Our upcoming Length of Service Awards will see many employees celebrate important service milestones from 2022. We will continue to share the wonderful stories of our longer-serving employees as we look forward to the grand event.
Clare Lee – Registered Nurse
When Clare Lee arrived at Dandenong Hospital in 1982 to work as a nurse, it still had some of its old wooden buildings and GPs used to admit some patients. As the old buildings were decommissioned, she remembers a few being filled with smoke for fire evacuation drills.
Clare, who had nursed in several private hospitals, worked with older patients for two years before moving to the Children’s Ward, where she spent the next 35 years. She loved helping young patients, who didn’t have computer games back then so were entertained with TV, board games, craft, and drawing. “We had a great play therapist,” she says.
Clare feels privileged to nurse children, whom she usually finds “bright and happy”. In 2019, she moved to the Monash Children’s Hospital and now works in the Forest Ward. The pandemic was challenging pre-vaccines, with separate COVID-19 wards and staff in full-body PPE.
But the Division 1 Registered Nurse still enjoys her job, as it’s the people – her colleagues and patients – that make it worthwhile. She appreciates the company and the effort everyone makes. “We were very close at Dandenong,” she says. “We’d all worked together for years and years.”
Clare, whose late mother was also a nurse, is keen to keep working for a few more years. She also likes going to the gym and playing golf with a local YWCA club. “I’m still enjoying it,” she says of her job.
Rebecca Sagaidoro – Patient Services Assistant
Watching babies that she met as newborns return to have their own children is a special highlight of Rebecca Sagaidoro’s 40 years with Monash Health. Rebecca joined Monash Medical Centre’s service staff in 1982 and has loved every minute of her Patient Services Assistant role.
Rebecca was a dental assistant in the Philippines but has not looked back since arriving in Australia, where she also raised her son, Shaun, 32. “It made a really good life for me,” Rebecca says. “It’s been a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful 40 years. This is my first job and my last job in Australia. I’m so very, very proud of it.”
Now transitioning towards retirement, Rebecca spent 10 years at Prince Henry’s before moving to Monash Medical Centre, where she became a well-known face in the Maternity Ward. Her varied and important role includes ensuring patients’ rooms are ready for them and that they have everything they need.
After all these years, she still loves it.
“Everyone is so joyful,” she says. “Everyone is happy because they had a baby.”
Rebecca’s role was even more critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before most people were vaccinated, she and her colleagues had to be extremely careful. “It was really scary, but we got through and we managed it very well,” she says.
As a Maternity Ward fixture, Rebecca has met many happy parents, including some families where the baby has returned to have their own child. “Now the daughter’s having a child at Monash, and they go to me, ‘you’re still here’,” she says.
A keen gardener, Rebecca unwinds by tending to a range of annual flowers at her home. She particularly loves her orchids. “I spend two hours in the garden every day,” she says. “It has to be two hours.”
Approved by Louise Kanis and Katrina Nankervis