I have always wanted to practice in an environment that is challenging, interesting, rewarding and makes a difference in an individuals life on a daily basis, therefore, I want to pursue my  nursing carer in a rural community from birth, I am aware of the limited resources available.   I have a good understanding of the health and social issues within my rural community and want to intervene and make a difference.   I am aware of the distance people need to travel to attend appointments in metropolitan areas to manage their acute and chronic conditions.  I really want to support these people within the rural community to lessen the need to make these trips.

I already define myself as a rural nurse as I have grown up in Latrobe Valley, studied my double degree in Churchill and undertaken my clinical practice in rural hospitals. In order to better understand who I am, I feel this question needs to be tweaked to Why do I want to continue as a rural nurse and midwife?

I have grown up living in Maffra, all my life.   Maffra is a small rural community and I strive to provide good healthcare to my community and surrounding rural communities.  Central Gippsland Health is an amazing rural hospital that I have been lucky enough to accept my graduate year position at in 2019.

Throughout my studies, I have been successful in undertaking majority of my clinical placements in rural hospitals.   I have been lucky enough to get both of my third year clinical placements at Central Gippland Health, and have had the opportunity to get to know the learning services staff and educators well.   The hospital has great support services available and I cannot wait to be a graduate nurse there next year.

Rural nursing has always been a dream of mine.   I believe there is more to this type of nursing than just the rural setting.   It involves a whole lot more, including recognising and providing rural community health support, along with building strong patient rapport, which is less likely in a busy Melbourne hospital.  I ahve grown up with the ambition to help those in need of medical assistance.   I believe I can strongly provide adequate nursing care for these disadvantaged rural towns like Sale and nearby surrounds.

I have grown up within Bairnsdale and surrounding areas, and from a young age have had the opportunity to observe how important a rural hospital, such as Bairnsdale Regional Health service (BRHS) is to the community, through the hard work my mother put into nursing the community. The hospital Ensures that the communities needs are met, allowing the residents within the surrounding area to utilise this service to provide care that can allow them to lead a healthy enjoyable lifestyle. Having this experience of being involved in the community, which has had a reliance on these services, has given me the passion to seek a career at a rural hospital to utilise my skills and dedication to better my community.

My parents have endeavoured to provide me with the opportunities that VCE and tertiary education provide by labouring tirelessly in the primary industry. As generations of my family have been involved in agriculture and dairy farming, I have been acquainted with labourers more so than academics. I can empathize with their struggles in particular and can fully understand their inclination to avoid seeking help for physical and mental stresses. This is knowledge that I hope to apply to my nursing profession and that will motivate me in turn to give only the best of myself to a cause that I believe is worthy. It is my aspiration to fully invest myself into rural and remote communities in the future and especially to help the state of the farming communities health and wellbeing through nursing, specialised care and rehabilitation. I want to be a district nurse in my own rural community – to return and help the community that gave me the opportunity to be a registered nurse.

To give you a bit of background on myself, my husband and I moved to the area five years ago with the last three being the busiest.   I started and finished my nursing studies, and we also grew our family and now have two young boys.   We made the decision to move from Melbourne to the Gippsland region after having holidayed in the area fro several years and wanting to settle down and provide our children with the best possible upbringing.   Having grown up in the country myself, I have many fond memories of my childhood and wanted the same for my own children.   Since moving, not only have we never regretted the decision, but it also helped me develop a definitive career path for myself.

I have always wanted to be a nurse, and work in a hospital within a small town.   I have never really thought about the reasoning behind that, until this application.   Irrespective of nursing, I genuinely love people.   Even if I think I am having a horrible day, I always say to myself ‘if you make one person smile, then today was a good day’.    That is what I try to live by every single day.  Nursing allows me to take my little motto, that one step further.

I wish to be a rural nurse as I am passionate about caring for others and providing healthcare to rural and remote communities, especially local areas surround and within the East Gippsland community.    I have lived in Paynesville from a very young age and nursing is in my blood.   My nan, mother and multiple other family members ere and are all local nurses here in East Gippsland, most based at Bairnsdale Regional Health Service.   I have lived in East Gippsland all my life and hive witnessed first-hand the lack of resources available to those living in rural hospitals are in this community and the need for them and services to be provided to the community.   I chose to study flexible online through Federation University so I could continue to live locally and provide nursing care to the local community as an endorsed enrolled nurse while studying my Bachelor of Nursing degree.   I finished my final clinical placement at the start of November 2019 and I have experienced first hand the need for rural nurses in East Gippland.  I have completed most of my clinical placement at rural hospitals and have been successful in obtaining a post-grad nursing in East Gippland collaborative program through Bairnsdale Regional Health Service in 2020.

Rural nursing to me is having extended knowledge on nursing skills in order to care for members of the community with a range of different conditions.   I thoroughly enjoy this challenge and strive to meet the needs of people in rural areas.   This may be influenced by the lack of resources compared to metropolitan health services and the distance to these services.   The desire I have of being a rural nurse is fuelled from multiple factors including my upbringing, family and passion.