CARING IN THE CLOUDS!
Royal Flying Doctor nurse Susan loves looking after her patients in the skies
When Susan Markwell jokes her office has the “best view going”, she means it! The 62-year-old recently celebrated three decades as a flight nurse with the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), treating sick and injured Australians across remote and rural Queensland.
From delivering babies mid-flight to treating crocodile bites, Susan loves that – even after 30 years – no day is the same.
“Delivering a baby in the air, that was just fantastic but it’s not something we usually do,” Susan tells Woman’s Day from her home in Cairns, Queensland. “We had to clean the plane for two hours afterwards!
“You just don’t know what’s going to happen on shift, it’s quite exciting.”
While furthering her training as a nurse, Susan jumped at the chance for adventure in the outback, and in 1987 took up a nursing position in Charleville, 747 kilometres west of her Brisbane home.
The job also involved working with the RFDS, although she didn’t officially become a flight nurse until 1991, and Susan quickly fell in love with the job and the communities she serviced.
She then joined the Cairns arm of the RFDS in a child health and evacuation role, servicing areas such as Far North Queensland and Cape York Peninsula, including four large Indigenous communities.
“The country lifestyle, people and the diversity were fascinating – that was where my passion for rural nursing developed,” she says.
“As the only nurse working in isolation, it was 24/7 on-call, you had to be able to be a jack of all trades, really.”
Navigating turbulent conditions and sweltering heat in a small plane while working on ill patients isn’t for the faint hearted, but Susan wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I remember my first flight I got a little bit airsick,” she confesses. “It gets quite rough over the western areas and it’s hot and turbulent... even now if it’s really rough I can still feel a bit off, but so does everybody.”
And being in a 13-metrelong plane isn’t the comfiest of workplaces.
“In my aircraft I can touch both sides of the fuselage and I can’t stand up straight,” explains Susan.
“But you’re still getting the patient comfortable, looking after their fluids, and their pain relief and whatever else needs to be done.”
Susan says she’s got no plans to give up the job she loves.
“It’s a great job, it’s challenging, it’s exciting and you’re learning all the time,” she tells. “It’s the best job in the world and the view is always changing... I’ve got a few air miles left in me yet!”
‘It’s the best job and the view is always changing’