Rita nurses love of helping

By Bridget Cook
HALLAM resident Rita Lazzarotto says her profession allows her to juggle her three interests – travelling, social life and to meet and care for new people.
Ms Lazzarotto celebrated the love of her job and promoted it to others in the community as part of International Nurses Day.
The day is celebrated around the globe annually on 12 May, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, who established nursing as a respectable profession for women.
Ms Lazzarotto said the day aimed to commemorate the hard work nurses and midwives do and acknowledge how valuable they are in today’s society.
“The day also helps promote the profession and inspire those who are thinking of becoming a nurse,” she said.
“They are so important in today’s society. Everyone will require the services of a nurse or midwife at least once in their life.”
Ms Lazzarotto, a critical car nurse and qualified school teacher, has been in the industry for about 12 years.
She said she gets more job satisfaction in her role as a nurse.
“In nursing, you only ever get praised,” she said.
“I’m a people person and I love the patient contact. It’s great being around people and helping make them better.”
She said another bonus of the job was that every day was different.
“There’s constantly new medical research coming … no two days are the same,” she said.
“You also nurse patient’s holistically, you nurse their families as well,” she said.
“Some days you’re not just a nurse, but a psychologist, social worker and pharmacist.”
As an agency nurse, Ms Lazzarotto said her job was flexible and allowed her to travel and maintain a social life.
She even took time out from her job in 2005 to appear as a housemate in reality television show, Big Brother.
“I have worked on cruise ships and in remote areas of Australia as a nurse,” she said. “As an agency nurse, I can pick up as many hours as I want to meet financial demands, then I go off and travel.”
Ms Lazzarotto encouraged everyone to join the profession, including men – which the profession had become more popular for.