Mother-of-four, volunteer firefighter and former helicopter owner-operator Nicole Lilburn added another significant string to her well-threaded bow when she was recently capped with EIT’s Bachelor of Nursing degree.
It’s been quite a journey for the cancer survivor, who joined the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s community mental health team in Hastings at the start of the year.
Raised and schooled in Napier, Nicole moved to Taupo where she meet the father of her children – Ruby, Olivia, Christian and Ella. In 2000, the couple bought a helicopter for agricultural work and to offer scenic flights to tourists.
Eleven years later, Nicole and the children, now aged six to 14, moved back to Hawke’s Bay where she enrolled in an EIT certificate programme to prepare her for nursing degree studies.
“I would highly recommend anyone doing it that way,” she says. “It gives you experience for science, a great grounding and understanding when you haven’t done study for a time.”
Juggling studies and parenting was a challenge and Nicole is grateful for the support she had around that.
“I’ve always believed it takes a community to raise a family. I’m passionate about that.”
She didn’t expect her lecturers to treat her any differently to her classmates, however.
“If I was struggling with a deadline I could apply for an extension just like any other student. It’s just about communicating with your teachers.”
Nicole had practicums in the Hawke’s Bay Hospital’s ICU and emergency departments but it was her experience in community mental health at Wairoa Hospital that decided her future direction.
“Mental health needs some passionate people involved,” she says of the commitment needed for patient care. “You would never say ‘it’s just cancer, get over it’, so why do some people say that about depression?”
Nicole admits to her own mental struggle in accepting a melanoma diagnosis when her son was just 12 weeks old.
“I used to tell the doctors they were wrong. I was in total denial.”
After surgery, she opted for intravenous Vitamin C and working with a naturopath over more conventional treatments and feels that worked for her.
“It’s about appropriate choices,” she says about her philosophy on health. “There’s definitely a place for medication in mental health but there are other avenues we can explore as well.
“With some that might mean working with music or art. Snuggling up with weighted blankets and stuffed animals can make people feel safe. There are lots of different methods we can use. It’s also about working with whānau.
“So it’s not just looking at the patient but also at the bigger picture.”
Winner of the School of Nursing’s Dianna Lewer Memorial Scholarship for excellence in mental health nursing, Nicole isn’t about to rest on her graduate laurels.
Her next challenge is taking part in May’s Sky Tower Stair Challenge as a member of the Napier Volunteers Fire Service team. The event is to raise funds for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand. And the 10-year plan is to become a specialist in mental health, perhaps working as a Nurse Practitioner or moving into management.
“I aim to give 110 percent when I take anything on,” she says. “I don’t commit unless I know I can give it my all.”