The dancing nurses at the Dubbo Regional Aboriginal Health Service are adding some light to what could be considered a dark time.
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A video of Child Family Health Nurse Nichole Callan doing a celebratory dance after a patient received their second COVID vaccine, has garnered thousands of views online.
Filmed last week, it was the first in what has become a tradition for nurses to bring some joy to patients as they become fully vaccinated.
"Living and working with COVID is not easy, we're all anxious, we know our patients are anxious," Ms Callan told the Daily Liberal.
"But that's why we added a bit of music to the clinic.
"At first I was dancing out there with just me singing, and I can tell you that's not fun because I've got the worst voice.
"So we just added a bit of music and it just lifted everybody."
One of the songs of choice is Vanessa Amorosi's Absolutely Everybody.
Ms Callan said it's been challenging for elderly members of the community in self-isolation during lockdown, and there has been a push by the health authority to target the wider Aboriginal community for vaccinations.
"We've had Elders that have come to clinic that haven't seen or, had any human contact for two or three weeks, and for them to come get their vaccination, they're actually able to sit and have a chat and have a laugh.
"A lot of our patients are very frightened to get a vaccine, you know if we make it just a little bit more fun, then they're more likely to come back for that second one."
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At Tuesday's NSW COVID update Aunty Pauline Deewerd, who is the Executive Director of Aboriginal Health at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, addressed vaccine hesitancy and pleaded for First Nations people to get vaccinated.
"I've heard that some people are worried about the vaccine," she said. "Vaccines have always been part of our lives, we vaccinate our children as babies before we send them to school to keep them safe from the diseases.
"We vaccinate them to protect us from polio, rubella, measles and other diseases. Now we need to keep our mob safe from another disease.
"The COVID-19 vaccines are safe. If you're unsure about vaccines, ask our health workers, as many questions as you need to before rolling up your sleeve and receiving the jab."
Ms Callan said when patients have called her 'mad', in response to her musical routine, she replied, "It's better to be mad than sad".
"Our patients are our main priority and if we can make them feel a little bit happy and a little bit special for getting the second vaccination, then I feel that's a job well done," she said.
"This is our community, these are our families and it's heartbreaking for us, so we're just trying to do the best we can with what we've got."
The DRAHS can be contacted on (02) 6884 7502.
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