Barbara Turnbull spent the past 13 years working with Red Cross surgical teams in war zones.
She had returned to Dunedin, her hometown, to await another Red Cross posting when the pandemic struck New Zealand.
She responded quickly to the Government’s call for doctors and nurses and began volunteering at the Ryman Healthcare Village — a work environment her overseas experience had prepared her for.
When comparing her overseas missions to the Alert Level 4 lockdown, she said it was "the best lockdown" she had been in.
"I have been in lockdowns for a year — in Afghanistan when we could not even go out for a walk," Ms Turnbull said.
"Having said that, you would not want to downgrade the effects of lockdown, especially on people’s mental health."
Over the years, she had taken on 11 Red Cross missions around the world, including in Pakistan, North Korea, the Republic of South Sudan, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Kandahar, she lived in a compound and rarely went outside the gate.
“We would get in the Landcruiser and drive across the road to the hospital where we worked."
The team supported the public hospital which had been devastated due to the conflict.
“We went back, put in some generators, put in some water, refurbished the wards, and got them some medicine.”
Ms Turnbull left her placement in Indonesia in January this year.
In some of the places where she had been deployed, the availability of medical equipment, dressings and essentials were often lacking, something a nurse was not likely to experience in New Zealand, she said.
“Because you go to these places which they call austere environments, you don’t have everything that we take for granted in New Zealand . . . you make do with what you’ve got.”
Ms Turnbull, who completed her nurse training in Dunedin, credited her rural upbringing on a dairy farm on the Taieri Plain for giving her the resilience and resourcefulness needed for her overseas postings.
Despite the "many hardships and eye-openers", she said her work for Red Cross was addictive and she looked forward to being able to go on her next overseas mission.
Her Covid-19 position at Ryman has finished up, but she will work at the Frances Hodgkins Retirement Village, in Dunedin, while the pandemic continues around the world.
