General health

I have set my goal to work in remote and rural Aboriginal communities in WA to help improve and implement health strategies. This includes primary health care and prevention of chronic health disease, by using education to empower and facilitate good health attitudes. One of the communities that I am keen to work in is Lombardina near Broome, which I have family connections. My motivation to complete the bachelor degree in nursing so that I can assist Aboriginal women to stay on country during the birth process and be there to support the women during this. Therefore helping them with their spiritual and cultural journey and keeping iwht their health belief model and their connection to country. As the first person in my family and extended family to go to university and the first Bindjareb women to enrol in the nursing degree I hope to inspire and motivate many other young Nyungar women to follow my lead so that they can excel and be stronger person within their communities and families.

Sandra Sursock is a PhD student at the University of Melbourne. She completed a Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science Advanced (Honours) Degree in 2021 at Monash University. Following her studies, she worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in the department of Radiation Oncology. Sandra is also currently working as a Project Officer in the Department of General Practice and Primary Care at the University of Melbourne.

Rebecca Blackmore is a PhD student at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation based at Monash University in Victoria. Rebecca completed her Honours in Psychology at Bond University where her thesis publication was awarded a top four paper award from the National Communication Association in Chicago.

I grew up on a dairy farm in Meningie, and then later Victor Harbor in a family of 4 children, where I was exposed to numerous family health issues and navigating the health system. From the experiences of significant wait times to get into appointments and often having to travel for appointments, I developed a passion for rural health and any opportunity to help provide equal access to health care across rural Australia.

I have had a wonderful journey throughout my university studies and have been very grateful for everyone who has supported me.   Originally, I have managed to achieve to win the 2020 Academic Excellence Award and 2021 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Federation University student of the year.   I feel very privileged and proud to have won these awards and hope they will inspire others that anything is possible if you at least start the journey.   Although saying that I have struggled a little this year to achieve the marks I wanted.   Due to the number of placements, I had to work7 days a week to safve money to attend the residentials and placements which came to 12 weeks this yar.

I left school early with no real career goal in mind. I have always wanted to challenge myself by working hard and becoming as independent as possible. I started by leaving school at 15, moving in with my current partner, and getting a full-time retail job, all within one month. After working in retail for 3 years, I moved to the city and worked 9 different jobs within a space of one year. I gained a lot of life experience in that short time. Living in the city made me appreciate the country, so I moved back home to Lakes Entrance, where I was offered to do my aged care training. It turned out I enjoyed aged care and worked as a personal carer for 4 years. I then needed a challenge, so I completed my diploma in nursing; since that time, I have worked as an enrolled nurse in aged care and decided to push myself further. I decided to enrol in university as a mature-aged student and had 2 beautiful babies.

Throughout each of my placements within rural hospitals, I have seen and been a part of servicing a wide range of people and health issues. I have noticed that living in a rural area, there are limitations in specialist health are services available. The nursing staff in rural hospitals help bridge this gap and provide a high standard of care to each patient. Currently working in the Emergency department at Bairnsdale Regional Health Services, I have first-hand witnessed the teamwork required between the doctors, nurses, orderlies, paramedics and how they communicate with Melbourne specialists when treating patients to gain positive patient outcomes.

I was born and raised in East Gippsland and wish to continue giving back to my community. I want to enrich my little girl’s future in the exact community that I grew up in. A community that is accepting and everyone and somewhere I can grow and develop as a care giver. Rural nursing will help me experience better work/life balance and practice a broad range of specialties. This will benefit me in the future by acquiring a range of skills and be a jack of all trade to be able to help wherever I an and potentially hep other upcoming nurses.

I wish to become a rural nurse as I feel that we are an integral part of the health care service and also the community, ensuring that an optimal level of care is delivered to our community. Having the opportunity to complete my graduate year at the Central Gippsland Base Hospital is a privilege, one that I will be eternally grateful for. I understand and appreciate there is a shortage of nurses not only locally but nationally as well and extending globally. However, having lived most of my life in a rural setting, I have seen a greater disparity between metropolitan and rural health care services. I feel there is a substantial number of healthcare providers choosing to work in metropolitan hospitals, as opposed to rural hospitals.

Unlike many nurses I know, I did not always want to be a nurse growing up. However, when my son was born, we spent a significant amount of time in hospitals. Throughout this time the interactions and experiences with the nurses at different health facilities sparked something in me. These nurses had mine and my son’s best interest at heart, advocating for us and making what was a very scary time in my life, a little bit easier. I knew then that I wanted to be that person for someone, to make the scary moment in their life a little bit easier.