My stage three nurs­ing place­ment was at Lake Grace Health Ser­vice in the Acci­dent and Emer­gency (A&E) and aged care facil­i­ty. It was my sec­ond clin­i­cal place­ment and it was a fan­tas­tic experience.

To be com­plete­ly hon­est, it was very qui­et but the staff there were incred­i­bly wel­com­ing and went above and beyond for me. Addi­tion­al­ly, the slow­er pace allowed time to con­sol­i­date skills and build con­fi­dence in myself, which I would lat­er need in advanc­ing placements.

If the day was qui­et and there were not many patients, the staff would bring out dum­mies to prac­tise skills on and answer any ques­tions I may have. There was also enough time to debrief after a patient was brought in.

The town itself is small and is made up of two cafés, one IGA, one pub, a post office and a sports club. How­ev­er, on my time off I took a dri­ve down Tin Horse High­way, vis­it­ed Wave Rock and also popped into a local winery.

As many nurs­ing stu­dents under­stand, the mid­dle of semes­ter can be quite intense. Lake Grace was my sav­ing grace dur­ing this time, as it allowed me to tack­le my assign­ments and place­ments simul­ta­ne­ous­ly whilst nev­er feel­ing stressed – a nov­el­ty for me.

By the end of the three weeks I felt like a part of the team and would love to return one day.