Mrs Urquhart, a child and family health nurse, is about to retire having cared for about 15,000 local mothers, fathers, grandparents and babies.

She still remembers clearly the moment she decided to dedicate her career to nursing.

"When I was 10 years old I had my tonsils out in hospital. I remember a nurse gave me a hot Milo. And I remember thinking, 'Oh, this is the nicest thing anyone's ever done'," she said.

"I thought: I'm going to be a nurse. And I never swayed from that."

Mrs Urquhart would go on to become the longest serving employee at Wagga's community health centre with a tenure of 26 years including a stint as local branch secretary of the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association.

She began her nursing career as an 18-year-old at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital in 1974, after moving from the small NSW town of Gunnedah.

"I still remember that first day. I probably never forgot it really," she said.

She recalls taking part in the 1975 strike at Sydney's parliament house, where thousands of nurses from across the city successfully rallied for better pay.

"It was actually quite radical that nurses would actually go and walk off the job. That's a long time ago," she said.

After an overseas trip and a year back in Gunnedah working at the RSL, Mrs Urquhart returned to nursing in 1978 and eventually specialised in child and family health.

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She didn't look back and in 1986 moved to Wagga with her family when her husband took a job at the RAAF base.

Her own daughter is now a graduate nurse at Wagga Base Hospital.

In Mrs Urquhart's initial role with the city's health service she helped establish Brookong House, a unique service for new parents which would become the Tresillian family care centre in Glenfield Park.

"I think people just assume that if you're a nurse you wear a uniform ... and work in [an emergency department]," she said.

"But it's not the case."

After a few years in Newcastle, Mrs Urquhart returned to Wagga with her family in 1994 and started working at the community health centre.

She has since cared for thousands of Wagga's children, in what she says is not just a "mother's domain" but something for the whole family, which includes immunisation and developmental checks for infants and toddlers.

"I think every family is different, but ultimately everyone wants to do the best for their babies," she said.

The questions most universally asked of her have always been "Why won't my newborn sleep?" and "Why is my toddler is fussy with foods?".

"That hasn't changed in 26 years," she said.

Her many years of dedication to the community health centre mean she sees people she cared for as newborns return as adults with babies of their own.

"That's really nice actually ... thinking the circle's turning," she said.

"And I certainly run into mums down the street ... and I think: if they have a baby I must have seen them."