Celebrate ethnic diversity

Staff members and students highlighted their diverse ethnicity but shared mission during International Nurses Day celebrations on Avondale College of Higher Education’s Sydney campus, May 13.

Students Justus Cana, Denise Wilson, Geena Burton, Daniel Siv celebrate International Nurses Day.
Credit: Tamera Gosling.

Students stuck dots on a world map projected onto a wall during morning tea to show the country of their birth—39 countries are represented across the three years of the Bachelor of Nursing degree at Avondale—and the country in which they intended to work after graduation.

Janine Croker also spoke about her goal of completing her education and then returning to the developing world to help address wound care needs. The mature age first-year student, who had previously studied nursing but never completed the degree, has completed mission trips, particularly to countries in Asia.

The students then watched two videos, one promoting the international charity Mercy Ships, showing the joy of nursing overseas in developing countries.

Chaplain Dr Drene Somasundram offered a prayer for all nurses, particularly alumni serving in Australia and around the world and students completing their training.

Nursing has much in common with mission service. “It’s meeting a felt need,” says lecturer Sonja Dawson. “You earn the right to share the gospel when you help someone by showing care and compassion.”

Sonja and colleague Kerry Miller lead teams of students on clinical learning experiences at Atoifi Adventist Hospital on Malaita in the Solomon Islands—a team visits again in October this year. The trip serves as an introduction to medical-focused mission. Other trips involving nursing students include those organised by student club One Mission to Bangladesh and to Vietnam, the latter in partnership with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Australia.

International Nurses Day is held on May 12 each year, the anniversary of modern nursing founder Florence Nightingale’s birth. It honours nurses and the contribution they make to society. The International Council of Nurses has celebrated the day since 1965. Its theme for this year: Closing the Gap, which addresses the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women by 2015.