This CRANAplus Under­grad­u­ate Remote Place­ment Schol­ar­ship was spon­sored by HESTA.

Fly­ing from Mel­bourne to Alice Springs was the first of many won­der­ful sights and expe­ri­ences of this incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­plete a three-week nurs­ing place­ment at Alice Springs Hos­pi­tal. The strik­ing panora­ma of the exten­sive red ter­rain, with a sin­gu­lar road, served as a tan­gi­ble tes­ta­ment to the remote­ness of this community. 

The prospect of under­tak­ing a remote place­ment in Alice Springs was a com­pelling oppor­tu­ni­ty that I saw as indis­pens­able. I was moti­vat­ed by the belief that my pas­sion can make a mean­ing­ful dif­fer­ence to vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions. Hav­ing a gen­uine inter­est in engag­ing in pro­fes­sion­al prac­tice with Indige­nous pop­u­la­tions in a remote loca­tion fuelled my eager­ness to gain an under­stand­ing of the lifestyle and chal­lenges associated.

Dri­ving through the out­er part of Alice Springs to my accom­mo­da­tion was a refresh­ing change of pace from the bustling city of Melbourne.

On my first day, all stu­dents begin­ning their place­ment attend­ed an Abo­rig­i­nal Cul­ture and Con­text short course at Flinders Uni­ver­si­ty. I got to engage with and learn from stu­dents from dif­fer­ent health­care pro­fes­sions and uni­ver­si­ties across Aus­tralia. This work­shop was incred­i­bly invalu­able and eye-open­ing learn­ing of Abo­rig­i­nal his­to­ry, cur­rent chal­lenges, and the destruc­tive nature of the spread­ing of mis­in­for­ma­tion par­tic­u­lar­ly by media. It was aston­ish­ing to learn that the coloni­sa­tion of Cen­tral Aus­tralia occurred 100 years after the south and east coast of Aus­tralia. This encour­aged me to con­sid­er the impacts of this in terms of progress, knowl­edge, and expec­ta­tions of the Alice Springs com­mu­ni­ty.

The fol­low­ing day was my first day in the Orthopaedic Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Ward. A bright and cheery ward was emersed in Abo­rig­i­nal art cre­at­ed by pre­vi­ous patients and fam­i­lies. It was here I got to devel­op my abil­i­ty to cul­tur­al­ly con­nect with patients and fam­i­lies and under­stand the fun­da­men­tals of cul­tur­al safe­ty – a piv­otal and trans­fer­able skill in nurs­ing. It was reward­ing to recog­nise Abo­rig­i­nal patients slow­ly gain­ing trust and open up more through­out my place­ment. They began to share not only more about their health but also about their cul­ture and their con­nec­tion to their land. It was touch­ing to hear just how mean­ing­ful the land and their tra­di­tion­al prac­tices were to them, imped­ing some patient’s abil­i­ty to remain in hospital.

The nurs­es, health pro­fes­sion­als and edu­ca­tion team here allowed me to broad­en my knowl­edge and devel­op skills that would not have been pos­si­ble in a met­ro­pol­i­tan hos­pi­tal. They high­light­ed to me what it means to be a phe­nom­e­nal health­care pro­fes­sion­al. I aspire to one day be as pro­fi­cient, knowl­edge­able, and influ­en­tial as they proved to be.

Each day before or after place­ment and on my ros­tered days off pro­vid­ed a new adven­ture. From rid­ing around the town to dis­cov­er­ing art gal­leries to attend­ing triv­ia nights with new friends, I began to dis­cov­er the true beau­ty of Alice Springs.

On one of my days off, my friend and I ven­tured into the West Mac­Don­nell Ranges (Tjorit­ja) – breath­tak­ing. Our tour guide shared Arrernte Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ples’ Dream­time sto­ries of how the ridges of the West Mac­Don­nell Ranges were cre­at­ed by giant caterpillars.

From the beau­ti­ful red and ridged land­scape of Ser­pen­tine Gorge to the refresh­ing water of Ellery Creek Big Hole, it was an insight­ful and cap­ti­vat­ing day.

I am immense­ly grate­ful for this incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence a remote nurs­ing place­ment and all that Alice Springs has to offer. The knowl­edge, skills, friend­ships, and mem­o­ries I cre­at­ed are invaluable.

I thank CRANAplus for this schol­ar­ship and for sup­port­ing me to under­take this placement.