Weipa nurse Grace-Ann Prentice conducts eye tests in Cambodia. Photo: Supplied.
A Weipa surgical nurse who volunteered in Cambodia last month is already itching to go back after a “life-changing” experience helping locals with their vision.
Grace-Ann Prentice travelled with not-for-profit organisation Cambodia Vision, providing eye and ear testing, and assisting with surgeries.
“We provided help for anything to do with eyesight, and also hearing; they can get a hearing aid, they either get glasses to help them see or they come and have cataract surgery with us,” Ms Prentice said.
“We also did GP appointments – a lot of the patients in Cambodia have poorly controlled diabetes due to their diet, and poorly controlled hypertension, and that’s the reason Cambodians have a lot of issues with their vision, so they came to see the GP to get medications for those.
“I was assisting in the clinic, so doing eye checks on the patients, and once we had more numbers of patients and knew who needed what, I started assisting the eye surgeon with the eye surgeries.”
Ms Prentice, who currently works in the Weipa Hospital maternity ward, said she was inspired by a fellow nurse to take the trip.
“We have a wonderful nurse named Peter who comes up to Weipa every year to work with the eye team to do outreach programs at the hospital, and he was actually the one that got me into it,” she said.
“He’s been going for three years now and he suggested that I come this year, and it’s been a great experience.”
The nurse said she was already making plans to be involved again next year, and encouraged others to think about doing the same.
“I encourage everyone to get involved; you don’t have to be a healthcare worker to be involved, you can be anyone and go over there,” Ms Prentice said.
“There’s lots of things they need help with; they need people doing things like registration and assisting blind people to make sure they’re going to the correct clinic as well, so it’s definitely not only healthcare workers that are needed.
“It was just incredible – one of the best experiences of my life so far, and I’ll definitely be doing it again.”
