My name is Mollie Scofield and I am starting my second year in a dual degree in Nursing and Public Health at Queensland University of Technology. I am a proud Mardigan woman, who grew up and is still growing up on Jarowair and Giabal land. I have been extremely fortunate to have the support system that has allowed me to become the first person in my family to attend university.

In the past four or so years I have been lucky enough to learn more about my history which has given me a drive to learn more about Aboriginal history and work in a health field which I believe will benefit Indigenous Australians. I chose to study two degrees as I believe it gives me the opportunity to gain the most amount of the education as possible to give back through my career.

I was initially intrigued to undertake the public health degree as it has an Aboriginal health component. I hope to work in the area of youth education, and alcohol and drug prevention and rehabilitation. This is a part of the health field I am extremely interested in and believe I can make a difference in to close the gap.

Nursing is a line of work that I have always wanted to undertake. I believe nursing is a rewarding career and is suited to my attitudes, values and beliefs. Nursing skills can be used to uphold physical, emotion and mental components of health, which ultimately affect the well-being of a person and their way of life. I would love to be able to give every person I come across the help they need to become the best version of themselves and reach their goals.

After the completion of my two degrees, I hope to undertake post graduate study to become a midwife, as this is my dream career. I believe that this will give me even further knowledge to be able to give back to the community. I hope to be able to use traditional birthing methods in conjunction with appropriate western medicine practice and culturally safe practice to better help and support mothers and their babies.

I hope to work regional or rural during the duration of my career and I have a goal to work in an Aboriginal community possibly even one near where I grew up or on my traditional land at Charleville. This will allow me to directly give back to those who have influence my line of study and my career choices.

The 2022 first semester for me was challenging. I struggled to balance work, my health and completing university to the highest level possible. Although I put in effort, a lack of motivation caused by my health issues, led to grades I was not entirely happy with. The subjects I was enrolled in during semester 1 were introduction to epidemiology, sustainable environmental health, statistical methods in health, and international health.

I thoroughly enjoyed international health, I found it an interesting subject that I did not struggle to engage in. I met new friends who were studying the same degree as me, and it helped confirm that I would rather work in rural Australia rather than overseas due to personal preference and interests.

Sustainable health was a subject that I was not initially interested in, however I found that after learning more about the subject and the depth of the subject I found it interesting. My assessment was on middle ear disease among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth. Part of the reason I chose to study the public health degree was because of the Indigenous aspect, so I was happy to receive this assignment.

Statistical health was the subject I struggled with the most as even though I attended the tutorials, watched the lectures, and tried my hardest in the completion of my assignments, the work I produced was not good enough. This was frustrating for me as I thought I was on the right track but was not.

Epidemiology was the last subject I studied last semester. I found this subject difficult as the teaching style was different to what I was used to. I thought I was completing the work and assessments to a high standard; however, my results did not reflect this. Although I passed the subject, I was disappointed with my results.

Overall, I passed 3 of the 4 subjects, and the subject I did not pass, did not hold me back a semester. I have decided to restudy the subject when my health is better.

In terms of the health issues, I have been dealing with and the way they have been affecting me has been varying. I was diagnosed with anxiety disorder and depression in grade 10 of school approximately 5 years ago. The journey I have been on includes psychology and psychiatry appointments as well as medication. This year I have been going through the most difficult time in my life and have been attempting to find a medication that works for me. This has had a strain on my university work, however as I am getting it sorted my ambitions to do better get stronger as well. I have also been dealing with an eating disorder, and endometriosis symptoms therefore spending a lot of my time getting tested and trying to find answers for my health.

I have also been working a lot as although I have supportive parents, I like to do things on my own and set up my life. This has also had a strain on the time I have to focus on university work. When I receive my scholarship money, it will help me work less and focus on this semester’s subjects.

In semester 2, 2022 I will be studying 5 subjects. The first of which is pathophysiology. I find this subject challenging however interesting, I know this subject will need a lot of my attention and time. The next subject is mental health: self and others. This subject will be interesting for me, and I believe it will help me on a personal level as well as a nurse. The next 2 subjects are qualitative inquiry in public health and quality management in health. These subjects will be interesting, and helpful in both my nursing and public health degrees. The last subject is introduction to clinical placement. This is exciting for me as it is the class leading to my first placement, giving me a taste of nursing as a career.

Overall, I am excited for the up coming semester and the skills I will learn.