Top end health nurse practitioner and Royal Australian Air Force reservist Flight Lieutenant Danny Metin is a long way from his Northern Territory home.
He is supporting the Victorian Government as part of Operation COVID-19 Assist.
As a rural nurse practitioner in Adelaide River, Northern Territory, Flight Lieutenant Metin, from No. 1 Expeditionary Health Squadron, said he was used to challenging medical situations.
“The bulk of our work is primary health, but we do quite a few acute issues and emergencies like highway traumas and station traumas,” Flight Lieutenant Metin said.
“From a remote nursing perspective, our scope of practice is quite enhanced so we can diagnose a lot of conditions that other nurses can’t.”
Flight Lieutenant Metin said his role in Melbourne would have a direct impact on his work when he returns to the Northern Territory.
“Up north on the highway we are responsible for swabbing any Territorians coming back or visitors coming through,” Flight Lieutenant Metin said.
“I’m fortunate because I can take these skills I’m learning and apply them to the NT.”
Originally a reservist in NORFORCE, Flight Lieutenant Metin’s experience working with Indigenous communities in central Arnhem Land and other remote locations translates well to his role at the Craigieburn testing site in Melbourne.
“I have a wide scope of practice in terms of helping remote Indigenous communities in the local area,” Flight Lieutenant Metin said.
“It gives me the ability to work with different cultures and when I step into my Defence shoes I can do the same role nationally.”
Flight Lieutenant Metin said he was fortunate to work for top end health.
“They are supportive of having a Defence Force member,” Flight Lieutenant Metin said.
“With this deployment they knew they would lose an important clinician, but they also understand how important this role is.”
