Melinda Cordell
Rotary Club of Sale
Rural Nursing Scholarship 2017/2018
Federation University, Gippsland Campus, Vic
Final Rural Placement – LaTrobe Regional Hospital
Post Grad Placement – Central Gippsland Health (Sale)
Why do I wish to do rural and remote training?
Rural nursing to me, is challenging and I personally love a challenge. I believe I strive in high stress situations, and I have a broad knowledge base that I cannot wait to improve on in my nursing graduate year at Central Gippsland Health Service (CGHS).I feel during my graduate year at CGHSI will encounter many different patients all requiring something different. Being a rural nurse, you would never know what you are going to encounter each day when you get to work, and that excites me. On any particular day, I could be allocated an adult patient that had been injured on a local farm, an elderly patient with an exacerbation of a medical condition, a patient battling cancer and also a patient that has been made palliative. Whilst all these patients will require the same basic nursing care from me, they will also require additional care very different to each other. These patients would also be allocated to different wards in a city hospital, whereas in a rural hospital they could be in a ward together. Having to provide highly individualised nursing care to these patients would keep my day and nursing career varied, and prevent me from getting tired of nursing the same patients every day.
Another aspect of rural nursing is providing nursing care to patients with limited resources. Nursing in these environments rural nurses would need to be creative and innovative to solve presenting problems. A city nurse may have highly specialised health care professionals to ask for help or additional medical technology a rural nurse wouldn’t have. Having to be innovative and think on my feet, whilst challenging, would help me develop into the best health care professional I could be as I would be able to tackle anything thrown my way.
Being a rural nurse, you need to be able to work autonomously as there isn’t always another health care professional to help you, but also work well in an interdisciplinary team, bringing together the knowledge from each discipline of health to work together towards a collective goal.
In summary, I wish to be a rural nurse because I find the broad variety of patients I will encounter as a nurse exciting, I look forward to the challenges of rural nursing including solving problems with limited resources and I believe I work equally well autonomously and in an interdisciplinary group.
Final (University) Rural Report
My graduate year at CGHS started February 12th . For my first rotation of my graduate year I was placed in the Operating Theatre (OR). Each rotation is 4 months in length. The four month OR rotation is broken down into 4 week blocks. The first four weeks I spent in the Day Procedure Unit (DPU). During these four weeks I admitted patients to the hospital for their respective surgeries, undertook post op observations once they returned to DPU post-surgery and discharged them home after they met discharge criteria. In addition to this, DPU also undertake routine infusions such as blood transfusions, Iron infusions and intravenous immunoglobulins. DPU was a good place to start my graduate year as it let me adjust to being a qualified Registered Nurse. I was given some autonomy to undertake the required jobs I needed to do, but there was always someone around that I could ask for assistance or clarification of what I needed to do. I remember asking questions that I felt were silly, but I was undertaking tasks that as a student nurse you would be supervised doing, so I’d never done them completely independently. I remember checking out my first schedule 8 drug, which is locked in the drug of dependence cupboard and requires two registered nurses to check out. I had my pen ready to hand to my preceptor like I was used to doing as a student, and quickly realised I was the second nurse. No one had to co-sign next to me because I wasn’t a student anymore. I remember for the first few days, feeling as though someone should be with me when I administer medications, but after a few days of administering them solo that feeling slowly dissipated. Whilst in DPU I also got my required five successful cannulations to be able to cannulate patients unsupervised. I was very happy when I got my fifth successful cannulation because I struggled to get my first couple cannulations. After some additional practice on a learning mannequin I was able to improve my cannulations skills and thus my chances of success.
After completing my four weeks in DPU I was rotated to the recovery room. In recovery I cared for patients immediately after their surgery. Most of the time the patient would still be asleep when transferred to recovery. Once awake I would remove the patients airway device (such as a laryngeal mask or guedel airway) and complete post op observations every 10 minutes. Once patients met discharge criteria they would either go back to DPU if they were a day case, or to a ward if they required to stay overnight.
Once I finished in recovery I spent a few weeks in endoscopy and now I rotate between all areas within the OR. Lately I’ve been learning how to scrub and hand utensils to surgeons. Being in the theatres makes you think of things you normally wouldn’t pay too much attention, and build skills you wouldn’t have thought you’d require as a registered nurse.
After being in the OR for a few months now, I’m really enjoying the atmosphere of theatre nursing and I feel I’ve adjusted well to being Registered Nurse.
I’ve also been thinking about my future career in nursing and I’ve been contemplating becoming an intensive care nurse, however if this doesn’t come to fruition then I will most likely become a peri-operative nurse.
Post Grad Rural Placement Report
My graduate year at CGHS started February 12th . For my first rotation of my graduate year I was placed in the Operating Theatre (OR). Each rotation is 4 months in length. The four month OR rotation is broken down into 4 week blocks. The first four weeks I spent in the Day Procedure Unit (DPU). During these four weeks I admitted patients to the hospital for their respective surgeries, undertook post op observations once they returned to DPU post-surgery and discharged them home after they met discharge criteria. In addition to this, DPU also undertake routine infusions such as blood transfusions, Iron infusions and intravenous immunoglobulins. DPU was a good place to start my graduate year as it let me adjust to being a qualified Registered Nurse. I was given some autonomy to undertake the required jobs I needed to do, but there was always someone around that I could ask for assistance or clarification of what I needed to do. I remember asking questions that I felt were silly, but I was undertaking tasks that as a student nurse you would be supervised doing, so I’d never done them completely independently. I remember checking out my first schedule 8 drug, which is locked in the drug of dependence cupboard and requires two registered nurses to check out. I had my pen ready to hand to my preceptor like I was used to doing as a student, and quickly realised I was the second nurse. No one had to co-sign next to me because I wasn’t a student anymore. I remember for the first few days, feeling as though someone should be with me when I administer medications, but after a few days of administering them solo that feeling slowly dissipated. Whilst in DPU I also got my required five successful cannulations to be able to cannulate patients unsupervised. I was very happy when I got my fifth successful cannulation because I struggled to get my first couple cannulations. After some additional practice on a learning mannequin I was able to improve my cannulations skills and thus my chances of success.
After completing my four weeks in DPU I was rotated to the recovery room. In recovery I cared for patients immediately after their surgery. Most of the time the patient would still be asleep when transferred to recovery. Once awake I would remove the patients airway device (such as a laryngeal mask or guedel airway) and complete post op observations every 10 minutes. Once patients met discharge criteria they would either go back to DPU if they were a day case, or to a ward if they required to stay overnight.
Once I finished in recovery I spent a few weeks in endoscopy and now I rotate between all areas within the OR. Lately I’ve been learning how to scrub and hand utensils to surgeons. Being in the theatres makes you think of things you normally wouldn’t pay too much attention, and build skills you wouldn’t have thought you’d require as a registered nurse.
After being in the OR for a few months now, I’m really enjoying the atmosphere of theatre nursing and I feel I’ve adjusted well to being Registered Nurse.
I’ve also been thinking about my future career in nursing and I’ve been contemplating becoming an intensive care nurse, however if this doesn’t come to fruition then I will most likely become a peri-operative nurse.