35 Years of Caring

If any one person can personify what Otago Hospice is, it's Sally.

Sally joined Hospice as a newly qualified nurse in 1990. She started with the Dunedin Hospital palliative care unit and then moved to the Hospice when it first opened in George Street later that year.

There was no community care aspect to the service in the early days—just a day-care programme and seven inpatient beds, all based in the George Street building. Sally was seeing patients from early in their diagnosis right through to end-of-life. About 70% of patients went home.

The whole concept of hospice was new. “Sally was one of those early pioneers…the backbone of what we did,” said Geoff Mirkin, original OCH Board Chairman.

The move to more community based care changed Sally's role in the IPU a bit. Certainly fewer patients went home. With the move to North Road the location also changed, but the kindness and care Sally bought to the role and the empathy for whānau never did.

As one whānau member said of Sally, "she was there to look after my dad, but I felt like she was my nurse as well. She had a huge impact on my life over just five nights."

Sally has not just been a taonga for patients and their families over the years, she has also been a huge support and advocate for staff and the palliative care sector as a whole. And a consummate professional. Something she was honored for early in the year at the Southern Nursing Excellence Awards.

Many lovely and deserving things were said about Sally at her farewell, but people also sent in video messages - some from the other side of the world. For anyone who missed the farewell you can watch a video of the messages here. https://youtu.be/dp_geAOOFiA

Enjoy your retirement Sally - you deserve it!