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Your Stories
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Transitioning to remote practice: RANPP participants on their career journeys to date
Midway through 2022, CRANAplus accepted four nurses into its pilot Remote Area Nursing Pathway Program (RANPP). The program attracted interest from hundreds of nurses, highlighting the emerging workforce’s need for structured transition programs of this kind. Following the program’s completion in February 2023, we caught up with the four participants to discuss their career journeys, and the benefits of preparation.
Jess Payne
“I first went to Tennant Creek as a student and when we were planning on going remote again, I figured that was a good starting point,” Jess says. “I knew some of the people there and had an idea of where I was going.
“[Working rurally and remotely] was something I’d always thought of doing, especially working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. I’m a Yuwaalaraay woman and I’m passionate about Aboriginal health and wellbeing so
I always wanted to work in community, to achieve good outcomes. We look after our own.
“There’s always a bit of reservation, though – you’ve never been somewhere so remote. Being able to go somewhere in a really supported role as a student takes away some of your anxieties. The not knowing, the uncertainty, is a potential barrier. But I think once you take that leap, it’s amazing.
“There’s not any ultimate thing you can do to prepare yourself, but you can go in with a little more confidence in your practice.
“This program [coincided with] my first real experience as a RN in a remote area. It was amazing – even just having the support of other participants and the educators to bounce things off; and knowing you’re not alone in your feelings and everyone is going through the same things. Plus the REC and the MEC course were amazing – as a refresher, but also as completely new learning, contextualised to working in isolation.
“I’ve relocated to Victoria [recently] but I certainly hope to get back to remote practice when it’s right for me and my family. I want to develop my career, my leadership skills. I hope to inspire and empower other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to become involved in decision-making and governance in health organisations, so we can continue to decolonise attitudes and services to provide Culturally Safe and responsive care.”
Helen Carman
“I’d done about eight years in the metro system in WA when COVID-19 arrived and resulted in border restrictions,” says Helen.
“Normally, I was travelling, and felt I was exploring the world. I started to get a bit burnt out, lost. I was in ICU, and there was some compassion fatigue.
“I took a secondment, where I flew up to the Kimberley for four months. I knew I liked working regionally. But I’d never lived four months somewhere. I felt I was in a different world.
“The patients were different, the lifestyle different. Working away from Perth re-ignited my passion for nursing. I started thinking, if I like this, maybe I’d want to go further remote.
“You gain autonomy; and even though you’ve got support electronically, through telehealth and phone calls, you really need to know what you’re doing.
“I was working in a little two-nurse ED, one of the most isolated I’d been in to that point. I don’t have a midwifery background; in the city, you look after one speciality.
“A woman came in, in labour, and we ended up delivering this baby and it went fine. But we were on our own, and I remember thinking – I need to know a bit more about everything, for when these situations arise.
“I had seen the program online, and wanted to do the Maternity Emergency Care course, which was included. It all lined up – I thought, what a godsend.
“I’ve met some girls in the country who have gone from the city to a really small clinic and lasted three or four days, then gone back.
“If you go remote on your own, independently, it’s pretty hardcore. I wouldn’t personally want to do it… This pathway has been a lot more gentle.
“If CRANAplus could fit more people on the pathway, so many nurses would love to do it.
“[My recommendation to fellow nurses is] just go for it. Perhaps start off at a bigger site, and work your way down smaller and smaller. Know you’ve got the background support, like the Bush Support Line.
“You don’t hear of many people working remotely, then you go remote – and there’s a whole support network of nurses doing the same thing. When you’re feeling far from home, you don’t feel lonely.”
Michelle Appo
“I decided in 2016 to be a registered nurse,” Michelle says.
“When I was working in the hospital system it was very hard, as an Indigenous nurse, to see the treatment of remote Indigenous patients… You’re fighting institutional racism.
“I thoroughly believe that I can do more for my people outside of the hospital system, rather than in… In primary health care [working for an Aboriginal Medical Service], it goes without saying they will always come to us first, before they will go to a tertiary institution like a hospital.
“This program has been absolutely, essentially important for me. I’m a third-year nurse now, and things are just starting to make sense, to click. Often you go down the wrong path and halfway through, you realise, this is the avenue I should’ve taken. Whereas this program, it takes you right there.
“It gives you the tools, the training, and the advice to start remotely… It’s not hiding anything, so you go there with all the inform- ation and all the skills to do remote nursing.
“I’d like to start trialling remote. I still want to get that primary health care [experience for the next year or so]; it’s really important to have that grounding first. Primary health care can change a person’s life forever.
“I’ve got a lot of nursing friends, and my point to a lot of them is this: if you can talk to and treat an Indigenous person like you would any other person, any other nationality; if you can hold their hand like you would anyone else, then you know you should be remote.
“I think this program is essential. I’m an Indigenous nurse, and I’ve learned so much – even a lot more about my own history than I knew before. I hope [CRANAplus] gets funding to continue it.”
Jaimy West
“I happened to have done my immunisation certificate, pre-COVID,” Jaimy says, “and I wanted to see what was outside of Maitland, New South Wales.
“So I joined an agency, and accidentally joined ‘rural and remote’ instead of ‘tertiary’. The next minute I’m in the Northern Territory in Tennant Creek, at the hospital, running [a COVID-19] immunisation clinic.
“I’m confident I could go anywhere and work, but you need to be aware of yourself and your connection to Country. It’s one of those eerie things – as soon as I saw the red, brown, the heat, I knew I was where I needed to be.
“There was nothing about Tennant Creek I didn’t like. I knew then I wanted to go and work in remote communities.
“In my spare time, I jumped on the CRANAplus website and called CRANAplus and asked how I could further my education. That’s how I found out about this program.
“I think there’s so much pressure in tertiary now, people think they’ll go out to a community and it will be easier. I think that’s where some people fail and so I think I’ve been extremely fortunate to have been accepted into the CRANAplus Program. I’ve been given tools so that when I get back out there, I know what to expect.
“Through the program, we learned not just how we are going to look after the community and the nursing side of things; it brought home how to look after yourself, as well as cultural awareness and Cultural Safety.
“I also loved that I was able to stay home and keep my main job.
“My biggest piece of advice would be to join CRANAplus.”
Click to read more about the Remote Area Nursing Pathway Program. To be notified of any future opportunities to participate in the program, subscribe to CRANApulse newsletter.
For more insight into transitioning to remote health, read articles how to apply for scholarships, the differences between urban and remote nursing, and FAQs about agency work answered by Verus People.