But advice from her high school careers advisor sent her down a different path and she did not pursue her nursing dream until she was in her 40s.

Ms Newman is now the Wagga-based unit manager for community care and part of a team that nurses people in their own homes.

September 17 to 23 is community and primary health care nursing week, which staff in Wagga are celebrating.

Three of these staff, Ms Newman and community nurses Jayne Roworth and Carolyn Frith, have taken different paths into their current roles.

“I went into nursing quite late in life, so I went to community care quite quickly after some time in hospital, whereas a lot of the nurses here spent a lot of years in hospital and then moved on to community, so they’ve got a big background in clinical care,” Ms Newman said.

“I used to do data analysis for a market research company.

“Nursing was something I wanted to do when I left school, but the carers adviser said ‘oh no, don’t do that’.

“Later, when the kids had gone to school, I then thought ‘well I should really do something’.

“I did an aged care certificate at TAFE and decided to want to take it further.”

Ms Roworth has followed in the footsteps of her mother Sue Roworth, who is also a community nurse, but admits it was not always her goal.

“I originally didn’t want to, but when I left school, I did do aged care as well,” she said.

“I did volunteer just to see if I wanted to be a nurse, and just continued on that path and eventually became a community nurse.

“I love it. I love being out in the community.”

Ms Frith is a relative newcomer to community care, but not to nursing.

“I have been nursing for probably 35 years, mainly in hospitals in the acute and surgical areas,” she said.

“I moved to Wagga two years ago and thought community would be a nice change.”

Ms Newman said there was often misunderstanding about the role of community nurses.

“A lot of people still think community nurses do showers and personal care, but that’s not what we do,” she said.

“It’s any type of nursing care that will keep someone out of hospital. We do a lot of post-acute care for people who have just come out of hospital. For people with drains or wound care.”

Ms Newman said community nurses were able to provide patients with referrals to other services.

“People just feel so much better in the own homes,” Ms Roworth added.

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