For Ken, becom­ing a facil­i­ta­tor for the Remote Emer­gency Care (REC) course wasn’t just about teach­ing. It was about giv­ing back – to a pro­fes­sion he loves, and to peo­ple he has learned to respect. 

Ken start­ed nurs­ing at 17, joined the ambu­lance ser­vice in 1979, and became an inten­sive care para­medic by 1984. His work even­tu­al­ly includ­ed heli­copter retrievals in remote regions – where he first saw just how vital rur­al nurs­es are to their communities. 

“We’d fly in to retrieve patients, but those nurs­es were the ones hold­ing it all togeth­er, often with­out a doc­tor on site, often using min­i­mal equip­ment,” he says. 

“And they are the ones who stay in the com­mu­ni­ty, con­tin­u­ing to care for patients who might return home with life-chang­ing injuries. They’re not just clin­i­cians – they’re neigh­bours, sup­port peo­ple, advocates. 

“The way they man­age patients is exemplary.” 

Over the years, Ken trav­elled through­out Aus­tralia as a CRANAplus facil­i­ta­tor, bring­ing crit­i­cal train­ing to nurs­es where they live and work. He believes that the pro­vi­sion of CRANAplus cours­es in rur­al and remote set­tings isn’t just con­ve­nient – it’s essential.

“It allows nurs­es to do the course near their fam­i­lies and their work­places. That mat­ters,” he says. 

“The tyran­ny of dis­tance is real, and being able to learn in place keeps them con­nect­ed to their communities.”

“It’s such a great thing to pass knowl­edge on,” he says. 

“To help peo­ple under­stand things they didn’t feel com­fort­able ask­ing any­where else.” 

Ken empha­sis­es that it’s not just about clin­i­cal knowledge. 

“It’s about cre­at­ing a space where peo­ple feel com­fort­able enough to ask ques­tions,” he says. 

“That’s why hav­ing these ses­sions local­ly is so pow­er­ful – you’re more relaxed in famil­iar sur­round­ings. You feel seen.” 

He also sees facil­i­ta­tion as a two-way exchange. 

“It’s a bilat­er­al thing. You give, but you learn too. I worked with a tremen­dous group of facil­i­ta­tors and I also learned a lot from the course par­tic­i­pants I met along the way.”

Ken’s time in rur­al health has shown him how emo­tion­al­ly tax­ing the work can be. 

“In the city, we for­get what iso­la­tion real­ly feels like,” he says. 

“There’s not always some­one to debrief with, espe­cial­ly after sig­nif­i­cant events.” 

He’s a strong advo­cate for the CRANAplus Bush Sup­port Line, both pro­fes­sion­al­ly and personally. 

“The stronger per­son is the one who’s brave enough to say, ​‘I need help.’” 

After the sud­den death of his sis­ter, Ken turned to the Bush Sup­port Line for support. 

“It helped. It real­ly did,” he says. 

Now close to 70, Ken says it was very dif­fi­cult for him to step away from facilitating. 

“It was a very hard deci­sion,” he admits. 

“But there are younger, smarter peo­ple ready to take it on. I’d say to any­one think­ing about vol­un­teer­ing: ​‘just do it’. You’re not los­ing any­thing. You’re gain­ing. You learn, and you feel good about yourself.”