Senior Nurse and Disaster Medical Assistant
What was first thought to be a few oversized waves and minor damage to Indonesian villages, soon ballooned into a story of massive devastation and the loss of almost 300,000 lives.
While all most of us could do was watch the tragedy of the 2004 South-East Asia tsunami unfold on the television, Perth woman Muriel Leclercq was right in the midst of it, helping to lead a disaster medical assistance team to the Maldives to help assess the damage to the health infrastructure and provide much needed medical treatment.
"Muriel and the team arrived four days after the tsunami hit and went straight to work, with Muriel leading a sub-team that visited many islands in the southern part of the Maldives. They put in 18 hour days in order to treat the injured."
Muriel splits her time between a demanding role as a senior emergency department nurse at Royal Perth Hospital and a job as a senior policy officer in the Disaster Preparedness and Management Unit of the Department of Health. Her nursing work involves treating patients and mentoring and training junior staff. In the Department of Health, she helps develop policies and procedures for the assistance team, develops and recruits the volunteer base, and assists in consultation nationally on the development of Australian Medical Assistance Teams (AUSMATs). The occurrence of recent world events has seen an increase in the need to be prepared and ready for a disaster or a terrorist attack. Western Australia has been the first state in our nation to develop an AUSMAT.
The Maldives, a series of idyllic atolls south-west of India, is the flattest country in the world, so it is no wonder it was greatly affected by the Boxing Day 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Muriel and the team arrived four days after the tsunami hit and went straight to work, with Muriel leading a sub-team that visited many islands in the southern part of the Maldives. They put in 18-hour days in order to treat the injured. The local people were very grateful for any help as they were desperately short of food, water and medical care.
Two years later, the team was deployed to Java, Indonesia after the May 2006 earthquake and Muriel, once again, took the role of deputy team leader. They set up health clinics in the most devastated areas of Bantul and Klaten and helped provide treatment to some of the 45,000 casualties. “Even three weeks after the earthquake, we came across injured locals who had not yet seen a doctor.” There was an urgent need for primary care and rehabilitation: “The donation of a wheelchair or walking frame was life changing for these people.”
After completing high school in South Africa, Muriel began her hospital based nursing training in order to obtain a Diploma in Nursing. She and her family then immigrated to Australia in 1986 where she completed her training.
While working full-time in the emergency department at Royal Perth Hospital, Muriel attended Curtin University to convert her diploma into a nursing degree. A strong interest in disaster management led to her involvement in the development of a disaster response plan that would allow Perth hospitals to cope with mass casualties. She also began managing Royal Perth Hospital’s Emergency Procedures and Disaster Preparedness. In 2006, she started working for the Department of Health part time.
"Emergency nursing requires you to ‘think fast on your feet and [have] the ability to deal with whatever walks through the door’. It also can put you in dangerous situations because of alcohol and drug fuelled aggression."
Muriel has been a part of the emergency department of Royal Perth Hospital since the early nineties, and it is this expertise and experience that enables her to be so effective in caring for disaster victims overseas. Emergency nursing requires you to ‘think fast on your feet and [have] the ability to deal with whatever walks through the door’. It also can put you in dangerous situations because of alcohol and drug fuelled aggression.
“I often think if there was no alcohol and drugs in society, Emergency Department staff would be under worked.” Muriel has been physically assaulted three times while nursing. Hospitals have tried to protect their staff by training them in aggression management but nurses must still treat the patients, regardless of how disorderly their behaviour is.
For those interested in pursuing careers based in disaster relief or emergency health, Muriel feels that one of the most vital attributes you need is a ’willingness to help people in distress... putting your own needs and ego to one side in order to help others is very important’. These kinds of jobs put you in a position where you will need to work with others and communicate with different types of people. The high stress factor and confrontational nature of the work means that it’s not for everyone, but Muriel is genuinely passionate about what she does. ‘I enjoy being able to help people in need, it makes you feel like you have accomplished something at the end of the day’.
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