I am passionate about nursing and giving back to my community.   I have lived in the area for most of my life excluding 2 years in Western Australia. It was here I began to appreciate the disparity of remove locations.   I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to study directly across the road from where I attended High School.   I never imagined I would go on to gain a tertiary education and am the first in my family to do so.

I had originally summited an EOI for my final placement at Broken Hill Hospital.   I was looking forward to working in a centre with a large Indigenous population and where the Rural Flying Doctor operates.  This was not to be, but I was given the chance to change placement from Bowral to Bega when a position became available but I declined as I intended to hopefully work at South East Regional Hospital.   I wanted to have exposure to other workplaces to be able to bring that experience to the workplace.   Even though this decision came at a significant financial cost and being away from home for 5 weeks, I enjoyed my time in Bowral ICU.

As a mature-aged student, the last twee years of full time study commitment have seen many sacrifices.   COVID lockdowns and housing crisis have caused 3 relocations during this time.

I feel so very fortunate to be chosen for the Joe Scorer Rural Nursing scholarship. My deepest, heartfelt thank you for your generous contribution to my education and journey as a Registered Nurse in a small regional community.

I am reflecting on my final year of university a week before I start my New Graduate position. I have been placed in the Mental Health department, one of my preference areas. I am equal parts excited and nervous. I chose mental health as my elective last year after I found studying the subject in my second year interesting and thought-provoking. I was chosen to be a part of Recovery Camp in Mount Evelyn Victoria for my compulsory mental health placement, so I have minimal experience in the clinical setting.

My first-semester placement was in the Emergency Department at my local hospital, South East Regional in Bega. The placement period was for 4 weeks and consisted of alternating weeks of morning and evening shifts. I was looking forward to staying locally and maintaining a relatively normal home routine. I was also aware that I would be working alongside some personal friends and most likely also know people presenting to the hospital. I was questioning my knowledge and abilities and knew I would need to keep up in a fast-paced, changing environment. I quickly realised I knew more than I thought with the pressure of not having much time to think about it. This came as a nice surprise and boosted my confidence. I enjoyed being able to quickly build a rapport with the people that were being admitted as you were the first point of contact. They hadn’t yet repeated their story to multiple people and began to guard their vulnerability. I found this refreshing. Also, the turnover of people was mostly very quick with treatments, discharges, admitted to the ward or transported to Canberra via patient transport or airlift. This gave me a sense of satisfaction with progress, even though I struggled with not being able to follow up on cases. The other thing I liked about being in the Emergency Department was the teamwork among nurses and doctors. Doctors were readily available and friendly and took the time to explain things to me. I felt supported and valued.

While on my way to Bega to visit a friend before work placement, I came upon a road accident between a car and a motorbike. I was able to assist with emergency services and then speak to the patient when I arrived for my shift while they were in the resuscitation bay. It was a surreal moment and later was mentioned in a newspaper report.

I was introduced to Technology Enabled Care Services (TECS) with mental health admissions. Patients were placed in a designated part of the hospital and had safeguards in place for monitoring. It was interesting to see the process of these types of admissions, with the next mental health ward at the same capacity as Bega being Goulbourn over 200 kilometres away. According to the AIHW, mental health presentations account for up to 5% of ED admissions and this number reflects principal diagnoses that fall within the mental and behaviour disorder category. This number has also trended up in the last 5 years.

My second semester placement was in the Intensive Care Unit at Bowral Public Hospital. This final placement was for 5 weeks. I was assigned all morning shifts for the duration. Bowral is 270 kilometres from where I live and I stayed in an Air BNB accommodation alone without visitors or driving home for the whole period. I was changed to ICU a few weeks before I arrived from the surgical ward which I was pleased about. I felt extremely lucky to gain a critical care placement. The Nurse Unit Manager made me feel very welcome and held an active position on the floor of the ward. I began to implement a routine of walking in the afternoon and planning activities in the area to make sure I was getting a work-life balance and engaged in some self-care activities. The ICU was busy and a lot of cases were transferred to Liverpool or Campbelltown for treatment. I made many connections with the people I cared for on the ward. The ICU was a great place to consolidate knowledge from my final year practical skills. I challenged myself to get out of my comfort zone, performed handover every day and took charge of patient care. An unexpected reflection was the care I provided to people who were admitted with pre-existing mental health histories. A young male had a panic attack and I was able to calm him down quickly which I found really rewarding. This situation also gained me recognition from the buddy nurse and the feedback made me realise I had a passion for this type of work. I have found I engage and build a rapport easily with consumers. I enjoyed my time in Bowral and the ICU and found more focused care satisfying in being able to implement more interventions, tests and treatments.

During the summer, I travelled to Bali and completed my yoga teacher training. It has always been a goal of mine to deepen my yoga practice by studying. When returning home, I began teaching yoga and gained a new perspective and skills I had hoped to bring to not only my self-care routine but also the mental health space. I did not know at the time of those ideas that I was to spend my first rotation in the mental health unit. I am excited about my future development at South East Regional Hospital.

I have been working in the Mental Health In-patient Unit at South East Regional Hospital for almost 3 months.   I am one of 22 new graduates at SERH. We are a big group. We started our 2-week orientation the first week of February. This process has seen us have a thorough induction into the hospital. We had in-person training for eMR use for the computer system, multiple speakers in person and virtually and began some education and compulsory learning modules on My Health Learning. We were introduced to the different platforms NSW Health uses and the processes of employment.

It was a lot to take in such an exciting and nerve-wracking time. I enjoyed spending time with my peers and getting to know the 5 people who had travelled for the position and not been in my graduating class.   After this period we had 2 days of orientation on our ward and 2 supernumerary shifts.

I quickly was made to feel welcome and a valued member of the Mental Health Unit. The Unit initially seemed vast with lots of rooms and spaces. There was beautiful views on the ground floor of the cow paddocks and the green lawn expanse of the hospital grounds. The access to outside spaces is well maintained with facilities such as a basketball court, sensory rooms, sensory gardens, art rooms, ping pong table, gym equipment and kitchen. The MHIU runs a range of activities and has access to multidisciplinary team members who are readily available.

The unit was at capacity or close to for almost 2 months. Finding my feet as a Registered Nurse has been a busy period. There is so much to learn in processes and continuing mandatory education. I am beginning to become a part of the team and familiar with some aspects of mental health conditions and presentations. I recently had an education day with the other New Graduate and some experienced staff on suicide prevention. It was a great opportunity to talk in a small group about scenarios and examples in real life situations. I am rostered on for my first night shifts this coming week. The ward has let both of us new graduates to settle in before taking on nights. These have also been broken up over the monthly roster. I am eager to start adjusting to how my body and mind will deal with this shift work schedule.

It has been extremely interesting and rewarding connecting with people in the unit. Seeing people acutely ill recover enough to be discharged into the community. I have found a deep satisfaction in this type of nursing. Developing the therapeutic relationship and engaging with people has shown me that I have skill and passion for mental health nursing.

For my next rotation, an opportunity was presented in Community Mental Health based at the hospital. At first, I was unsure whether to apply as I was worried  where I would be able to develop my clinical skills. I decided that the position may not come again to gain this valuable experience in this field.  I am very happy to report that I was chosen and will be starting at the end of July.

The staff at SERH MHIU are professional, diverse and experienced. The culture of the ward has been role-modelled as caring and supportive. I have been able to facilitate some of my yoga teachings into this space with encouragement. I hope to be able to do more mindfulness activities and progressive muscle relaxation sessions when my time management improves or periods when the ward is not as full. I aim to incorporate more holistic care into my practice.

In the last half of my rotation, my goal is to increase my time in the High Intensity Unit, accomplish an in-charge shift, come up with meaningful input to share in my learning and incorporate more yoga practice.