Respected GP began hospital career as a cleaner
Dfamily doctor b August 8, 1964 d April 18, 2020
o first, ask for forgiveness later. This was the philosophy Dr Jane Nugent lived by to help those in need.
As her wife Dr Emma Goodall said: ‘‘Jane saw the potential in everyone and wanted to help everyone achieve their best.’’
Nugent died unexpectedly at age 56, in the early hours of April 18, after what Goodall described as the perfect day.
She had previously been diagnosed with a left-sided brachial plexus neuropathy, which resulted in her left arm being paralysed for three months.
Nugent was farewelled at a service in Adelaide and, in true Covid-19 times, it was broadcast over the internet for more than 500 viewers.
After her diagnosis, Nugent had a lot of tests, but no-one could say why she had become so unwell.
She would say ‘‘time will either heal or reveal’’, which, sadly, it did.
Nugent’s family moved to New Zealand from England when she was 4. She grew up with bullies teasing her for her accent. Her family learned to ‘‘lose’’ their strong British accents quickly, so they didn’t stand out.
With cleaners for parents, it seemed natural that Jane follow suit. She dropped out of high school at the age of 14 and began working at the checkout at Woolworths, then went on to clean at Burwood Hospital.
But the thought of cleaning toilets at the age of 65 made her step up and see what more she could do.
Nugent rose up through the ranks with the encouragement of her parents and two brothers, gaining qualifications as a nurse, pharmacologist, GP, and psychiatric registrar, and with the respect and love of patients and colleagues along the way.
She also became a tutor, which she described as being ‘‘an accident’’. After completing her degree in pharmacology, she was asked to help out teaching an undergraduate nursing class at Otago Polytech and carried on from there.
She believed that just because someone was an academic, it didn’t mean they were a good lecturer.
She liked to turn around the jargon to make learning something that could be done easily by anyone. Her difficulty at school led her to try to make the tough stuff simpler.
Nugent and Goodall moved to Australia in 2013 and were married in Christchurch in 2018 after more than 10 years together.
When they met, Nugent came as a package deal – she had elderly parents, a brother with Down syndrome and a son, Shaun. She told Goodall if she couldn’t handle being a parent, she should walk away then and there. But Goodall just couldn’t say no.
On the move to Australia, Nugent said she wanted to see if she could reinvent herself.
GP colleges in Australia are not aligned with the New Zealand ones, so she worked to get her GP fellowship.
She did several GP and psychiatry locums in the Northern Territory, but ultimately, she and Goodall decided to make their home in Adelaide to be closer to Goodall’s parents.
Nugent continued to work a range of jobs, including being a GP for the homeless, and she became the first person to take the service into the streets and parklands.
She loved doing home visits to her elderly or highly anxious patients – at no cost to them. She would often buy medications or vaccines herself and give them to those who could not afford it.
She wanted to save the world, or at least all the people and animals she came in contact with.
The last month of her life resulted in her dreams beginning to come to fruition. She and her brother Mark were working on a business to support the new homevisiting general practice for the elderly – again at no cost to them.
She was finally able to practise medicine how she wanted – accessible both physically and financially, and with as much time for each patient as she felt they needed.
Goodall would joke that Nugent was the poorest GP in Australia, but she was happy, doing what she loved. – By Georgia Weaver