Ms Collins fielded a call from a senior Red Cross official in Wellington on Wednesday morning who asked if she wanted to go to Nepal and she agreed.
Her employer, the Northland District Health Board, granted her leave and she flew to Wellington for a Red Cross briefing before leaving for Kathmandu via Singapore the same day.
She will be part of the Nepal Red Cross's Field Assessment Coordination Team (FACT) that would be sent to remote areas to check peoples' health and general wellbeing.
"I have to be totally self-sufficient while on the ground and can't rely on local resources because they have been totally devastated. I could be sleeping in open areas," she said.
"But I am totally prepared for whatever comes. I am a trained health professional with maturity but with that I've got to be calm, collective and bring all my training to the fore.
"The work is not daunting. It's going to be an exciting challenge and the Red Cross has prepared me well for humanitarian work which is definitely my passion," she said.
Ms Collins said working as a rural nurse in "pretty rugged" Aboriginal communities in Northern Territory and South Australia years ago where her family used to sleep under the stars was an ideal preparation for international humanitarian work.
Although she has been listed to do health assessments in remote areas, the enormity of the natural disaster meant she has to be prepared for anything that came her way.
"There are women birthing out in the open so my skills as a midwife would be needed. That's the nature of Red Cross work and although you're given an outline of work, you're jack of all trades and that's what I love," Ms Collins' said.