Award winning nurse talks about aid work in conflict zones
massey-university
Tue Oct 27 2015 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Award winning nurse talks about aid work in conflict zones
Tuesday, 27 October 2015, 4:33 pm
Press Release: Massey University
Red Cross nurse Andrew Cameron in Juba Teaching Hospital, South Sudan.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Award winning nurse talks about aid work in conflict zones
One of New Zealand’s most decorated nurses will speak about his work in some of the world’s most dangerous disaster and conflict zones as he prepares for a second mission to Sudan in December.
59-year-old Andrew Cameron, who hails from Hawke’s Bay, graduated from Massey University with an advanced diploma in nursing in 1984.
Since then, he has gone on to achieve his dream of becoming a humanitarian aid worker for Red Cross, serving in Kenya, Sudan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Georgia and Sierra Leone, as well as working with remote populations in Australia.
In 2011, he was only the 25th New Zealander in a century to win the prestigious International Florence Nightingale Medal. In 2013, he was awarded the Order of Australia and this year he was honoured with Massey University’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award.
Mr Cameron says one of his most challenging New Zealand Red Cross posts was dealing with the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone last year, the epicentre of the West African outbreak where almost 4000 have died. “While it wasn’t a conflict zone, trying to contain such a virulant disease was tough. You are on high alert the whole time. You can’t even shake the hands of your colleagues for fear of contamination.
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“It was heartbreaking talking to patients one day, and burying them the next. I was in charge of the cemetery and funeral services, and graves were being dug out every day.”
Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever that has claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Sierra
Leone and Liberia since its outbreak last year.
Andrew Cameron has been living in Birdsville in Queensland since January but will head back to Sudan for a six-month stint as part of a surgical team in December. Until then, he is the sole nurse in one of the hottest, harshest climates in Australia, on the edge of the Simpson Desert, covering an area the size of England and Wales combined.
“There is one teacher for the five kids in the school, and a policeman. Once last year I had to drive an ambulance for 12 hours to retrieve a patient. And in the last month I have attended two fatal accidents, but thankfully they are a rare occurence. I don’t know why, but I don’t seem to pick the easiest places to work and live.”
Despite the personal toll nursing takes, he says it’s a great career, especially for men. “It is one of the caring professions where the opportunities to help your fellow man - and women and children - around the world, who do not have the privileges we enjoy, are limitless. I didn’t want to get to old age and think ‘I wonder what it would have been like to work in that Ebola Hospital in Sierra Leone? If only I had gone when they asked me’.”
Pro Vice-Chancellor Paul McDonald who heads Massey’s College of Health says the four-city speaking tour gives Kiwis a unique front row seat into the world of emerging global health challenges and opportunities.
“Andrew Cameron is a shining example of the kind of health professional Massey University is producing to make a real difference in improving the lives of individuals, communities and nations.”
New Zealand Red Cross Sectretary General Tony Paine says, “One of the great pleasures of my job is meeting New Zealand Red Cross aid workers like Andrew. They are courageous and committed individuals, but I am also struck by their cheerful humility. For Andrew and his colleagues, the thought of heading off to situations full of challenge and possible danger seems quite a matter-of-fact task. When I suggest they are being courageous, their response is similar to so many heroes: ‘I am just doing what anyone would do, this is what I have trained for.’
“Despite this low-key approach, Andrew’s work has enabled us to make contributions on the world stage that, as in so many spheres, are disproportionate to our size and isolated location at the bottom of the map.”
Come and find out more about emerging global health challenges and opportunities at a free public presentation from one of New Zealand’s most dedicated nurses.
Event details: 5.30pm to 7.30pm
MON 2nd NOV – ARC Security Lounge, Toll Stadium, 51 Okara Drive, Whangarei
TUES 3rd NOV – Genesis Energy Lounge, 128 Seddon Road, Gate 5, Hamilton
WED 4th NOV – War Memorial Theatre, 48 Marine Parade, Napier
THUR 5th NOV – The Free House, 95 Collingwood Street, Nelson
Please RSVP online, by email alumni@massey.ac.nz or phone 06 350 5865
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