Hawke's Bay Hospital nurse Michelle Baines says it has become apparent in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle how much aroha is needed in the job. Photo / Warren Buckland
Meet the flight nurse who helped pioneer the Children’s Visiting Nursing Service in Hawke’s Bay.
Nurse Michelle Baines texts a description of herself — she is the one with the rapidly greying hair.
Humour, you soon find out, is a key tool in her nursing kete.
“To be a good nurse you require empathy, sensitivity, and humour,” Baines said.
“It’s all about getting a connection with people — when appropriate, a sense of humour can often help people relax, and they readily respond in kind.
“There is a quiet satisfaction when you overcome fear, hesitation or prejudice a patient may have, and you start to build a level of trust and they are comfortable next time they are back.”
Baines came to Hawke’s Bay Hospital in November 1983, after completing her first five years at Palmerston North Hospital.
She had nabbed a job in A4, general surgery. But she had her heart set on working at Cranford Hospice, which at the time was one of only three hospices in New Zealand.
Baines wanted to work in oncology. As the saying goes, life laughs when you make plans, and to no avail, she couldn’t get a job there.
But the winding path of her career was about to take flight — literally.
Baines found herself working in NICU, what is now known SCBU.
Along with her colleague, Lucy Witherington, the pair pioneered the Children’s Visiting Nursing Service in the region, which would have them doing home visits to children and babies.
“The nature of working in Hawke’s Bay is there are a lot of children and, as a result, a lot of sick children.”
And there was a natural progression for her to become a flight nurse, helping retrieve sick children from around the district and beyond, or taking them to Starship and Wellington hospitals.
A flight nurse flies in to retrieve patients and works on the plane or helicopter, trying to ensure the safe arrival of the patient at the hospital.
The nurse often has sole charge of the patient while in the air. That resulted in 1000 hours of flight nursing under Baines’ belt.
She visited countries in the Pacific, volunteered with the army, and was part of the New Zealand Medical Assistance Team that responded to the measles outbreak, and helped ready the Cook Islands for tourism in a post-Covid world, and she completed two volunteering stints in West Africa — Benin and Sierra Leone.
“I didn’t go looking for these things, they just dropped out in my path.
“Nursing has given me a versatile career that I couldn’t have had otherwise.”
The ability to use knowledge and extend training have both expanded immensely over the years.
The working environment has also become a lot more collegial between nurses and doctors, where there used to be a large separation.
Nurses now, more than at any time, are advocates for the patients and their needs to doctors and other staff.
However, the purpose of the jobs for anyone working on the “shop floor”, including orderlies, cleaners, and doctors, hasn’t changed.
Fundamentally, she says, treating patients has always been about see the need, treat the need, meet the need.
“The core of wanting to help people has not changed.
“No matter what uniform they put on, they are there for the person in the bed.”
Now working as a clinical resource nurse in ED and transit — a team that sits under the umbrella of the flight team — it has become apparent in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle how much aroha is needed in the job.
“It’s an event that has scarred us for evermore.”
She says people still talk about it. From those that lost everything, to those who were without power for a couple of days.
“There is a lot of survivor guilt. I was heartened by that, as it shows the depth of care in this community. People aren’t just brushing it off as though it was a sad event that happened to others.
“It’s a testament to who people are in Hawke’s Bay and how much heart they have.”
As she reflects on her career, which is still in full throttle, there are no regrets about choosing this nursing.
“I just always wanted to be a nurse, you never stop learning and you meet some of the most amazing people — both colleagues and patients.
She says she has become comfortable allowing people to express whatever they want to express. Most people don’t want to be in a hospital, unless they are having a baby. They are there for some of the biggest and most traumatic moments of their lives.
“That is a weight I take in each day.”
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