Nurse Jenny Hegarty’s long-awaited retirement after treating Canberrans for over 40 years was never meant to last.
A few months after the celebrations were over, her expertise was needed once again to bolster the ranks of ACT Health’s COVID-19 response.
Nurse Hegarty, the daughter of a public servant, was Sydney-born, but is a Canberran through-and-through.
“I followed my dad here at age nine and practically never left.”
She trained at the Royal Canberra Hospital and entered midwifery, before becoming a neo-natal intensive care nurse.
Her illustrious career included a four-year stint in the Middle East, treating infants alongside her sister in a Saudi Arabian intensive care unit.
Upon her return to Canberra Hospital, she capped off her career with almost two decades in a managerial role.
“After managing for 19 years, I decided I needed some time to myself, to relax, and spend more time with my family.
“Here’s the thing about retiring from a career that is all you have ever known. You look forward to it, and keep looking forward to it, and you then walk out the door and think ‘Oh this is wonderful!’ It wasn’t long before I began to miss the excitement though. I missed my colleagues, and the satisfaction of the job,” she smiled.
“Just as I was thinking ‘maybe I’ll go back in a couple of years’, my old manager messaged me.”
Nurse Hegarty was identified as an excellent candidate to recruit for ACT Health’s recent callout for both registered and enrolled nurses on the front lines of the pandemic response.
She agreed immediately and has since been assisting the recruitment process for vaccine rollout and COVID testing centres, as well as working hands-on administering vaccinations.
“It’s nice to be a part of getting Canberra vaccinated,” she said.
Four days a week she sorts through every application, manages interviews, and helps with the “onboarding” of the new nursing recruits.
“At this point I’ve recruited well over a hundred staffers.”
Nurse Hegarty sits on the interview panel for each applicant.
“One of the questions we always ask is ‘Why did you apply?’ From those answers you really get a feel of whether they’re passionate to be a part of this, and whether they’re here to serve the community.
“There are a lot of people out there that want to help,” she said.
“The most important thing now is to get as many Canberrans vaccinated as we can – to protect ourselves, our families, and the Canberra community. The more people we have on board, the more we can ramp up this rollout, and get back to life as we knew it.”
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