It is just one of the qualities unlikely to be forgotten about the former Christchurch resident, who died suddenly at her home in Adelaide on April 25, aged 55.
Dr Nugent was well-known for her 30-year journey to becoming a doctor, which first began when she dropped out of high school to clean toilets at Burwood Hospital at 15.
After realising she wanted more out of life, Dr Nugent became a nurse aide, igniting a desire to help others and continue learning in spite of having learning difficulties due to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Dr Nugent was forced to confront her struggles with maths and science as she studied her way up the hospital ranks, but it paid off – over the years, she worked as a nurse, pharmacologist, general practitioner and psychiatric registrar.
Dr Nugent lived in Dunedin when she started studying a six-year medical degree course to become a doctor at Otago University, but moved back to Christchurch for the last three.
Postgraduate, she worked as a locum house surgeon at Christchurch Hospital as well as filling locum positions as a GP, and later worked as a casual psychiatric registrar at Hillmorton Hospital.
Dr Goodall said it was meant to be so they could work less – but it didn’t happen.
Throughout her career, Dr Nugent always seized every opportunity to support not only her patients but anyone she possibly could – including homeless, animals and the elderly.
Dr Nugent wanted to prove that doctors could take time with everybody, which would sometimes result in her being told to hurry up.
But she would say: “Well, who do you want me to skimp on, whose mother or daughter or brother is the one you want me to skimp on.”
Dr Nugent had a passion for teaching others and helping them to get the best health literacy they could – speaking from her own rich experience.
In the lead up to her death, she was setting up a website with her brother, Mark Nugent, to educate people on safe, cheap and easy healthcare that individuals could do themselves.
Dr Nugent saw potential in everyone, including Dr Goodall, who she encouraged to do her PhD.
Dr Goodall said her wife talked pharmacology in a way that meant she could pass – kindly, compassionately and with humour.
“I would never have been able to graduate otherwise. She said everybody could do it and would say: ‘Well, if I can, anybody can’,” she said.
Dr Goodall said Dr Nugent never saw danger when it came to her job, and even took on some work as a locum doctor in the outback of the risky Northern Territory after they moved to Adelaide.
Which is why it came as such a shock when Dr Nugent died suddenly and unexpectedly at home.
Dr Goodall said the two spent the “perfect” day together on April 24 before Dr Nugent gave her a kiss goodnight and stayed up late to do paperwork.
But at 1.45am the next morning, Dr Goodall went to check if Dr Nugent was okay after hearing her glasses fall on the floor, and she had died.
“The last thing I said to her was make sure you get to bed safe, and she never made it to bed.”
The cause of Dr Nugent’s death in not yet known, but Dr Goodall said she had health problems off and on for several years.
Although Dr Nugent could not have a funeral due to Covid-19 restrictions, more than 153 devices signed in to watch a live stream of a small service in Australia from around the world, including Jane and Dr Goodall’s 25-year-old son, who lives in Dunedin.
“She had so much to give the world, and she did that. She achieved a huge amount,” Dr Goodall said.
“Jane used to say people should do what is right, and beg for forgiveness after. Usually, this involved her giving her clothes or medications away instead of charging [people], or feeding stray dogs when in remote communities.”
Dr Nugent and Dr Goodall had plans to move back to Christchurch at the end of the year, as most of their family live in New Zealand.
