Claridge’s caring career

• Scottsdale’s Jean Claridge will wrap up a 40-year career in the public service at the end of the year.

By Daisy Baker
December 7, 2022

Come the end of the year, Jean Claridge who has been the friendly face greeting people at the North Eastern Soldiers Memorial Hospital (NESM) for the past 26 years, will be retiring. 

This will mark 40 years working in the public service, starting out as the administrator and receptionist at Scottsdale High School in 1982.

With an interest in office work and a desire for a role that challenged her, a 19-year-old Jean jumped at the receptionist role.

“When I started at the high school we used to have a Gestetner machine where you typed onto a stencil and laid that onto an ink cartridge that went round and round to do your printing,” she laughed.

“That was before photocopiers. I remember fax machines coming in too and the excitement that brought.

“Then the Parents and Friends’ bought me my first Apple Mac computer in the early 90s and I had to sit there and learn how to use it.”

It was leaps and bounds from the electric typewriter used when she first started and even the significant upgrade to the electronic typewriter which had a memory and saved one page.

“That change is technology was probably the biggest change in my career.”

While on maternity leave after having her son Jason, Jean was approached by senior staff at the hospital to see if she would be interested in transferring from the Education Department to the Department of Health, to take up a permanent role at the NESM.

In 1996 she made the change and job-shared for the next nine years with Kayelene Kettle, both of them with young children of the same age.

Kayelene eventually moved into the admin coordinator position and Jean became the full-time receptionist. 

Mrs Claridge said she will miss the regular contact with staff and members of the community that have come with her role.

“You get people coming back for appointments every four to six weeks so you see the same people all the time and that’s a big part of the enjoyment of the job,” she said.

Throughout almost three decades at the NESM, she said there have been major changes, including the decommissioning of the birth suite, the ambulance being taken over by paramedics, the centralisation of community nurses who had previously been stationed in each town, and the privatisation of Aminya. 

Jean said when she started Dr Amanda Young and anaesthetist Dr Paul Hanson came once a month to perform surgeries.

Working closely with physiotherapists and social workers to make appointments and follow up appointments for patients has led to some lasting connection, which Jean said have been a highlight. 

“The radiographers particularly that I’ve worked with closely over the years have become good friends,” she said.

“I have a very funny memory of opening up a cupboard and being hit in the head by a dildo, which one of the radiographers had as part of a stash in the office for an upcoming hen’s party,” she laughed.

“There were a lot of fun times with the staff but a lot we can’t mention.”

She said she is somewhat relieved that the former tradition of throwing departing staff into the bath has now been phased out.

Outside of work, Jean has been playing bowls alongside her husband Rob for the past 15 years.

What started out as participation through a community challenge led them to get hooked and now they both play in the Premier League in Launceston for Invermay.

A busy bowls season will keep the Scottsdale pair busy through until mid-March, with some plans for travelling also on the horizon in the future.