Nurse moves to a new field - one with tractors

Former theatre nurse Brooke Stevenson is learning to drive tractors and make winter feed. Photo / Supplied

Brooke Stevenson has gone from tending nice neat rows of stitches to tedding nice neat rows of silage.

The 28-year-old former theatre nurse has stepped away from the medical profession to pursue a farming career - part of which means learning to drive tractors and making winter feed.

"I was mainly a theatre nurse for about five years, working in hospitals in Auckland, Hamilton, Matamata, Rotorua and more recently, Dunedin.

"I did it because it provided job security. No matter where you are in the world, there is always a job for a nurse. It's one of those things that you've got for life," she said.

Unfortunately, the high-pressure job started to take a toll.

"I started to burn out. You're always trying to do a really good job and you have really high expectations of yourself.

"There's quite a bit of responsibility involved as well in that kind of role, and after a while it just burns you out.

"So I left. I wanted to do something different."

Stevenson said she was raised on her parents' farm in St Bathans, and the call of the lifestyle was strong when it came to making a decision about her future.

"I'm wanting to go farming. I'm driving tractors because I wanted to get my skills up in that area.

"Driving tractors was something that I didn't have much confidence in, so I thought if I did it every day, it would help get my confidence up."

She has spent the past six months working as a tractor and truck driver for Outram company Deep Stream Contracting Ltd, making silage and hay.

Luckily the company had good health and safety procedures and her nursing/first aid skills had not yet been required.

"But they're useful skills to have, especially when you're working out in the middle of nowhere."

Despite already having a lot of farming skills - and now tractor driving skills - she was not confident of inheriting her family's farm.

"That's because I've got a brother. I'm going to make my own way up the ladder and into the industry," she said.

Deep Stream Contracting co-owner Cameron Doherty said Stevenson was a very quick learner, and had no doubts she would be successful in her bid to become a farmer.

"She's got the right attitude. For people to get into the industry, they've got the be able to think, make decisions for themselves, they've got to work out the risks and they've got to be resilient.

"You've also got to be able to handle blokes. She does all that. Every now and then we think, 'oops I probably shouldn't have said that in front of a female'. But she gives as good as she gets."