Bundoora’s Jayne Dicketts seems like she was always destined to help people.
Having grown up in a small community, her mother was the backbone of the local community volunteering for everything and anything.
That progressed through to Ms Dicketts. A qualified nurse, Ms Dicketts naturally leant into community health.
The combination of her profession and volunteering has seen her award the Medal of the Order (OAM) in the Australia Day honours.
Ms Dicketts said she thinks her family will be quite stunned but also impressed by the honour.
She said keeping the secret had been quite challenging.
“I think I got an email informing me about it and three weeks ago, I got confirmation,” she said. “I think it will be pretty special, it was very unexpected and a very nice surprise.”
Ms Dicketts has been a registered nurse since 2004 working in the Austin Hospital’s in the home department.
She said that role was about doing what they could to try and keep people out of hospital and in the comfort of their own home.
Having seen what it means for the community to come together to help others, Ms Dicketts decided she was to help as well.
“I think it was in my nature,” she said. “I thought, what skills do I have?
“I thought I’m a nurse and I kind of like first aid, so it sort of happened organically.”
Ms Dicketts joined St John Ambulance in 2005 and has been a member ever since. She has been the divisional manager at Moreland since 2010.
She said she loved her team of volunteers who were happy each week to turn up and do their bit.
In 2021, she joined the Australian Red Cross and is an emergency services volunteer.
“Seeing everyone from all walks of life come together step forward as one to do whatever is necessary, quite special to be part of that,” she said.
“It’s a pretty incredible thing, everyone is working towards that common goal.”
Ms Dicketts, who has received a number of awards including the St John Ambulance Service Medal, said the Black Saturday bushfires was one of the biggest events that she had attended.
If Ms Dicketts wasn’t busy enough she is currently studying to further progress her skills.
“I’m finishing my last year of post grad study,” she said. “I’m doing my masters of wound care, and looking to get into more an exclusive care space as wounds are just a massive problem for australia
“They are huge and it really needs expertise in that area.”It is challenging to access the right help at the right time
“If the wound gets the right treatment at the right time it will heal at a much quicker trajectory.”
