Nambour nurse retires after 40 years of care, sets off to see the world

By Cameron Outridge

After nearly 40 years with Queensland Health, Nambour nurse Sasha Fenger is swapping scrubs for hiking boots.

Sasha and her husband Benno are renting out their home and heading to Europe for what she calls a “retirement in reverse” — travelling the world later in life rather than in their youth.

“We’re both retiring from nursing … and going backpacking around Europe and the world,” she said. “When the cold northern hemisphere freezes for winter, we’ll move down to Southeast Asia … We’re going to live off our rent and go wherever the different destinations take us.”

“I haven’t travelled much before due to a busy life and financial priorities like our children and home, so I’m really looking forward to it,” she said.

Eventually, the couple plans to return to Australia, buy a van and travel the country – a well-earned rest after decades of care.

Tough times breed tough people

Ms Fenger’s career began in 1986 at Warwick Base Hospital, where she started as the tea lady in the maternity ward. From those humble beginnings, she went on to become a credentialled and authorised mental health nurse, completing a bachelor’s and master’s degree while raising three daughters as a single mother.

“Qld Health has been a huge part of my adult life with so many milestones, and I felt supported by them all this time.”

Her pathway into nursing wasn’t easy. “I flunked out of school, I managed to finish grade 12,” she said. “Within 6 months, my mother threw me out of home — I was homeless for a while, living in my car till able to find work to pay rent. I had no support from my family.”

Sasha did whatever work she could find, from bar work and flipping burgers, to cleaning. 

But it was a chance conversation with an old school friend that changed her life. “She was an enrolled nurse, but she got worse marks than I did,” said Sasha. “She was a cleaner at her local hospital and she asked to join the next enrolled nursing group.” Sasha copied her and became the tea lady in the maternity ward at Warwick Hospital in 1986.

In April 1987, Sasha began a 12-month hospital-based training course. She graduated in 1988, married that same year, and went on to have all three daughters at Warwick Hospital.

When her marriage ended, Sasha relied on the support of her colleagues. “Qld Health staff were always my biggest supporters,” she said. “I lived on a small farm in Warwick and was an easy target – but Qld Health kept me employed, the wonderful nurses and the matron supported me, and I remained financially stable throughout those hard years, due to my stable job.”

She worked across several departments including Home and Community Care and Blue Care, eventually studying nursing at university in her 40s. “I had not done well in school, and now I was going to uni! I did 3½ years of commuting daily to USQ Toowoomba, while juggling study, work and parenting,” she said.

After graduating, she moved to Nambour in 2008 with her new partner, fellow nurse Benno Fenger. The couple have worked on the Coast ever since, both specialising in mental health nursing.

“I had nil family support, so my work financially supported me completely, put my daughters through private schools, and purchased our home,” Ms Fenger said.

She finishes work at Nambour General Hospital’s Bunya (mental health) Ward — where she’s worked for the past 15 years — on June 30. “Bunya and Pandanus MH wards have the most amazing, professional, and kind staff… “This is a dedicated and caring group of a fabulous team, including cleaners, wardies, personal assists, allied health, doctors, and security staff, caring not only for patients, but also each other.”