Jane Maarseveen
Pastoral Carer
Jane’s childhood was spent growing up on a dairy farm in the beautiful Derwent Valley, in a thriving, supportive post war Soldier Settlement farming community, with other returned service men and women’s families, where she attended the local school with her siblings and many local children.
Death and dying were topics openly spoken about, with family members, community members, farm animals and pets dying at varying times during Jane’s childhood. She and her siblings attended boarding school in Hobart, which was a big wrench for Jane, coming from a protective farming background, which involved feeling very homesick for the first couple of years. This experience created feelings of loss and grief for Jane, which over the years has developed into caring for others in similar situations. Being there for others was an attribute manifested by her parents in many ways.
Jane’s early desire to become a nurse culminated in training as a General Nurse at the Royal Hobart Hospital, followed by Intensive Care training there, Midwifery in Edinburgh in Scotland and Tropical Diseases nursing in London, with the intention to apply her nursing knowledge and skills working with a Christian mission in underdeveloped countries. This did not eventuate, as she met her Dutch husband Heinz while travelling in Iceland.
Upon returning home after several years away, studying and travelling in the UK and Europe, Jane returned to work at the Royal Hobart Hospital. Heinz emigrated to Tasmania, and they married in 1979. Following the birth of their first son, Jane undertook training as a Breastfeeding Counsellor, to support other mothers with the support she had received.
This training was based on Rogerian ‘Person Centred Care’, which has been the basis of Jane’s ethos and care for patients in hospital and families in the community since then. As a result, Jane undertook training as a Family and Child Health nurse and Lactation Consultant, working in various community health care sites in Southern Tasmania for 30 years, before retiring from nursing in 2017, following completion of a Bachelor of Applied Social Science, Counselling degree through Aplhacrusis College in Hobart.
Since 2018, Jane has volunteered two days a week as a Pastoral Carer at Queen Victoria Care, as part of the Wellness and Lifestyle team, utilising the knowledge and skills she has gained through work, study and life experiences. This role involves facilitating/conducting weekly Chapel services, visiting residents for one-on-one emotional and spiritual support, also supporting their families and staff members, especially at times when residents are nearing the end of their life’s journey. Jane finds this role very rewarding and fulfilling, and recently has been privileged to conduct Memorial Services in the beautiful QV Care chapel, for residents who have died, to support their families in this way.
All who enter Aged Care facilities, whether for respite care, or as permanent residents here for several years or for a short time, are palliative in one way or another, and Jane believes her role is to facilitate their entry into a very different environment from living at home, with loss and grief involved, to support them on their journey whilst here, and to settle into their new ‘home’.