With a brother who served in Vietnam, Helen Joyce admits, joining the army was always at the back of her mind. But nursing training at the Mater in Newcastle and travel ambitions got in the way until she returned to Australia in 1980 and was casting around for future career possibilities. "My brother was still in the military and I liked the idea of a disciplined approach to nursing," she explains. "I joined the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps as a lieutenant."
Now the senior nurse manager of the operating suite and day surgery unit at Auburn Hospital and Community Health services, Helen says 10 years of military nursing were "validated" in 1991 when she volunteered to serve during the Gulf War in 1991. She was appointed the leader of a group of 12 army, Airforce and navy nurses in a contingent of 40 medical personnel which was posted to the US naval ship, Comfort.
"It was a 1,000-bed hospital ship," she explains. "A floating hospital the size of Concord. I was a trained theatre nurse and I worked in a 60-bed upper body trauma ward which was actually the only ward which received casualties. The rest of the wards were in training while we were dealing with injuries coming in from the other ships in the Gulf. We saw everything from crush injuries from loading stores to bullet wounds from discharged weapons... all the normal results from training.
"All the time we were travelling in a figure of eight waiting to see where we would be required. We knew that our role was to support the marines in the event of an amphibious landing scenario. Fortunately, we weren't required to land. As the action intensified, our circuit got smaller and smaller and we were probably about 2Okm off Kuwait. When the oil fields were set alight, it was quite spine chilling as I remember looking at my watch at midday and it was so smoky that it could have been midnight."
Of course, Helen admits, it was frightening. However she says it was a good fear to have as "you accept the reality of the possible death and got on with the job". The fear ensured that "you remembered the training which could save your life". Upon her return to Australia and having been promoted to major, Helen found her career heading in an increasingly managerial direction. Not wanting to lose the "clinical buzz" she made the decision to return to civilian life in 1991.
"Having been out of the mainstream, I wasn't sure what the level of recognition would be for my experience," she says. "I was pleasantly surprised when I was successful in my application for a senior nurse manager's position. In retrospect, it was probably because of my people management and administrative skills that I was appointed.
Also, in the army you undergo training, which allows you to respond quickly and decisively to changing situations. Ten years on, I've probably slipped into civilian ways, but I still believe that the crisis management training I received in those military, days has been invaluable in meeting the challenges in today's dynamic health system. As a result of past conflicts, military nurses have contributed greatly to civilian nursing by implementing new practices as clinicians and administrators. These practices, learnt in war, impacted across the whole range of nursing areas. Today, it's more likely that Military experience would shape the way a civilian disaster team responds. Current military nurses, competent and trained in skills and techniques to handle this situation, can provide invaluable lessons to assist disaster training agencies."