The place­ment allowed me to grow per­son­al­ly and pro­fes­sion­al­ly in ways that I nev­er expect­ed. Work­ing at the hos­pi­tal was both chal­leng­ing and ful­fill­ing as was able to learn my strengths and weak­ness­es in an envi­ron­ment so dif­fer­ent to that of a met­ro­pol­i­tan hospital.

The most valu­able aspect for me was the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work close­ly with Abo­rig­i­nal patients and their fam­i­lies. I learned more about their cul­ture and dis­cov­ered new ways to adapt my prac­tices to bet­ter accom­mo­date their needs in a hos­pi­tal set­ting that doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly work to their strengths.

It was very hum­bling to work on my com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills with cul­tur­al­ly diverse peo­ple who I would not have had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage with in oth­er set­tings back home in Perth. Build­ing rap­port and form­ing rela­tion­ships with patients was extra spe­cial and reward­ing and I am so grate­ful that I was giv­en the chance to devel­op my clin­i­cal skills beyond my com­fort zone. 

The hos­pi­tal itself was great and allowed me to see how occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pists work in dif­fer­ent areas such as the sur­gi­cal ward, hand ther­a­py, home vis­it­ing, the renal unit and reha­bil­i­ta­tion. It was great to see a bit of every­thing and work with pas­sion­ate and high­ly skilled OTs who have a wealth of knowl­edge and experience.

My super­vi­sors at the hos­pi­tal were fan­tas­tic and were kind enough to pick me up from the air­port and take me to my accom­mo­da­tion upon arrival in Alice. So, from the very start, I felt sup­port­ed and could appre­ci­ate what work­ing with a close-knit team would be like.

The Cen­tre for Remote Health (CRH) pro­vid­ed the unit where I stayed with two oth­er nurs­ing stu­dents from South Aus­tralia. Our place was cosy and had every­thing we need­ed to live com­fort­ably dur­ing our stay. I real­ly liked that I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet oth­er stu­dents and make friends with those from oth­er health pro­fes­sions in my accom­mo­da­tion and dur­ing stu­dent pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment ses­sions organ­ised by the CRH. 

On the week­ends we had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to real­ly expe­ri­ence the beau­ty of Alice and explore the breath­tak­ing gorges. There is real­ly noth­ing else like the feel­ing of float­ing in a water­hole in the mid­dle of the desert with noth­ing but the sound of flies sur­round­ing you. It was so incred­i­bly peace­ful. Quiz night at Monte’s lounge every Thurs­day night was anoth­er high­light, the per­fect place for a piz­za and a laugh.

I couldn’t rec­om­mend a remote place­ment high­ly enough, espe­cial­ly in Alice. Both the lifestyle around town and the clin­i­cal work was incred­i­ble. This is an expe­ri­ence that I will cher­ish for life and has pro­vid­ed me with a unique set of skills that will be very valu­able in my future practice.