"A rare and talented nurse"

I was at Sydney Eye Hospital recently. I was there for a pre assessment for cataract surgery. I do not know this nurse’s surname but her first name was Sandra.

In my words, I thought she was an angel, an absolute angel. I have been in and out of healthcare in NSW for a few things in my life and this particular lady has a very very rare talent. She has unbelievable empathy and understanding and an exceptional command of the English language. She went through so many explanations with me and was more thorough than anyone else has ever been. In the end she picked up something wrong with my left eye that no one else had.

I said once to her, can I ask you a personal question, and she said yes. I asked what made you specialise in eyes.

She told me she has been in nursing for 11 years and was about ready to leave it. The way she was treated in other hospitals was terrible. She was spat on and treated like a second class citizen. She said she was going to leave nursing and somehow she ended up at Sydney Eye Hospital. I can tell you Sandra is so appreciative of what she is doing at Sydney Eye Hospital and it got her back into nursing.

I said I am so glad you did not leave nursing because when you have someone of your talent it would be terrible to lose you to the industry. Nurses of your calibre are fairly rare and hard to come by.

I feel obligated to say something about this lady because she was just exceptional. In the end she made the appointment for me and did her best with the dates to look after me. To me that changed me from being just a number in NSW Health to being a person. The human element and the care element really stood out. On the way home on the train I kept thinking about it, and thought no - I have to phone up and give feedback.

I tell you what, if Sydney Eye Hospital had a lot of nurses like her they would be so fortunate. She is an unbelievable asset and I hope she stays in nursing.

Sandra explained so much detail to me and it made a lot of things crystal clear. No disrespect to specialists, they are talented because they specialise in their arena, but anything outside that can be secondary and sometimes they are not as forthcoming with information. I found that it was Sandra who was unbelievable. She had this little plastic eyeball and was pulling it apart and saying this is what is wrong with your right eye and your left eye. It was fascinating seeing it and having it explained like that.

I am still blown away.

I would love to have her as my nurse all the way through but I know that is not possible. I just hope she stays in the nursing career and in eyes as it is definitely a passion of hers.