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Heroes of Orbis: Jackie Newton

February 2022

Jackie Newton joined Orbis as a staff nurse on the Flying Eye Hospital more than a decade ago. When she’s not busy saving people’s sight, she spends her time training and mentoring the next generation of nurses. Most recently she’s been part of the Flying Eye Hospital team that’s transitioned their hands-on training to online, due to the pandemic.

Jackie Newton has been a dedicated staff nurse on the Flying Eye Hospital for more than a decade

Growing up, Jackie considered joining the Navy or becoming an air hostess, until her mom suggested she go into nursing. After six months of practicing as a nurse, Jackie realised she had found her true calling:

Jackie Newton

FLYING EYE HOSPITAL STAFF NURSE

When I start­ed, I real­ized I love serv­ing peo­ple and help­ing peo­ple who are sick. I real­ly enjoyed nurs­ing, and after I grad­u­at­ed, I did a post-oper­at­ing the­ater course and was scrub­bing for all types of spe­cial­ties. I then had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work overseas.

And it was this appetite for adventure, that brought Jackie into Orbis’s orbit. While working in Saudi Arabia, Jackie learnt about the Flying Eye Hospital from one of her nursing colleagues.

Having been inspired by Orbis’s mission, Jackie submitted her application to join the Flying Eye Hospital team – and the rest is history!

Jackie Newton on the steps of the Flying Eye Hospital during a mission to Mongolia

Jackie’s first project with the Flying Eye Hospital took her to Tanzania back in 2008, she tells us she can still recall those first-day nerves and excitement today—but when she saw the team in action, she knew this was where she was meant to be.

Jackie Newton

FLYING EYE HOSPITAL STAFF NURSE

I have always enjoyed trav­el­ing. I now get to be the air host­ess I want­ed to be grow­ing up. It is as if the job was made for me. I can­not imag­ine going back to a job where every day is the same; I love the dif­fer­ent chal­lenges the dif­fer­ent work­ing envi­ron­ments bring. It is hard work. At the end of the day, you know you have been work­ing hard. I find it reward­ing and satisfying.

Since then, Jackie has been on multiple missions with the Flying Eye Hospital, taking her all around the world, as well as training local teams at our network of partner hospitals.

Inspiring and Mentoring the Next Generation of Nurses

Jackie’s extensive nursing experience and natural ability to pass on her knowledge and skills, inspires her fellow nurses to take their own practice to new heights.

And it was on one of those trips in Peru that Jackie met Flor Romero — their story is a wonderful example of the Orbis model in practice. Through Jackie’s guidance, Flor has gone from a trainee to a trainer who is now leading her own training programs for nurses in Bolivia! As Jackie herself says: “It was amazing to see. Flor is a real Orbis nurse-training success story.”

It’s not just Flor who Jackie has inspired. Thanks to her expert knowledge and mentorship, nurses Celestin and Wilson in Cameroon have been able to develop their knowledge and skills meaning they can treat more patients safely.

Slideshow below: Jackie teaching and training nurses on board the Flying Eye Hospital and in our partner hospitals before COVID-19 pandemic

Transforming Teaching and Learning in the Pandemic

After the pandemic hit it quickly became clear that in-person training would not be happening again until it was safe to do so. Jackie found herself having to shift her thinking and pivot her approach to adapt to the world of virtual training.

Thankfully, her years of experience as a trainer meant she was more prepared than she realised—and despite her concerns about being in the spotlight, the virtual Flying Eye Hospital programs for Zambia and Cameroon were a great success.

Jackie Newton

FLYING EYE HOSPITAL STAFF NURSE

When the par­tic­i­pants, Fly­ing Eye Hos­pi­tal nurs­es and I saw each oth­er on the live ses­sions, we felt a sense of accom­plish­ment and togeth­er­ness. We are get­ting through this chal­leng­ing time togeth­er. Cama­raderie. This is what it is all about now.

Joining the Fight Against Covid-19

If Jackie’s contributions to team Orbis weren’t enough, she has also been volunteering her time to fight COVID-19 in her local community over the past year: “COVID-19 cases were increasing in South Africa, and Cape Town specifically, and I wanted to help”.

Jackie went on to volunteer her time at a local hospital, sharing her knowledge of infection control and screening patients to check for COVID-19 infections to help stop the spread of the virus.

Jackie Newton

FLYING EYE HOSPITAL STAFF NURSE

I saw the Orbis team work­ing togeth­er and how we screened the patients in such a car­ing way, and I just knew it was the place I was meant to be. I love the vari­ety of the work, teach­ing nurs­es, and still being able to scrub for cas­es and con­tin­ue with my nurs­ing career while doing some­thing reward­ing and sat­is­fy­ing and help­ing patients all at the same time. Every day is quite dif­fer­ent from the oth­er – no sin­gle day is the same – which is what I love about it.

We want to say a big thank you to Jackie for being such a hard-working and dedicated member of the Orbis family over the past 13 years — thanks to your expertise and leadership, nurses all over the world are able to save sight in their communities.

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