get from a job well done.
In the waiting room at the Mt Waverley centre, a pinboard is adorned with thank you letters and cards from grateful families, thrilled with the work the vets have done to save their pets.
She deals with a range of problems. Dogs eating poison, heart attacks, stomach bloats — when a dog’s stomach twists and cuts off the blood supply — as well as cancers.
And more unusual things. One recent canine was admitted with a stick in his eye, an unfortunate accident from a sprint through some bushes.
Despite having a 10-centimetre stick lodged in his eye socket, Charger managed to keep his eye, thanks to some fast work from vets in the early hours of the morning.
It’s those sorts of stories that keeps Ms Warbuton coming back for more.
‘‘We’re making a big difference; you get that glint in your eyes. True emergency people, when it’s starting to get busy, when it’s chaotic, that’s when you get charged up and get the glint in your eyes.
‘‘I love it. The work is really good, so you put up with the fact that you have to work unsociable hours in order to get the good work.’’
She conceded when at home she sometimes dreaded the phone call asking her to come in.
‘‘I can’t go back to sleep. I know they’ve called for a reason. When you’re on call, people don’t call unless they really need you.
‘‘You lie there thinking ‘what is it? They really need help’.’’
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