Amanda Burn, Orbost Regional Health’s Administration Services Team Leader.
When we think of frontline health workers, who usually comes to mind?
Most people probably think of nurses, doctors and paramedics, perhaps personal carers and allied health workers.
But walk into your local hospital or health service and the first person you see will be usually someone else - the receptionist.
Amanda Burn, who is Orbost Regional Health’s Administration Services Team Leader, says that fact is both a responsibility and a privilege that motivates her and the members of the ORH admin team.
“Everyone who walks through that door is going through something, and you don’t know what that might be,” she said. “They might be nervous about an appointment, or visiting a relative who is sick. A health service can be a stressful place for people, and so it’s really important that the person at the front desk is friendly and welcoming.”
“Everyone who walks through that door is going through something, and you don’t know what that might be... it’s really important that the person at the front desk is friendly and welcoming.”
That front-of-house, ‘how can I help you?’ role is the most visible work that an admin service team worker does.
But Amanda says a lot of the job happens behind the scenes.
“We manage the medical records, patient paperwork, pathology appointments, the carpool, pay the bills, print the kitchen list… in one way or another we work with every single department in the health service,” she said. “I think of our admin team as being the little bit of glue that binds everything together.”
As important as this work is, Amanda says it’s interacting with the people of this community that she finds the most satisfying.
Born and raised here in Orbost, Amanda actually spent most of her adult life in Brisbane.
But, to borrow the famous saying, “you can take the girl out of Orbost, but you can’t take Orbost out of the girl.”
“Every time I’d come home to visit, I’d realise that I missed being a part of this community,” she said.
“I do feel like I am helping, that I’m contributing to something good. That’s a nice feeling."
Accepting an admin role at ORH back in 2019 was the perfect way to not only re-immerse herself back into the community, but also do something important for local people.
“I do feel like I am helping, that I’m contributing to something good,” she said. “That’s a nice feeling. Particularly since we have been able to take off our facemasks, it’s so lovely to see people’s smiles, to see people’s faces again.”