Miss Turnbull (52) recently returned from a six-month stint in war-torn northwest Pakistan, working in Peshawar, and in April expects to return to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
It will be her second mission there and her third to Afghanistan, as she served in Jalalabad in 2008.
"Ever since I could talk," she had told her parents she was going to be a nurse when she grew up, and in her mind was the television image of a nurse in Biafra, Nigeria, tending to starving children.
After a lengthy nursing career in New Zealand, she decided in 2008 to offer her services to New Zealand Red Cross and is now seconded to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
She has not been disappointed by the change. In some ways, it was exciting, but it was also hard work.
While some might consider it overwhelming, it was all about helping injured people, no matter what side they were on.
"Of course, I would like there to be no conflict and for them to stop fighting, but if you look at the world, it is probably never going to happen."
People suffering needed help, she said, and if the Red Cross did not help them, who would?Last year's mission was her fourth and involved nursing in a 100-bed tent hospital reminiscent of the television programme M*A*S*H.
For most of her six months, she worked as a theatre nurse, dealing with patients with weapon wounds, although she also was required unexpectedly to do a six-week stint as head nurse.
During her stay, part of the operation was moved to a renovated house, but the wards remained in the tent.
Miss Turnbull said she was impressed with the standard of the hospital, which carried out about 10 surgical procedures a day.
About half the patients were from Afghanistan and some might have spent several days travelling to get there. Some would be very sick by the time they arrived, she said.
The Red Cross operation was close to a 500-bed public hospital which dealt with medical conditions not caused by weapons.
To cope with temperatures above 40degC, the tent was air-conditioned and, in the extreme cold of winter, hot air was piped in.
She had no fears for her security, living in a fairly new part of the city only about five minutes from the hospital by vehicle.
While there were some restrictions on where they could go, there was much more freedom than she will have in Kandahar, where she will live in a locked-down compound.
On her mission there this year, she will be head nurse at a Government-supported hospital which has more beds than Dunedin Hospital, catering for all conditions.
Miss Campbell said much of her work would be helping to train nurses, many of whom did not have formal education and who needed basic skills.
Nursing at the hospital was very much like working in a New Zealand hospital 50 or 60 years ago.
The idea was that eventually the hospital would be staffed by people in the area, but this could take some years.
Miss Turnbull did not know where she might be required after her next engagement, which could turn out to be as long as nine months.
Red Cross was keeping a close eye on developments in the Sudan and that was a possibility.
In the meantime, she was enjoying being back in New Zealand, appreciating its greenness and the fact "you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. It's wonderful."
