Clinical nurse specialist Alison Meek worked at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital for nearly half a century. Photo: Murrumbidgee Local Health District/Shri Gayathirie Rajen.
Alison Meek has farewelled a remarkable 45-year career at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital and is looking forward to embracing a new chapter in life.
The clinical nurse specialist began working in the hospital’s operating theatres in November 1982 and has loved building a life with her family in Wagga.
“It’s been a great place to work, and I’ve never felt the need to move on anywhere else,” said Alison.
Born in outback Queensland, Alison moved to Wagga when she was 10.
“I can call myself a Wagga girl because I’ve lived here for so long.”
While nursing wasn’t on Alison’s radar during high school, her mother encouraged her to give it a go.
“After I finished high school, I had a quick interview with the matron back in the days when you did hospital-based training, and there I was starting nursing the next year,” Alison said.
“I loved being a hospital-trained nurse. I started with a group of 25 girls, and I still have three of them, my closest girlfriends. I met them on my first day of nursing training.”
Alison received hospital-based training in 1979. Photo: Murrumbidgee Local Health District.
Alison’s most impactful experiences involved caring for critically ill patients.
“It’s extremely rewarding when you can help save someone’s life,” she said.
“That’s an awesome part of my job.”
Alison juggled decades of on-call shift work and managing her personal life and family around the schedule.
“It’s all a bit of a challenge, but I loved it. But I’m not unhappy about never having to get out of bed again in the middle of the night, especially in winter,” she said.
“It was mostly babies you get called out for the middle of the night.”
Alison has seen thousands of babies being born at Wagga Base Hospital. Photo: Murrumbidgee Local Health District.
The veteran nurse has seen medical advancement and improvements at the hospital throughout her career.
“The advent of laparoscopic surgery changed everything,” Alison said.
“We went from having three very small theatres in the old hospital to the next operating theatre I worked in, which had five theatres.
“Now we’ve got eight theatres, and we do a lot of amazing surgeries now that we certainly didn’t do back in the day when I first started.”
Clinical nurse specialist Alison Meek. Photo: Murrumbidgee Local Health District.
Alison was also excited to see the new Wagga Base Hospital being built and finally completed last year.
“I never thought it would ever happen in my working career,” she said.
“Then, stage by stage, it happened, the last being that amazing multistorey carpark I’ve been parking in every day since.
“We are super grateful for this absolutely beautiful facility.”
The 64-year-old was planning her retirement for a couple of years and said the first thing she planned to do was hibernate for a couple of months before looking at future adventures and giving time to charity work.
“I’ve been working full-time since I was 18, and my husband has been waiting for me to retire so we can travel and spend some time together.”
Despite being eager to begin her retirement, she said her farewell at the hospital was emotional.
“My colleagues put on the most amazing morning tea, and one of the girls made me a last day outfit to recreate the graduation day photo with the veil.”
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