Jenny leads the way to 40 years

Grampians Health is celebrating 40 years of service for energetic Oxley nurse unit manager Jenny Vague. 

Jenny started as a student nurse at Wimmera Base Hospital in 1986 and by 1989, she was working as an ANUM in Ward 7 – a mixed medical surgical ward.  

When the new hospital was built, Jenny moved to the new medical ward in Wyuna as an ANUM where she completed her Bachelor of Nursing studies. In 2012, Jenny was appointed nurse unit manager of Oxley, sharing the role with Judy Wood until Judy’s retirement last year. 

Jenny has also held such roles as AMNF representative, no-lift coordinator, Infection Control manager and the unofficial florist of the Oxley ward. She is also an excellent wildlife photographer. She worked 22 years in Infection Control and said Jan Spencer was a fabulous teacher. She loved the proactive nature of Infection Control, though COVID was one of her most challenging times.  

“Our team of Sally, Rache, Amy, Kate and Tara worked together to guide the community with the information we had available,” she said. “It felt like our work mattered.” 

Jenny was also a nurse immuniser for more than two decades, administering thousands of flu shots in that time. As an ANUM she had fabulous unit managers who moulded her into the leader she is today. They include Helen Watt and Janette McCabe.  

Jenny has had many memorable moments throughout her career but one story in particular will never leave her. 

Early in her career Jenny was working in Ward 7 under a particularly austere manager. They had just been issued with the very latest model in ECG monitors and the manager gave strict instructions that it was to remain on the ward at all times. 

On a day the manager was not working, another ward asked if it could borrow the new $11,000 ECG and Jenny chose to defy orders and personally deliver it to the ward. As she was wheeling the trolley with the ECG past the kitchen, the power cord became caught in the wheels and tipped the trolley. 

In one dramatic action, the ECG slid off the trolley and smashed while the trolley tipped with Jenny landing flat on her face on top of it. It was a memorable site for the kitchen staff who had a full view of the comical spectacle through their window to the passage. 

A sheepish Jenny then had to return to the ward and explain her actions to the indignant charge nurse. 

Jenny’s colleagues describe her as a humorous story-teller and a compassionate and fair leader with a bright, infectious personality and an incongruous fondness for cuss words. She is highly respected by both her colleagues and peers. Her career in health has also inspired her children to steer similar paths with son Jack becoming a pharmacist and managing a Horsham pharmacy and her daughter Louisa is a podiatrist. 

Accepting her award, Jenny said she thoroughly enjoyed her career at WBH and had made many enduring friendships. 

“I am very blessed and honoured to have worked here for all these years,” Jenny said. 

“I was a Willaura girl and in 1986 I had a choice to train at Royal Melbourne Hospital or Wimmera Base Hospital. I chose Horsham and was part of the last group of hospital-trained nurses at WBH. 

“I planned to give WBH three years then move to Melbourne but I met my future husband in Horsham and we bought a house and that was that. I have made amazing friends, especially the nurses I started working with and I’ve enjoyed an amazing community.  

“I have seen a lot of changes, not always good ones but we keep rolling with the times and reinventing ourselves as nurses. The basic doctrine remains the same that we want to provide good care to the people in our community. 

“I am proud of my role in managing Oxley. It has been a training ground for many. I felt like we have helped thousands of nurses to start their careers and move on into fields they enjoy so we’ve done a lot to provide the community with its nursing team. 

“The basics of nursing haven’t changed but documentation has, and we have become a very risk-averse society which has been both a good thing and at times a hindrance.” 

Jenny has job-shared her NUM role for 13 years with Judy Wood and now with Helen Hill and said it was a hard but rewarding role. 

Grampians Health Chief Operating Officer Ben Kelly congratulated Jenny on her commitment and outstanding contribution, noting the particularly difficult job she had heading Infection Control at Horsham and Dimboola during Covid.