NURSING is a job that requires flexibility and that is something Susan McGrath has become accustomed to.
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Ms McGrath is a registered nurse who completes agency work.
Agency nurses work for a particular company and go to locations that need extra staff who are qualified in that hospital's required area of need.
In this instance, she is currently spending time in Leeton.
"I have been working as an agency nurse for almost two years now," Ms McGrath said.
"I have worked at big tertiary hospitals, one-nurse communities that rely on the flying doctor service in the far north of Australia and all-sizes of hospitals in between.
"The down side to agency nursing is being so far away from family."
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Along with a registered nursing diploma, Ms McGrath has completed a post graduate certificate in emergency nursing and now works specifically in that field.
"In my role I have been fortunate enough to work and travel all over Queensland and NSW so far, maybe Western Australia is next on the agenda," she said.
"Nursing gives a person great opportunities. You can work and travel and like I do or choose from the many other different fields of nursing.
"The great aspect of choosing nursing as a career is you have the opportunity to gain further education and reach higher qualification in the field that interests you."
In her 40 years of nursing, Ms McGrath has never been without work.
"I never get bored going to work because no two days are the same," she said.
"In my years of nursing I have seen baby's born, cared for sick children and held old hands as they breathed their last breath.
"I worked in busy operating theatres, community health and in isolated Indigenous communities. I've seen patients who have been stabbed, assaulted or had limbs traumatically amputated. I've cared for people whom have had heart attacks, stokes, convulsions or suffering from mental illness.
"Nursing as a career gives you so many experiences and also provides the opportunity to make a difference in a patient's life when they need it most - how good is that."
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