Gayle Woodford: WA nurse resigns after fearing for her safety at remote Aboriginal community.

By Rhiannon Shine.

A West Australian nurse working in a remote area has resigned from her position after becoming increasingly concerned for her personal safety following the killing of SA nurse Gayle Woodford.

Kristina Midolo took up a position as a single-post remote area nurse in an Aboriginal community in WA’s Goldfields region earlier this year.

She resigned this week after an incident on Saturday that she said left her feeling vulnerable and frightened.

“I was in a situation in the clinic where I had a child that I was tending to, and family members were constantly going in and out of the back door,” she said.

“I did have two other registered nurses in the building however they did not remain in the clinical area with me.

“This resulted in about 20 to 30 people in the clinical area with me alone at one stage.

“I was very vulnerable.”

Ms Midolo said she would often be called out after hours to attend jobs on her own.

“You would go home in the evening and there would be constant callouts,” she said.

“In my first two weeks in the position I did 97-plus hours. I was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Ms Midolo said she strongly supported calls for staff to be prevented from being called out to after-hours jobs alone and to abolish single-nurse posts.

A campaign to reform these conditions for Remote Area Nursing (RAN) jobs has continued to build after Mrs Woodford’s body was found in a shallow grave near Fregon in South Australia’s far north on Saturday.

Ms Midolo said she felt “on edge” when Mrs Woodford went missing.

“I was shattered,” she said.

“I felt extremely vulnerable and extremely frightened.”

Concern nurses will be deterred from RAN posts

The president of CRANA plus, Australia’s peak body for remote and isolated health workers, said she was concerned nurses would be deterred from taking up RAN positions in the wake of the tragedy.

“There are a lot of really good experiences that people have out there, that is what attracts remote area nurses,” Dr Janie Smith said.

“They have an advanced scope of practice, they actually do the sorts of things that doctors would normally do in an urban environment.

“And they are out there because they love the lifestyle, they love the type of work, they love the community and the people, most of the time.

“There has always been a high turnover rate of remote area nurses in a lot of communities in Australia.

“There may be a backlash as a result of this and that would be very concerning.”

Ngaanyatjarra Health Service currently has two single-nurse posts in Western Australia.

Chief executive James Garry said the company had instructed all staff not to do callouts alone following Mrs Woodford’s death.

“We also are putting in place a personal duress alarm to be issued to all staff with training,” Mr Garry said.

“The safety measures in place are duress alarms in all clinics, radio and phone for contacting police.

“NHS management are on call 24/7 [and] the ambulances have a satellite phone and Navman (GPS).

“On callouts the nurse also has a mobile phone.”

WA Country Health Service runs 17 single-nurse posts

Western Australian Country Health Service operates 25 of the 39 nursing posts across the state.

Kimberley regional director of nursing and midwifery Carmen Morgan told ABC Kimberley that 17 of those were single-nurse posts.

“We are endeavouring to continuously reduce risks associated with isolation, fatigue and safety,” she said.

“The things that the WA Country Health Service has put in place are around making policy and procedure work for remote area nurses.

“Their safety is in the front of all our minds.

“We all feel that we would not put our daughters or our sons in this situation.

“What we are doing as a service is really heeding what the nurses have been saying to us over a period of time.

“We are constantly reviewing all of this and looking at different care models.”

This post originally appeared on ABC News.