A help to those in need

NOMINATIONS FOR PEOPLE who have rolled up their sleeves and just got on with it have rolled in. Today and over the next two weeks we profile the finalists who win a year’s supply of Bell Tea. The overall winner receives an iPad as well.

Julie Scott

“Everyone I see is in a moment of need. I just want to make things as easy for them as I possibly can.” Julie Scott is modest about the work she does as a clinical nurse specialist at Auckland’s Starship Hospital. She is based at the emergency department — the children who come through the doors are sick, injured, traumatised and sometimes hovering between life and death.

Scott loves what she does but says it can be challenging. “It can be hard not to personalise the experiences I have but it’s my responsibility to help the families as much as I can. But you never get used to the suffering.”

Full-time work is just part of Scott’s life. She’s studying to be a nurse practitioner to further help the families she works with. She is also a single mum of five children, aged between 4 and 18.

According to her mate Rebecca Williams, who nominated Scott for the Getting on With It award, Scott is “amazing. She is a tireless advocate for child patients and their parents and deals with their pain, suffering and sometimes death, day-in, day-out.”

Williams says she is also an exemplary mother and friend. “Her five children are doing really well. She has also found time to maintain great friendships, train for halfmarathons and serve on the local primary school’s board of trustees.”

The 38-year-old from Auckland’s North Shore was reticent about receiving the award but was keen for people to know more about the hospital. She’s not sure how she fits everything into her day, but she makes it all work somehow. “I guess I’ve always been a highenergy person,” she laughs.

Scott certainly needed high energy when training for her half-marathons. But work, study and family commitments mean she hasn’t managed to find time to train for one this year: she’s been too busy looking after other people.