As AC/DC were releasing their first international album, Karen Walker was starting her first year of nursing.
But Karen is more of an Angels fan.
“I wasn’t an AC/DC fan, I went to the Angels concerts many times,” Karen said.
Karen is currently on annual leave ahead of her retirement, where she’ll book-end a 50-year career.
She began her nursing training in 1976, having already volunteered for two years.
“Back then, you could only be a teacher, a nurse, a secretary or a travel agent, really, that’s all the women did back then in the 60s and 70s,” Karen said.
She describes a very different world with much stricter formalities, where first year students would have to stop in the corridor and put their back to the wall to let second- or third-year students pass.
She was just 16 years old when she began her training at Blacktown Hospital.
“I was very shy and naive when I first started,” Karen said.
“I can remember so much of my training and a lot of the patients,” Karen said.
Western Sydney has always been an alluring place to visit, with Karen meeting some of the biggest leaders from the Dalai Lama to Gough Whitlam.
“Gough came and opened up the Whitlam Joint Replacement Centre at Fairfield Hospital with his wife,” Karen said.
While she’s met a number of high-profile people, they’re not the top of her mind when she reflects on her career.
“It’s the people I worked with and the patients that I remember the most,” Karen said.
Despite changes to technology or hierarchy or the way people train for their jobs, Karen says the drive that leads people into nursing remains unchanged.
“They have the urge to do the right thing for a patient, to get the best care for them,” Karen said.
Karen says taking a holistic approach to patient care has been a huge contributor to a fulfilling career.
“Care is looking at the whole patient. Just reassurance to the patient that we’re doing the best we can, that you’re there for them,” Karen said.
The bonds that Karen has made with her colleagues will endure long after her career chapter closes.
“I’ll miss the people I work with. Working at the hospital, it felt like home,’ Karen said.
Karen is looking forward to spending more time with her grandchildren, and turning off her morning alarm.