To recognise this, The Australian College of Nursing began a week dedicated to recognising their work four years ago.

Of Albury Wodonga Health’s  2100 staff, a number work in the non-acute space through Albury Community Health on Smollet Street, the Wodonga campus and more.

It was primary and community health manager Danny Baxter’s idea to bring together an ‘old-school’ nurse and the 21^st Century Albury-Wodonga Health worker as part of an afternoon on Wednesday celebrating the ACN week.

“We thought we would have some fun with the bike, as across the country this would have occurred or perhaps nurses would have travelled on a horse,” he said.

“We have come a long way since then and AWH have quite a dedicated fleet of cars that are actively supporting the delivery of care into our region.”

That fleet racks up a fair few kilometres in a day – Michelle Arden, who is clinical nurse educator for Wodonga District Nursing Service said she and her colleagues could sometimes see up to 12 people in one shift.

“Community nurses provides a variety of services like wound care, personal care assistance, medication and diabetes management, and end of life care,” she said.

“We see people in their own home and also assess them at the clinic in Wodonga.

“The day often starts with scraping the frost off your car and making sure you have all your equipment … we do a lot of travel.

“You can self-refer to district nursing – about half of our referrals are through that way and we can also get referrals from the city, where people have received treatment and need follow-up care.”

The nursing service runs seven days a week, while other community and primary health services delivered through AWH include audiometry, antenatal and postnatal care, continence, drug and alcohol, sexual health, mental health – and the list goes on.

Mr Baxter said if anyone in the community had history about this sector on the Border, they should get in touch with Albury Community Health.