This CRANAplus under­grad­u­ate remote place­ment schol­ar­ship was spon­sored by HESTA.

I did my final year nurs­ing place­ment at Ten­nant Creek hos­pi­tal. The place­ment was over four weeks and was the first remote place­ment I ever completed.

A week into my place­ment I found myself look­ing for­ward to knock­ing off work and enjoy­ing the tran­quil­li­ty of the out­doors in the ear­ly morn­ing hours or over the weekend.

I was for­tu­nate to be housed with three oth­er stu­dents from Ade­laide who were also as curi­ous about Ten­nant Creek as I was, so we shared not only a love for fit­ness but a desire to learn as much as we could about Ten­nant Creek.

Between nature walks at near­by Lake Mary Ann or the Ten­nant Creek Tele­graph Sta­tion about 5km out of Ten­nant Creek, and select­ing from a wide range of arts, crafts, fash­ion, and cui­sine at the fort­night­ly local mar­kets at the town cen­tre, there was always some­thing to do.

Although the weath­er was some­times unfor­giv­ing, with tem­per­a­tures as high as 41 degrees, it was not enough to deter us from unwind­ing after work. We soon found a local pub­lic pool and a local gym where we could sign up for the dura­tion of our place­ment and ​“pay as we go” for a swim.

The nurs­es at Ten­nant Creek Hos­pi­tal were an absolute delight to work with. They were sup­port­ive and patient with us. The edu­ca­tor, John Wright, was excep­tion­al in accom­mo­dat­ing our needs. Based on our request­ed skills needs, he allo­cat­ed us in at least two dif­fer­ent wards, and we ben­e­fit­ed from indi­vid­u­alised placements.

Pri­or to attend­ing this place­ment, I expressed to John that I was keen to prac­tise more vene-punc­ture, and bet­ter under­stand arrhyth­mias, wound care, and wound man­age­ment. Based on my needs, he placed me in the Emer­gency Depart­ment as well as the GP clin­ic. I also got a chance to pop into the COVID-19 clinic.

The beau­ty of Ten­nant Creek hos­pi­tal is that all the wards and clin­ics are under one roof, so if you are curi­ous about any­thing, there is always an oppor­tu­ni­ty to access any clin­i­cal area of inter­est to you. There is also more time to learn at Ten­nant Creek Hos­pi­tal because even though the hos­pi­tal treats short-term ill­ness­es and injuries, with crit­i­cal cas­es being trans­ferred to Roy­al Dar­win Hos­pi­tal, Alice Springs Hos­pi­tal or Roy­al Ade­laide Hos­pi­tal, most pre­sen­ta­tions are sec­ondary to chron­ic con­di­tions and thus as a stu­dent you get an oppor­tu­ni­ty to build on your clin­i­cal rea­son­ing in a less crit­i­cal environment.

At the end of each week, we took it upon our­selves to try out the restau­rants in town and we had no regrets. My per­son­al favourite was Sporties, large­ly because I just love chick­en wings and they had a kilo for just $16; add a lit­tle buf­fa­lo wing sauce and we’ll be friends for­ev­er. If you love your bar­ra­mun­di, schnitzel, piz­za, or some Asian cui­sine, you’ll have all that in Ten­nant Creek, as long as you are keen to explore. 

After a while, the days just seemed to fly by and before I knew it, the month was over and it was time for me to go back home and be someone’s mum again. Ten­nant Creek allowed me the respite I nev­er knew I needed.