Coming back to 'civy street' after 11 years in the army has been "a big reality check" for RN Jodie Routley who now works in the operating suite at Auburn Hospital.
Jodie joined the army in 1987, completed her EN's training and became a pathology technician before she took time off to do her RN's degree from 1993 to 1995. Having graduated, she returned to the army - this time as commissioned officer Lieutenant Routley. She then embarked on a series of exercises that culminated in a five-month posting to Bougainville as part of the peacekeeping mission there. She followed that up with a stint in New Guinea following the tidal wave.
"To this day I would say it's the hardest thing I've ever done," she says. "I was a very junior RN with a huge amount of responsibility. There were huge cultural differences to come to terms with and I was expected to assume a lot of roles for which I had very little training. I would do everything from admissions, to being a theatre nurse and working in the post surgical wards. In between, because of my pathology experience I was taking and analysing blood. In one sense, it was fantastic experience for a junior, sometimes doing three jobs at once, and doing things like evacuating the injured in choppers. But on the other, I rather wanted to control the chaos."
Although Jodie acknowledges the value of that experience, she felt that back in Australia, her clinical nursing skills were in danger of stagnating. "Dealing with healthy 17 to 35-year olds the most common conditions we treated were sports injuries," she explains. Having made the decision to leave the army at the end of last year, Jodie has now had almost 12 months to reflect on the legacy of her military career.
"The army is not a job, it's a lifestyles she explains. "In the army everyone has the same history and a common goal. When you come out, you experience an anonymity that feels a bit odd. Nobody knows who you are and You constantly have to prove your level of competence. In the army, you're respected because of your rank. When you get out, you discover you're not as important as you might have thought you were."
At the same time, she maintains the experience has made her a more effective nurse. She continues her military regime of regular exercise that she believes is a good counter to stress and helps her keep a clear head. "The army teaches ' on about dress and bearing," she explains. "You learn a lot about self-discipline and how you hold yourself in public. It makes You very systematic and organised. Teamwork is of paramount importance and that translates to work in the ward. I also think that having been a manager at a young age, it improved my ability to communicate with people on different levels. Nonetheless, having enjoyed the trappings of being an officer, 1'm not going to pretend it hasn't been difficult adjusting to being back at the bottom of the pile."