Nikki is pictured at Demondrille. She took time out of her day to get a photograph with the Times. Nikki enjoys driving into Harden over Demondrille and seeing the lights at night.
She has been there for so many families over a career which has spanned nearly 3 decades. Fittingly, Nikki Bolger has now been recognised for her service to her community and her service to Nursing with a Medal of the Order of Australia.
The prestigious award announced among the Queen’s Birthday Honours on Sunday.
Nikki said she was contacted by the Governor General a couple of weeks ago and has been completely overwhelmed and humbled by the announcement.
As always, Nikki’s first thought is for others. In her line of work you don’t get a lot of time to spend on yourself or sit idle.
She said, “Whilst very humbled, there are people doing what I do every day of the week who don’t get recognised and I’m very conscious of that. In a way I don’t feel deserving because there are so many people who I have shared my work with and who are still a part of my work.”
Nikki came to Harden and was looking for work in her field when a well-known nurse, Mary Brandt “took a chance”
Nikki said, “I left Sydney and looked for work in Young it was a fluke phone call to Mary. Jenny Purchase had been there for ten years and had just resigned to go back to midwifery. The funny thing was Jenny took me on a day of orientation. She said to me, ‘I have been in this job for 10 years and it was probably maybe too long. Don’t do what I did.’ I’m up to nearly 3 times that now, but when you find something you love. Mary took a punt on a young Sydney girl. She put my references in one pocket and pulled her sandwiches out of another. I don’t know if she read them.”
We spoke to Nikki just after she had her coffee on Sunday morning and she let her father know of the announcement.
She was just grateful for the day off with the June long weekend, something she looks forward to every year.
Nikki has a number of roles. She job shares the Community Care Nurse role with Ruben Barnes and they have worked together for 7 years and also works for Murrumbidgee Health as an Essential Care Coordinator.
“I would’t be able to do it without her, we work like hand in glove, we are very aligned in how we think and how we work. The Community Nursing Model of care is very different to Hospital Based Care, the privilege is we are invited into people’s homes to care for them. We both have a shared respect for the work that we do and the people we look after.”
Nikki’s love for the town runs through her and she loves the sight of the lights at night when she is coming over Demondrille and when it is in her rear view mirror.
She said, “I get a sense of contentment when I drive in or drive out to finish a week or start a week. Sometimes you get lucky in life and I got lucky when I came to Harden. Coming to Harden was a stroke of luck. The community of Harden are like family, they have treated me like family, they have given me the opportunity to be a part of their families and I’m very grateful for that.”
April next year will mark 30 years since Nikki commenced working in Harden. It hasn’t been an easy role. She deals with grief and loss on a scale much larger than your average person and she assists families during their most difficult times.
Nikki said, “Grief and loss is the most difficult part of any Nurse or Doctor’s work. Supporting the families and the challenges of illness. The longer I have been in Harden and the more involved I became in the community the more increasingly difficult it has become. They are my friends and my children’s friends and I guess that happens in any small community.”
Nikki draws on her whole career when helping individuals and families.
She said, “I’ve felt there are things that I remember that happened 25 years ago. I carry that with me because of the importance of those moments and they also inform how I continue to work and why I continue to do the work I do.”
There are certainly amazing aspects to Nikki’s work.
She said, “The best part. The people. The patients and there families, my colleagues, the community more broadly and being a part of this community I can’t put it into words.”
She also highlighted the support she has received from the community. “In my own difficult times community supported me and it’s been a role reversal. I gave my sister a kidney 15 years ago and it was a personal challenge. Then my mum passed away very quickly with cancer it was difficult wanting to be with her and being at work.”
Nikki draws inspiration from former nurse Annie Taylor.
She said, “There is no limit, Annie Taylor was a great friend and mentor to me, she was in her 70s when she finished up. I often joke I’ll never leave, that is the thing I can never do. My intention is to never leave the district. Nursing in Harden, it is the core of who I am, I’m not done yet, they might have to carry me out in the end.”
Nikki has touched so many people in her line of work. She said, “There are so many people I would like to thank, all of the staff at the Murrumburrah-Harden Health Service. The Nursing staff, the medical staff and everyone. I would love to thank the community for being my family for the last 30 years.”
Nicki said, “I would like to thank Jean and the late David Chesworth who cared for my children for many years. Their support made my work possible.”
Nikki revealed that she has like many people, been very fond of the ABC program Insiders, led by Barrie Cassidy. She said, “ I nearly went into a mild mourning for him on Sunday, I have watched him for years.”
She said, “Church Mass attendance has been challenging, I rearranged my morning so we could watch ‘Uncle’ Barrie, no weekend would be complete without Insiders.”
If Nikki missed the show she would tape it so she could watch it later, such was her love for the program.
Nikki gets to spend a little bit of time on herself watching Insiders, but it is the unselfish time she spends with those she cares for in her community which Nikki is so well-known for and will be remembered for well into the future.
She didn’t need an award like this for everyone to know how valued she is. However, it is an acknowledgement of her commitment to those she loves. It is a reminder of her part in the fabric of the community, where she lives and where she has worked and raised her family. We can all hope that Nikki knows how appreciated and loved she is. She helps us when we are at our most vulnerable. Community can be judged by how it reacts to its most vulnerable. Nikki has made it her life’s work.
Nikki Bolger you are one of the best.
