When June Dyson walked into Echuca Regional Health she saw a lot of work needed to be done, but now she leaves behind a new hospital, in-progress cancer centre and workforce she is proud of.
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Next week, June is retiring as ERH’s executive director of nursing, after 13 years during which the organisation changed “out of sight”.
It’s a life milestone she originally planned for this time last year, but as with lots of things, COVID-19 had its way of delaying things.
Working through a pandemic is quite the way to close a career that started in 1970s England, as a young nursing student who would have to stand to attention when a Sister entered the room.
“If the Sister said jump, our only response was ‘how high?’ and ‘where do you want me to land?’,” June said.
Looking back, she said there was no comparison to how health care was now since those days as a “young whipper snapper”.
June leaves ERH in a better place, literally, with the build of the new hospital in what is the highlight of her time there.
“I grew up and trained as a nurse in England, so I was used to old hospitals, but I walked into ERH and thought ‘holy moly’,” she said.
“It was the maternity unit that really blew me away with the kind of 1950s viewing windows.
“I was really impressed with the staff working in terrible conditions, the poor patients really getting the rough end of the deal in terms of the accommodation we had, then in amongst this we had the most amazing clinicians; people who were quite frustrated with the conditions which we they worked but able to still provide really great care.
“I thought, imagine what these terrific people could do if we could fix that for them.”
In 2011, the hospital secured $65.6 million for redevelopment of the building and in 2013 the Make Your Mark campaign began, to raise a further $2 million to fully furnish the new hospital — a number that was surpassed thanks to the generosity and commitment of the community.
“That would have to be the highlight; the far-sightedness of the board and our former chief executive Michael Delahunty, the really hard work they put in partnering with the community and the support we had,” June said.
That support is again at the forefront with fundraising for the new Echuca Regional Health Cancer and Wellness Centre, which June and oncology nurse unit manager Lyn Jeffreson have been working on since 2012.
As she walks out of the hospital for the last time as a staff member next week, June will see the hard work paid off with the new centre making its way from the ground up.
“We talked about how underdone we were with cancer services locally and how many people were going out of town for some quite basic treatment that we simply didn’t have the resources to deliver onsite,” she said.
They began building up the service with specialists and training up nurses to work in the unit, and eventually outgrew the space they had.
“We went from two days a week with one nurse, to five days a week with overflow,” she said.
“That’s when we started chasing funding, we thought we actually need a dedicated cancer and wellness centre here. That takes a bit of time, but the walls are starting to go up.”
Having worked at ERH for more than a decade, June said it had been delightful to see so many people grow and develop their careers in Echuca.
“We started with not a lot of highly trained and experienced staff but we built that up so we could not only staff the new hospital but all the new services that came with it too,” she said.
“We looked at what opportunities there were here to grow our own community and provide opportunities for local people to find a career in health.
“That’s been one of the most satisfying parts of my role, walking around remembering people as they took their first tentative steps into the hospital to where they are now, looking at these impressive men and women and how they’ve grown and developed.”
The final two years of June’s career saw COVID-19 change everyone’s lives in one way or another, including that of healthcare workers.
“I can remember March 13 was the day we realised it was real,” she said.
“I called a meeting here on that day with all of our department heads saying right, this is serious, we need to start our planning.
“We were seeing an enormous number of deaths in Europe and the US and thinking how on earth would we manage that and what do we need to do to ensure we’re not in that situation.”
Information was coming in thick and fast, and constantly changing as more was learnt about the virus and June said they planned for the worst but hoped for the best.
But during the hard times of COVID-19, the community again stood out to June who said the health service had been humbled by the display of gestures.
“Things like free coffees for any healthcare worker, to people delivering lunches to our COVID testing team,” she said.
“Those simple acts of kindness — you don’t see that everywhere you go,” she said.
“When you’re lucky enough to live and work in a community like Echuca, where we have this enormous community support and fabulous people at all levels of the organisation, working together for the betterment of the community, it’s a pretty nice and exciting place to work.
“It’s probably been one of the most enjoyable times in my entire career; living and working here.
“I’ll be leaving a lot of the workload behind, but I’m not leaving Echuca, so I’ll still be able to catch up with friends and colleagues in retirement.”
After getting her start in the UK, June came to Australia 1978 and gave everything a go; from neurosurgery and midwifery in Brisbane, to managing aged care and rehab in Bendigo.
“It’s really what you bring to the role, that’s what I found throughout my career,” she said.
“There were often things I had opportunities to do that if I had seen the job ad I probably wouldn’t have applied for.
“I think sometimes people limit themselves, whereas I just thought ‘Oh, well, I’ll give it a go’.”
She plans to stay in Echuca for retirement with husband Don — where her daughter and two granddaughters live, too.
But set in her sights is a trip to Queensland to see her son and his “COVID baby”, whose birth and first birthday she missed because of COVID-19.
When she looked back on her time at ERH, June said it was lovely to reflect on where they were to now, and acknowledged those she worked with day-in, day-out.
“The thing that makes everything worthwhile is the team you work with,” she said.
“I’m always quite humbled by not just their skill but their commitment here.
“We’ve been through two years of hell, like everyone else, and everything we’ve asked of them they have stepped up. The support for the community and for each other under really difficult circumstances.
“From the board, the executive team, particularly my group of nurse unit managers — they are an amazing group — and all of our nursing and support staff.
“It just has a lovely feel this place and no matter how tough things are or how cranky you feel, they still just get on with the job.”