Robyn and Sue are on the same wave­length in a way that only twins can be. 

Robyn says, ​“We always think the same. We still send each oth­er the same gifts at Christ­mas and for birth­days. One year, Sue instinc­tive­ly sent me a pair of shoes – the same style that I had lost.” 

So, it only makes sense that they both end­ed up in the field of nurs­ing from the time they were teenagers. 

Sue always knew she want­ed to become a nurse, inspired by the pho­to in their fam­i­ly home of her grand­moth­er in her nurs­ing cap. How­ev­er, Robyn came around to the idea when an oppor­tu­ni­ty to enrol in Enrolled Nurse (EN) train­ing came up, and with a lack of employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties around at the time, she thought, ​“Why not?” 

Both sis­ters remem­ber how dif­fer­ent nurs­ing was when they first start­ed out. 

“RNs were referred to as ​‘Sis­ters’ and all wore long white veils,” Robyn recalls.

“The Sis­ters were very intim­i­dat­ing and almost noth­ing was dis­pos­able … we ster­ilised our glass syringes and man­u­al­ly re-sharp­ened stain­lesssteel needles.” 

Sue adds, ​“It was a hands-on approach to nurs­ing. There wasn’t much avail­able in the way of fan­cy equip­ment to trans­fer patients from point A to B. We lift­ed, we show­ered and made every bed each day. We brushed teeth (that were most­ly false ones, mind you).”

“Test­ing urine was a tedious process which con­sist­ed of boil­ing urine over a Bun­sen burn­er … I was very impressed with Mul­ti­stix when they first appeared,” Robyn laughs.

Since those days, Robyn has worked as a mid­wife, ED nurse prac­ti­tion­er and remote area nurse (RAN), now under­go­ing PhD stud­ies at QUT on antic­i­pa­to­ry anx­i­ety and dis­com­fort in ED patients. Sue has worked in many ED roles after com­plet­ing her post­grad­u­ate cer­tifi­cate in emer­gency nurs­ing, and worked as a RAN through­out most states, from Kal­go­or­lie to the Tor­res Strait. 

The twins were excit­ed to work togeth­er for sev­er­al years in the emer­gency depart­ment at Mack­ay Hos­pi­tal, both empha­sis­ing that it was like work­ing with a best friend.

Sue says, ​“My sis­ter taught me so much in our field of emergency.”

Robyn also appre­ci­at­ed hav­ing her twin around at work.

“Sue always looked after me. I would go back to the desk to write a patient note, and there’s a hot cof­fee there! She always had my back, looked after me, kept me in the loop and could always antic­i­pate my next move. I would go to see a patient, and she would always know exact­ly how I would man­age the patient and have all the gear there ready to go.

“A cou­ple of times though, med­ical teams (who didn’t know I had a twin) would tell Sue their patient man­age­ment plan instead of me, which caused some confusion.”

Aside from their iden­ti­cal appear­ance, one notice­able sim­i­lar­i­ty in these sis­ters is the admi­ra­tion they have for each other. 

Robyn says, ​“I think Sue is a great nurse, much bet­ter than I am. Sue has saved mul­ti­ple people’s lives, par­tic­u­lar­ly in remote area car­diac arrests, and received com­men­da­tions for her actions in dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances. Sue’s also been involved in mul­ti­ple baby’s deliv­er­ies despite not being a mid­wife. She’s very glad for hav­ing attend­ed the CRANAplus Mater­ni­ty Emer­gency Care course. 

“There is not much that fazes Sue, she just gets on with it. I also admire Sue’s unique abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate open­ly and frankly with peo­ple. We have a good laugh about this sometimes.” 

While Sue com­plete­ly mir­rors her sister’s sentiments. 

“She is my guru. I can’t com­pete with Robyn’s knowl­edge base. Robyn is excep­tion­al after all these years work­ing as an ED nurse prac­ti­tion­er. Wow, I am very proud of her.” 

The pair have come to share a mutu­al love for remote area nurs­ing over the years, too. 

Robyn says, ​“I have trav­elled all over Aus­tralia and met a lot of love­ly peo­ple. I think if any nurse feels that they need a change and a chal­lenge, then con­sid­er RAN work. I haven’t looked back!” 

“Change is great for get­ting out of your com­fort zone and broad­en­ing your knowl­edge.” Sue adds, 

“I nev­er know what patient pre­sen­ta­tions I’m going to be faced with each day – It’s nev­er bor­ing! I’ve met so many won­der­ful peo­ple and worked at places I’d nev­er have thought to go to. I’m 64 now and have no inten­tion of retir­ing any­time yet!” 

“Let more adven­tures begin, maybe some more future con­tracts with my sis­ter would be an added touch of lovely!”