Hana Vadarlis
Rotary Club of Sale
Rural Nursing Scholarship 2020
Federation University, Gippsland Campus, Vic
Final Rural Placement – Warragal Hospital
Post Grad Placement – Central Gippsland Health, Sale
Why do I wish to do rural and remote training?
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 thought that nursing may be something I could one day pursue; however, it was not until we moved out of the city that I became truly passionate about it. In the city, the constant grind and ‘hustle and bustle’ often left me feeling like there was no time to stop and take a breath. Not long after moving to the country, my interest in healthcare was once again sparked, hearing stories from friends and acquaintances about the positive and negative experiences they have had at the local hospitals and clinics. Three months after starting an administrative position at the hospital, I found myself applying to commence a Bachelor of Nursing the following year.
The passion, dedication and dedication and determination that I saw in the nurses surrounding me at the hospital, was enough to help me realise that I wanted to be a part of the integrated community. I wanted to have endless opportunities, be challenged and rewarded for my commitments to help our municipal. As a rural nurse, I want to be an agent for change and actively help our community close the rural health disparity which I have learned so much about during my studies.
I believe that by working as a rural nurse, I am providing myself with the opportunity of a long-term career whereby I can continue to challenge myself by continuing studies to specialise in certain clinical areas, and maybe even one day become a leader or manager at our local hospital.
Final (University) Rural Report
My final placement for my nursing degree was in ED at Warragul Hospital. I was really excited to receive ED as my ward, as it was an area that I had not had much experience in and was looking forward to learning lots of new skills. The experience there was amazing. The staff were fantastic, and the support of the educators was great. Being my final placement, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to be able to work as independently as possible, focusing on my time management and communication skills. Being a different environment to the ward, it was really challenging at the beginning to keep up with the fast-paced nature of the Emergency Department. After a couple of weeks there, I felt like I was really starting to adjust well to my new environment, and really start to look forward to my upcoming Post Grad year. I started to become more confident and have faith that I did know what I was doing, and that if I was ever unsure, there would always be other nurses and co-workers around me who would be more than willing to help. For this reason, I am so excited to be starting my Graduate year in the coming weeks. To become part of a team and work together towards improving people’s health outcomes when they are at their most vulnerable.
Being on placement has always been challenging throughout my studies. Each time you start a placement it is like starting a new job. Finding your way around, learning the policies and procedures, getting to know the team and putting learning into practice. Along with this, there is the juggle of maintaining your personal and/or social life. For myself, the main struggle was suddenly working in a full-time capacity, whilst still trying to maintain my everyday life as a mum of two young kids and a full-time student. Further to this, although the placement days were exciting and enjoyable, they were long and exhausting. My mind often felt overwhelmed from all of the learning experiences, so that by the time I was back in the car for the hour-long drive home, I regularly lacked the energy to do anything else by the time I got home to my kids.
The experiences that we are given whilst on placement are no doubt the most beneficial moments of our studies, being able to work with real-life patients in real-life scenarios and work and learn alongside our peers. I have always been a hands-on person who learns best with on the job training. I am very grateful for all of the opportunities I have been given throughout my placements, but my final placement was the one I was able to enjoy the most. I knew I was almost at the finish line, and able to finally be able to proudly tell people that I was a nurse.
Post Grad Rural Placement Report
My graduate year has finally come to its end and what a year it has been. Not only have we completed our graduate year under the very challenging circumstances of a pandemic, but we have reached the end of our first year in the real world of nursing.
I enjoyed my final rotation through theatre where I was able to consolidate all that I had learnt throughout the year and really bring all of my learning and skills from the past 12 months together. During this rotation, I became very sure that I wanted to follow a high acuity pathway whereby I could see myself in a critical care environment.
I am now completing my transition year, where I am completing a 6-month rotation in surgical, and a 6-month rotation in critical care. I think this will be a great opportunity for me to continue to consolidate my learning and guide my path to further studies in critical care nursing. I am really happy working in the setting of a rural hospital, and absolutely planning on staying local to the area and continuing on at Central Gippsland Health.