On finding out I was a successful applicant at Central Gippsland Health Sale I was over the moon. During my three years of study completing my Bachelor of Nursing Degree I completed multiple placements at CGHS and enjoyed every single minute I had there. Not only were the learning opportunities abundant but also the workplace culture and friendliness of the staff was very appealing and encouraged me to apply for my Graduate year at CGHS.

I think working at a rural hospital is a fantastic opportunity as it will allow me to be emersed in the hospital and provide the opportunity to give back to my local community. Nursing is such a fulfilling role and I have been lucky enough to start my career in 2023 at Central Gippsland Health Sale. I am looking forward to learning as much as I can from my preceptors and colleagues in this next year but also looking beyond that I am excited for what opportunities lie ahead for me at this hospital. I hope to one day specialise in an area and look forward to taking on leadership roles that I know this hospital has to offer with the hope of bettering not only myself but also the hospital and community as a whole. I love the culture and family like appeal of rural hospital and cannot wait to be a part of the team at Central Gippsland Health Sale.

As I was born at CGHS it has been such a full circle experience being able to start my nursing career in the same hospital that my life started, and I am so much looking forward to the coming year to see how I development as a graduate nurse and where my registration will take me into the future at CGHS.

My name is Phoenix Darmuc and I am a graduate registered nurse at Central Gippsland Health Sale in 2023. In the last year (2022) I have completed my Bachelor of Nursing degree at Federation University in Churchill and was given a range of different placements rurally and internationally to complete my final year.

I was lucky enough to experience a 4 week placement at CGHS which was in the women’s and children’s ward, this was an awesome placement for me as I had never had any experience working with babies and pregnant patients previously to this and didn’t have a great deal of confidence and didn’t feel this ward was ever of interest to me however on ending this placement I felt sad to be leaving the team their and felt so privileged to have been a part of it.

My next placement was 3 weeks at South Gippsland Health Hospital in Foster. I stayed in Foster for this placement and absolutely loved my time there. I got to experience working on their general ward, assisting in urgent care, district nursing and working in the operating theatre. I especially loved working in district and the OR, both of these were new experiences for me, so I learnt so much and the team their made me feel super included and had the time of day to actually teach me.

For my final placement I was selected from a large cohort of students to complete my placement overseas in Nepal. This was a majorly eye-opening experience and I could have never prepared myself for the things that we saw and undertook while over in Nepal. I was lucky enough to rotate through multiple areas including medical, surgical, ED, OR and obstetrics, as well as outreach days which meant going out into the community to provide villagers in the mountains with free health clinics that we ran. Ill forever be grateful for the experience, but it made me so much more appreciative of what we have here in Australia and so glad to call this place my home.

This summer since returning back to Australia has been the best yet as I’ve gotten to enjoy spending time with friends and family and staying at the beach in Seaspray with my parents. I’ve been so grateful to enjoy this time without the stresses of returning back to study and less finical pressure due to the benefits of this scholarship and all you wonderful people of the Rotary Club of Sale.

This rotation I have been working in the emergency department at Central Gippsland Health Service in Sale. I have found out very quickly that working in a specialty area such as emergency is definitely not for the faint of heart. This rotation has seriously challenged me at every single turn so far. Working in such a fast paced and high intensity department has forced me to use my critical thinking continuously and has improved my knowledge base more than anywhere else I have worked before.

Since working in the department I have had the chance to do many of my ‘firsts’ in my nursing career, from placing intravenous cannulas, putting in nasogastric tubes and catheters to being involved in my first successful code blue and my first unsuccessful code blue.

Although a lot of these firsts have been challenging at times, I have been able to take it in my stride and keep moving forward thanks to the team that works in the emergency department in sale. I have never in my working life been a part of such a supportive, understanding and encouraging team. And yes, I say TEAM because that’s truly what they are, everyone there works so hard to help each other and have each other’s backs. It has been the best place I have worked not only while nursing but altogether.

For these reasons I have seriously been thinking about applying for a job here next year to be able to work with these people again and continue building my knowledge base by completing a transition year so when applications open, I am defiantly planning to apply.

I will be working in the emergency department until the middle of October and then I will be starting my third and final rotation for my graduate year in the surgical ward at sale hospital. I am looking forward to the rest of my time in ED and nervous/excited for all the new experiences and challenges that will come when I move to surgical.