Nurses....the backbone of our medical system. The people that work long hours, often in stressful environments and who get a fraction of the wages of their illustrious medical colleagues, Doctors.

You may not know it but today is International Nurses Day, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth in 1820. A day to celebrate and recognise the wonderful work our nurses do, especially in the Northern Rivers region post a catastrophic event like the floods.

At Southern Cross University today there was a barbecue, supplied by Bunnings, and a gathering of nursing staff and students to acknowledge their efforts and leadership qualities. Leadership was this year's theme.

Professor Jennene Greenhill, the SCU Chair of Nursing said she was so proud of her more than 30 nurses who had given their time to the community after the February 28 mega flood.

"They were trying to get their study still happening, even though the campus was impacted and they might have lost their houses. They stepped up to volunteer to help the evacuees who were homeless and who ended up sleeping here on campus. I couldn't be more proud of them," Professor Greenhill said.

Traditionally, you think of nursing as dressing wounds, treating cuts and other physical wounds but mental health is a central component of a 3-year nursing course at SCU. This was an element that was put into practice not only during the recent floods but during the last two years of COVID-19.

Third-year students Bronwyn Hausler and Melissa Allen said people just wanted to talk when they volunteered at the SCU Recovery Centre.

"They were overwhelmed," Bronwyn said, "They needed to share their stories and we realised we needed to stop and listen and let them talk."

"We saw people from all walks of life that were used to sleeping rough most of their lives mixed in with people who have genuinely lost their homes in quite a small area. We saw these social determinants in the one room and we had to be really adaptable and help these people get through that."

Learning in a structured environment is one thing but being thrust into a real-life natural disaster situation is another.

"It's thinking on your feet. We've had so many simulations in our studies, you know, we've had so many assessments, we've had so many opportunities to really think critically and think on our feet and that's what nursing is all about. You have to be adaptable, you have to be resilient, you have to be able to speak up for those who can't speak up for themselves. All of those skills were quickly brought into order within the first five minutes of us arriving at the evacuation centre."

Then there is their own journey with mental health and the coping mechanisms as they come across some distressing situations and listening to some extremely sad and emotional stories.

"That's also part of our training, that's what nurses do," Bronwyn explained, " We hear some pretty sad stories every day, whether that's on placement or whether that's at the evacuation centre and moving forward into our future careers next year. We have incredible support from our seniors, from our mentors, from our university lecturers and professionals that are around us and the executive team here Julie Jomeen arranged the most amazing debrief for all those that attended the evacuation centre. So we had an opportunity to all talk together via teams or teams meeting, we could all share our stories and experiences and that debrief was fantastic."

Melissa added, "Debrief is a massive part of nursing. We reflect on everything that we do and that's, I guess, what gets you through to is being able to debrief with your colleagues and that's what helps you move forward."

Bronwyn and Melissa also held a morning tea to raise funds so they could give student nursing uniforms to those that had lost theirs in the flood. Another example of the kindness and caring that is such a vital part of being a nurse.

On International Nurses Day, Lismore and the Northern Rivers salute you.