Sharon Payne (front) and her daughter Rochelle Harper who also works at the hospital as a nurse. Photo / Paul Taylor
Sharon Payne (front) and her daughter Rochelle Harper who also works at the hospital as a nurse. Photo / Paul Taylor
After 45 years working at Hawke's Bay Hospital, including most of her career in the ED, it is no wonder nurse Sharon Payne is known as "the glue that holds the department together".
For those who have been treated in the emergency department they will likely remember her as theexperienced nurse in the colourful scrubs.
Payne wears a special set of scrubs each shift to relate to sick or injured children who come through the department in need of urgent help.
On Easter Monday, her colleagues held a celebration to show their appreciation for her work over the past 45 years, which has seen her lead and mentor countless nurses and deal with everything from the 1987 Woodford House bus disaster to navigating the Covid pandemic.
"I like the job. I like looking after people and making a bad experience the best you can for them," she told Hawke's Bay Today.
She started out as a student nurse at the age of 17 and worked in a variety of nursing roles at the hospital until transferring into the ED after the Woodford House bus crash.
That disaster resulted in five deaths and multiple injuries when a bus carrying students rolled down a hill.
"It was pretty crazy [that day]. There were a lot of injured kids," she said.
"But the whole community pulled together - all the surgeons, all the doctors, all the nurses."
Payne was pulled off a ward that shift and called into the ED to help out, and permanently switched to the emergency department soon after.
"It's challenging but it's interesting," she said of her years in the ED. "It is just different every day."
Sharon Payne at Hawke's Bay Hospital. Photo / Paul Taylor
Payne, whose daughter Rochelle is also a nurse at the hospital, is a nurse practitioner which means she has added responsibilities and training such as being able to discharge and see patients.
The celebration this week is not the only recognition she has received over the years. She won the Emergency Nurse of the Year Award in 2010 for Australasia, and was awarded a Queen's Service Medal for services to nursing in 2012.
She also travels around New Zealand as a highly-respected nursing educator.
When asked what had kept her going in the demanding role all these years, she said the team at the hospital.
