My name is Jayde Couzens, I am a proud Noongar and Gunditjmara woman. I live with my 6-year-old son, Allakai and my partner who is a stay-at-home father, who is now trying to seek employment. I am living on Yorta-Yorta country in Katunga, while working at Goulburn Valley Health and studying at Latrobe Shepparton.

I am already actively contributing into the healthcare community from being a Health Assistant in Nursing, to an Enrolled Nurse. I want to grow my knowledge and skills so I can further my education so I can be a Nurse Practitioner. Currently studying my Bachelor of Nursing as this is the pathway into this role, I will continue to a master’s degree in emergency and Critical care. Once I have enough experience to become eligible, a master’s of advance nursing practice is next.

Growing up through generational trauma has taught me tuff lessons…

Doing what I thought was best for my unborn child I chose to move out of home and live with my partner’s parents. I want to work towards breaking generational trauma, and not want to fall victim to it. I am proud that I can educate and pave the way for younger mob into healthcare. Both working in healthcare and being Aboriginal, the westernised system comes with many challenges, I want to contribute to closing the gap in the healthcare system, one of the ways is getting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People into healthcare.

The scope of practice a Nurse Practitioner holds, I would be able to complete my vision. It is to build an indigenous women’s health centre, which would include immunizations, health check-up, cervix screening, scripts, and other links to services within community. This would also bring more career opportunities for other upcoming Indigenous healthcare workers to take part.