Lending a helping hand

With Victoria’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout underway, staff from the Royal Flying Doctor Service Victoria are pitching in to help wherever they can, including at the vaccination clinics catering to the state’s most rural and remote areas.

Shepparton Mobile Patient Care Officer Teegan is one of the many Flying Doctor staff members who have put their hand up to help, most recently volunteering at the Shepparton COVID-19 vaccination hub in August.

“The call was sent out for all staff to see if anyone was available and I just so happened to have a couple of days off road so was able to give them my time,” she says.

Teegan assisted with post-vaccination monitoring at the hub while other staff from the Shepparton and Bendigo Flying Doctor branches have taken on various roles including administering vaccinations, checking patients and more.

A different kind of challenge

For Teegan, it was an opportunity to contribute to the greater good and help make a difference. While the opportunity to help came with great reward it also presented some tough working conditions including the requirement to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) for long periods of time – similar to what’s experienced by Flying Doctor Mobile Patient Care staff on a daily basis.

“Even simple things like when you want to go and have a drink or use the bathroom you have to go and take all that PPE off and then pop it all back on again,” Teegan says.

“To see it from another perspective, to see these nurses that have been suiting up at 8am and just vaccinating over and over and over and over – it’s superhuman. They do it all day every day and have done for several weeks.”

Shifts at the clinic are typically shorter than her job on the road in patient transport, but Teegan says it was very tiring, repetitive and a different kind of exhaustion.

“To not be outside all day too – I’ve never done that in my life. You turn up at 8am in the morning and you’re inside until 6pm at night which was a bit of a challenge.”

However, she says it was extremely rewarding to see hundreds of people come and roll their sleeves up for their COVID-19 vaccinations each day.

“It just makes you feel like the community is doing what they can and gives you a really nice feeling that people understand and are doing the right thing,” Teegan explains.

“It also makes you feel better when you’re going out doing your grocery shopping – you know there are hundreds more people vaccinated than there were yesterday and more than the day before that.”

Coming together for the greater good

RFDS Ambulance Transport Attendant Andrea volunteered with Teegan and other Flying Doctor at the Shepparton Clinic and shares Teegan’s sentiment about the reward coming from their work, especially knowing they are having an impact.

“I think the biggest thing to come out of this is the extra Flying Doctor tender loving care that we are providing at check-in and check-out. It's important to make people feel important and supported in a difficult time and that they can go away smiling even if it's a short time,” Andrea says.

“I feel our experience as Mobile Patient Care staff was invaluable and allowed us to quickly identify when a person is in need of extra support and care at the check-in or check-out areas of the vaccination clinic.”

Andrea explains there was lots of laughter amongst the staff and lots of support from the community, with plenty of donated sandwiches, hot drinks and scones to aid the effort which helped lighten the mood for everyone who came through the doors.

With many different agencies and organisations involved in the clinic, Andrea says the overriding feeling was that health workers just have the ability to come together to get the job done.

“The Goulburn Valley Health team was amazing and welcomed us with open arms, support and never-ending gratitude. Even though everyone was busy, we all worked together as one,” she adds.

 Vulnerability in regional areas

Like the many locals coming through the Shepparton vaccination hub’s doors, Teegan had a strong motivation to get her COVID-19 vaccination as soon as she became eligible and has since received both doses.

She says that spikes in cases in the likes of Shepparton and other regional areas has really opened the eyes to some locals on how quickly the virus can spread, how dangerous it is and how it impacts all communities, not just those close to the big cities.

“Most of us rolled up our sleeves as soon as we could because we’d seen what it was like for metro Melbourne,” Teegan adds.

Similarly, the impacts that come from isolation and lockdown, while different to what’s experienced in the big cities, are just as prevalent and tough in rural Victorian communities.

“I can’t see my neighbours from where I am so it’s not like you see people going to get the mail every day or hear cars outside honking. We live in an isolated sense in the country but it’s even more isolating now and goes eerily quiet.”

 Protecting others

While she lives and works in the Shepparton area, Teegan is from Tasmania and part of her motivation in getting vaccinated was for borders to open sooner and get home to see family.

It is also her desire to help protect the community and those more vulnerable people from the virus that has been a major driver in her getting her vaccination.

“It’s the same thing when you go into a nursing home. You really understand vulnerability when you work in an area like this and see people that are struggling to breathe. It’s not a nice thing to watch and you definitely don’t want to be the cause for somebody not being able to breathe,” she says.

“Even as a young person, you think you see most of the deaths and nasty things happen to older people but there are a huge amount now under 18. That hit home, but for me it’s definitely more about protecting others,” she says.