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Medical Laboratory Technician at NSW Health Pathology’s Wagga Wagga Laboratory, Sheena Hatfield, reflects on her career which began in 1978.
In the heart of Wagga Wagga’s NSW Health Pathology Laboratory, there isn’t a department or discipline that Sheena hasn’t worked in.
Sheena is a special person whose career has spanned 46 and a half years and has left a mark on both her colleagues in the lab and local patients.
Sheena joined the Riverina College of Advanced Education (which later became Charles Sturt University) and started a cadetship in 1978 specialising in pathology. She’s been at Wagga Wagga lab ever since, working her away around the various departments.
In that time, Sheena has witnessed many changes in technologies, processes and survived a global pandemic.
She worked though many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw workloads increase for everyone in health – especially for the microbiology team where she most recently worked in.
“Some of my career highlights include persevering throughout the COVID-19 pandemic – these were very difficult times for everyone particularly Microbiology Teams who were processing high volumes of COVID-19 swabs, day in and day out.
“I was so proud to be part of the local team and our community who really collaborated to look out for each other and minimise spread of the infection.”
Another thing that will stay with Sheena is transitioning from manual techniques in the early years to automated platforms, as labs started to become more modernised.
“The laboratory used to be fully manual, and so much time and effort was spent on each individual sample. However, as times have changed and technology has advanced, we’ve seen much bigger and more powerful machines installed to facilitate and expedite workflow, allowing us to increase volume of work and testing we can perform locally.
But Microbiology and Transfusion disciplines still required some manual scientific work and interpretation, so this was a big attraction for me to stay working in these departments,” she said.
Sheena is looking forward to her retirement, where she plans to slow down, spend more time in her garden and get along to St Kilda’s footy games.
She has been a friend to so many, a dedicated team member and will be greatly missed.
Sheena’s final shift at Wagga Wagga will be on Friday 12 July 2024.
Thanks for your incredible work Sheena, and enjoy retirement!