Adelaide nurse Joy Booth sees the joy and hope that “life-changing” reconstructive surgery can bring to young people in Timor-Leste, but the working environment is often a stark departure from Australian clinical conditions.
Ms Booth recently embarked on her 11th surgical trip to train and assist local health staff.
She has worked at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for more than 35 years, but said her travels to Timor-Leste has been “one of the most rewarding” parts of her working life.
“Going to Timor-Leste has really shown me everything is about building relationships – if you build relationships and trust, then the learning and teaching follows,” Ms Booth said.
For the past 10 years, Joy Booth has helped train health staff in Timor-Leste. (Supplied: SA Health)
She is part of a craniofacial surgical team that specialises in correcting developmental and congenital conditions affecting the face, jaw and mouth.
While Timor-Leste is just 90 minutes by plane from Darwin, Ms Booth said the medical workforce there often faces limitations with supplies, equipment and power failures, making it difficult to operate.
Ms Booth said while Australian hospitals had temperature and humidity controls in their operating theatres, it was a different story in Timor-Leste.
“It can be quite hot in the OR [operating room] … Especially in the afternoon, the AC [air conditioners] often don’t work, there’s often power failures,” she said.
“When it’s raining a lot, the AC will go, the lights will go, electricity will go, so that can also be very challenging at times.”
Ms Booth said supplies and equipment were also an issue.
“If we go there and do 40 operations, we need to be very careful with their stock, their drugs,” she said.
“We can’t then deplete them so they can’t do work for the rest of the month until the ship arrives with the next amount of consumables.”
The team conducts about 40 operations each trip, focusing on cleft lip and cleft palette surgery. (Supplied: SA Health)
But Ms Booth said she had seen plenty of progress in the 10 years she had been travelling to Timor-Leste.
She said the goal was to empower local staff to eventually manage the work on their own.
“I’ve seen remarkable improvements and change and they’re on track, but they still need our help and support to make that happen,” she said.
“Education underpins everything we do on these trips.”
The nurse travels with Adelaide-based non-for-profit organisation Overseas Specialist Surgical Association of Australia (OSSAA), which completes up to 100 consults and around 40 operations each trip.
“That specifically focuses on cleft lip and cleft palate surgery, and minor burns as well, usually on babies and very young children,” Ms Booth said.
“Young children and babies [with these conditions] often have feeding problems, they’re undernourished, unwell and can have ear issues.”
Ms Booth says the surgeries help children ‘have a very productive life’. (Supplied: SA Health)
Ms Booth said despite the challenging operating conditions, seeing families come back “happy and proud” made it all worthwhile.
“When you see the smiles on the parents when the children has had surgery, and you see the children afterwards smiling as well, it is life-changing for them,” she said.
“Nothing describes how good that makes you feel.”
Central Adelaide Local Health Network executive director of nursing, Amanda Clark, said Ms Booth demonstrated the “life-changing impact our nurses have on others”.
“We are so proud to see how her work improves many lives and gives people the best possible health, while sharing her knowledge to upskill future generations of nurses,” she said.
