Kerrin Smart is retiring after an almost half-century long nursing career.
Photo by
JORDAN TOWNROW
After helping thousands of mothers deliver their babies during an illustrious 43-year midwifery career, associate nurse and midwife unit manager Kerrin Smart has pulled on her scrubs for the final time.
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A stalwart of Echuca Regional Health’s maternity ward, Ms Smart has seen a great deal of change since joining the hospital in 1988.
“I’ve been a nurse for 49 years, and a midwife for 43 years,” Ms Smart said.
“(There’s been) a lot of change in the processes and technology as well as our practices.
“A lot of change in the amount of time the women spend in hospital after they have their baby, how we care for women, the monitoring, the guidelines.
“The one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of being there with women and supporting women.”
That’s what’s kept Ms Smart in the same career for so long: the women.
“I love the work,” she said.
“I love the birth suite, I love the camaraderie, the people I work with.
“As a smaller place, we work as a really good team, and I suppose because of that, we all know each other so well.”
Kerrin Smart with members of ERH’s maternity ward team.
Photo by
JORDAN TOWNROW
Working across both the old Rose Baker Wing and the new maternity ward, Ms Smart has well and truly left her mark on ERH.
She helped set up ERH’s midwife antenatal clinic and, determined to help her team provide the best care possible, was instrumental in bringing Practical Obstetric Multi-Professional Training or PROMPT, an educational tool to help multi-practitioners work through different scenarios together, to the hospital.
Those projects are some of Ms Smart’s biggest achievements, but ask her what she’s most proud of, and an answer immediately springs to mind.
“Doing a masters of midwifery while I had three kids and was juggling work, study and everything else.”
Given her experience, Ms Smart has worked with, assisted and mentored countless young nurses, midwives and others beginning their healthcare journeys.
Though she treats them all with love, respect, and compassion, one of her co-workers holds a place in her heart above all the rest.
“My daughter is a midwife here too,” Ms Smart said.
“(I’ve been working with her since) 2019 and that’s been really special.
“She’s on maternity leave at the moment, and she said to me, ‘Mum can you hang on a bit longer so we can do a night duty together?’ because she’s back next month.
Kerrin Smart with her daughter, fellow ERH midwife Rylee Kruger
Photo by
JORDAN TOWNROW
As tempting as one more night shift with her daughter sounds, it doesn’t quite fit into Ms Smart’s retirement plans.
“I said no,” she said.
“(Retirement will) probably be more of what I do now, except coming in to work,” she said.
“Travel, family, friends, more time for socialising, gardening.”
After her final shift on August 21, Ms Smart was joined by friends, family, and colleagues to celebrate a long and storied career.
Kerrin’s grandson Rudy holds up the sign her made for her.
Photo by
JORDAN TOWNROW
Walking through a ward decked out with pictures of her, she was led by her children and grandchildren to an outside courtyard where she was presented with gifts and showered with love and appreciation during speeches from her co-workers.
Smiling as she reflected on her journey, Ms Smart thanked everyone who had helped her throughout her career and told the crowd what she part of retirement she was most excited for.
“I love the babies,” she said.
“I’ll really miss the mums and the babies... (but) I’m looking forward to not setting an alarm.”
Kerrin Smart alongside her children Fraser and Rylee Kruger.
Photo by
JORDAN TOWNROW
