This CRANAplus Under­grad­u­ate Remote Place­ment Schol­ar­ship was spon­sored by HESTA.

I have always found the remote­ness and expan­sive­ness of the north­west of West­ern Aus­tralia a unique and quin­tes­sen­tial­ly Aus­tralian envi­ron­ment. So, when offered the oppor­tu­ni­ty for a four-week reg­is­tered nurs­ing practicum place­ment at Carnar­von ED, it was an oppor­tu­ni­ty that I was not going to miss. Cur­rent­ly resid­ing in the south­west of West­ern Aus­tralia, I wel­comed a break from the cold, wet win­ter in June/​July. It was well worth the two-day dri­ve north.

Upon arrival to Carnar­von, I was wel­comed by the sight of the now dis­used but icon­ic 30m radio dish, once used to com­mu­ni­cate with NASA space flights. The weath­er was superb, espe­cial­ly com­pared to the south­west, and I had been pro­vid­ed with com­fort­able share-house accom­mo­da­tion, cour­tesy of WA Coun­try Health Ser­vice (WACHS), for a sub­sidised amount. 

Upon my first ori­en­ta­tion shift, I was wel­comed by a very friend­ly ED team made up most­ly of non-res­i­dents and agency staff, work­ing in a small, but rel­a­tive­ly mod­ern and well-equipped set­ting. The var­ied back­grounds of the work­force offered a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to draw knowl­edge from dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ences and train­ing. I also quick­ly noticed the broad range of patients that were pre­sent­ing, with many tourists trav­el­ling north dur­ing the cold­er months, chil­dren on school hol­i­days, and Indige­nous Aus­tralians liv­ing both in town and fur­ther afield.

With health resources stretched in the cur­rent cli­mate, the emer­gency depart­ment also tend­ed to every­day health­care prob­lems such as reg­u­lar wound dress­ings and blood tests. This made for a practicum expe­ri­ence where I was able to learn from acute med­ical emer­gen­cies as well as con­sol­i­date skills that I had learnt on pre­vi­ous placements. 

Giv­en my cur­rent stage five pro­gres­sion, I was able to per­form and prac­tise almost all the skills that were cur­rent­ly with­in my scope of prac­tice, which was very sat­is­fy­ing. I quick­ly began to realise the impor­tance that the emer­gency depart­ment played in the role of a remote com­mu­ni­ty, where ser­vices are lim­it­ed, and many parts of the com­mu­ni­ty feel dis­en­fran­chised in rela­tion to health care. I found it very sat­is­fy­ing to be able to assist the com­mu­ni­ty in a mean­ing­ful and tan­gi­ble way while learn­ing the impor­tance that edu­ca­tion plays in places where health lit­er­a­cy is low.

I was for­tu­nate enough to have the week­ends off to myself which enabled me to real­ly explore the area. The sun­set over the ocean, while the blow­holes are erupt­ing, is an expe­ri­ence that must be witnessed. 

An overnight trip to the Kennedy Ranges a few hours inland was also some­thing that was tru­ly spec­tac­u­lar, as fan­tas­tic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties await if you are pre­pared to hike to the top! Sip­ping on a morn­ing cof­fee in the beau­ti­ful Fascine Bay area in town is mag­ic, as is a beer in the same spot as the sun is set­ting over the water. 

A fab­u­lous practicum place­ment expe­ri­ence was made even more acces­si­ble through a reim­burse­ment schol­ar­ship fund­ed by CRANAplus. If you get the oppor­tu­ni­ty for work or place­ment in Carnar­von, make sure you con­sid­er it; it’s a valu­able learn­ing expe­ri­ence on many levels.