Having lived my whole life in the East Gippsland area, I have always been heavily involved in my local community.   So, beginning my nursing career at Central Gippsland Health Service (Sale) hospital was a simple choice.   Remaining local provides me with the opportunity to give back to that community and the people that have supported me.   Growing up on a local farming property, I feel that I have a special understanding of the issues facing rural communities in accessing health care.   This will allow me to utilise my skills to provide appropriate nursing care beneficial to the health of this population.  I have many family members who still live locally, including elderly grandparents.   The barriers facing elderly people accessing healthcare in rural areas is significant, and by remaining local in my nursing career, I will be better able to help support their needs as they continue to age.   I have always seen myself living in this area and making a life for myself within this community, so choosing Sale Hospital is a long-term career choice and not just a temporary step.   During my allocated placements I have spent the majority of time in rural hospitals.   In this time, I have seen firsthand the crisis surrounding the lack of nursing staff that many rural hospitals are facing.   Therefore, by joining the workforce, I hope to help alleviate the strain that is being place d on rural nurses.  Recruitment is also difficult i rural areas which emphasises the importance of graduate nurses to join their local rural hospital and support their communities.

… As I have mentioned I am hoping to go on and commence further study after completing my graduate year with Central Gippsland Health.   Undertaking a postgraduate certificate in either emergency or theatre nursing is my current passion.   However, during my nursing placement I thoroughly enjoyed all the acute and subacute areas that I worked within.   It is this fact that I am most looking forward to my graduate year, in the hopes that one specific area will grab my attention.

I completed my final nursing placement at Bairnsdale Regional Health Service (BRHS) at the end of 2022. This was a fantastic final placement experience before commencing work as a registered nurse. The third-year nursing students were provided the opportunity to experience a variety of different specialty areas. For myself, this meant that I was able to experience the dialysis ward, high dependency unit and perioperative department during my time at BRHS.

These allocations saw me spending my first week in Renal Dialysis where I gained further insight into the renal system and the mechanics behind how the machines dialyses each individual patient’s blood. After this week I then moved to the High Dependency Unit. I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent in this department, learning from the highly skilled and knowledgeable nursing staff. However, my time here highlighted the significant challenges facing rural hospitals and staffing. Unfortunately, the staffing issues faced by this ward meant that the higher acuity patients were unable to be properly cared for and had to be transported to other hospitals.  Therefore, I did not get the opportunity to actively care for the more acutely unwell patients. However, this provided me with more time to engage with my mentors and fully utilise their extensive critical care knowledge.

The highlight of my placement was my time spent in the Perioperative Department. I always knew that I had an interest in this field and the perioperative journey, but it was the two weeks that I spent in this area that really confirmed my passion for perioperative nursing. I was surprised by the strong bond that was evident between the nursing staff, anaesthetists and the surgeons. Airway management, I learnt was a significant part of caring for people recovering from anaesthesia. Overall, I was drawn to the surgical operations and the nursing care required for post anaesthetic  recovery.

I thoroughly enjoyed this placement and the variety of nursing specialties that we were allowed to experience. I found this particularly useful for myself in helping to narrow down the type of nursing field that I wanted to explore further and potentially specialise in in the future. I am excited to begin my graduate year at Central Gippsland Health commencing in the perioperative department.

I have been working over at the Maffra Hospital within Central Gippsland Health over the last 3 months. This has been a great third rotation which has seen my nursing knowledge and skills really develop in this different area of nursing. I have enjoyed the different age cohort seen in the aged care section. I feel like I am making a real difference in a different angle whereby the activities and the interactions that can improve the quality of the residents’ lives. Throughout my nursing placements I have always had a love for therapeutic interaction with my patients. I have loved the ability to make meaningful interaction with my patients compared to the altered consciousness of patients seen within the theatre department.

Another dimension of being at the Maffra Hospital is dealing with large number of agency nurses and providing leadership to take on constant new nurses to the hospital. The slower paced, but heavier resident activities of daily living requirements has quickly emphasized the importance of having a quality shift plan. Having a clear and organised nursing plan allows for team nursing to be able to become more effective by allowing fellow nurses to be able to assist with my patient load more effectively. This is also very helpful for the necessary collaboration required for double checking drugs of dependence and caring for residents needing more assistance.

As I finish my Graduate nursing year, I have seen myself as a person as well as my nursing skills grow well beyond my expectations. I will head back to the Theatre department at Central Gippsland Health to complete a Transition nursing year. This change is both exciting and nerve racking. I am excited to go back into the Theatre scene and have the opportunity to witness again all the marvellous thinks involved with performing surgeries. However, it feels like such a long time ago since I have completed my first Graduate rotation within the Theatre department. It feels as like my newer developed ward-based nursing skills are at the forefront of my mind and knowledge. In contrast, I have confidence in the staff and the education team supporting the Transition program to help make this move as smooth as possible and I am very much looking forward to facing this challenge again. Future aspirations are to go on and complete my post-graduate studies in Perioperative nursing, in 2025.

Thank you very much for the support and opportunities that have been given to me by the Rotary Club of Sale and their sponsorship of this scholarship.