By ANEEKA SIMONIS
Strap: Third generation takes up nursing career …
BEING a nurse is a special job.
And the St John of God Berwick Hospital is celebrating a special family who, for three generations, have been committed to providing care and comfort to people in need.
Scott Joustra, a recent nursing graduate, decided to follow in his mother and late grandmother’s footsteps earlier this year by taking on a career in care at the vastly transformed hospital.
“It’s humbling in a way to practice as a registered nurse where grandma once worked,” Mr Joustra said.
Scott’s grandmother, Beryl Wilson, began nursing at the hospital in the early 1950s when there were just seven beds at the small cottage facility.
“Back when mum used to work at the hospital, they had their own milking cow and kitchen staff had to milk the cow each morning for their patients. They also grew all their vegetables on the land,” said Scott’s mother and second generation nurse Sally Joustra.
“The staff also used to live on-site at a staff bungalow at the back,” she recalled.
Inspired by her mother’s rewarding experiences with what was then known as the Berwick Bush Nursing Hospital, Sally Joustra began her nursing career in 1984 in the hope that she might touch as many lives as her mother.
“The choice to nurse was shaped by my mother,” she said as she reflected on the past 30 years she spent working at the hospital.
“The way she talked about nursing and how it could take you places, meet lots of interesting people and always have something to learn and challenge you was very inspiring.”
Now called the St John of God Berwick Hospital, boasting more than 10 times the beds compared to when Beryl worked at the hospital, Sally said her late mother would certainly share in the joy and pride she felt for Scott “carrying on the family tradition”.
“I’m very pleased that he has been able to use his natural intuition and skills to develop a profession that will always be needed.
“Mum would have been delighted to have seen her nursing skills passed onto successive generations,” she said.
Hospital CEO Lisa Norman commended the Joustra/Wilson family on their record dedication to the health of patients over more than 60 years.
“There has been many two generation families work at Berwick however this is our first three generation family,” she said.
The hospital will undergo another transformation as a new facility is expected to open opposite Monash Health’s Casey Hospital in Berwick by 2017.
