I was recent­ly giv­en an oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­plete a four-week nurs­ing place­ment in Ten­nant Creek and I couldn’t be more grate­ful for this expe­ri­ence. I was able to immerse myself in cul­tur­al oppor­tu­ni­ties from the moment I arrived in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry. While await­ing in Alice Springs for a few days pri­or to fly­ing out to Ten­nant Creek, I decid­ed to do a day tour out to Ulu­ru. This was tru­ly a mag­i­cal experience.

I was able to enrich myself in so much tra­di­tion­al his­to­ry and sto­ries that have been passed through gen­er­a­tions for thou­sands of years. Even­tu­al­ly the time came to tran­sit out to Ten­nant Creek, and we were lucky enough to get a flight on the Roy­al Fly­ing Doc­tor Service.

Dur­ing my place­ment in Ten­nant Creek, sup­port­ed by the CRANAplus schol­ar­ship and spon­sored by Aussiewide Trans­port, I gained invalu­able expe­ri­ence work­ing in a unique and chal­leng­ing health­care environment. 

This place­ment offered a sol­id foun­da­tion in var­i­ous nurs­ing prac­tices and skills, specif­i­cal­ly in remote set­tings. I devel­oped the abil­i­ty to build rap­port with patients through empa­thet­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tion, ensur­ing they felt com­fort­able and val­ued. My com­mit­ment to pro­vid­ing com­pre­hen­sive and cul­tur­al­ly sen­si­tive care was inte­gral to my practice.

I active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in com­mu­ni­ty events like NAIDOC Week, which helped fos­ter a sense of com­mu­ni­ty and cul­tur­al understanding. 

For instance, I engaged in an online edu­ca­tion ses­sion run by Flinders Uni­ver­si­ty and host­ed by Uncle David Cop­ley to learn about the his­to­ry and sig­nif­i­cance of NAIDOC Week, fol­lowed by a Yarn­ing Cir­cle in the hos­pi­tal court­yard. These expe­ri­ences enriched my under­stand­ing of cul­tur­al safe­ty and com­mu­ni­ty engagement.

The place­ment also refined my organ­i­sa­tion­al abil­i­ties and taught me to adapt to lim­it­ed resources, pro­vid­ing holis­tic care that con­sid­ered the social, cul­tur­al, and eco­nom­ic back­grounds of my patients. My proac­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion in edu­ca­tion­al ses­sions and com­mu­ni­ty events under­scored my ded­i­ca­tion to con­tin­u­ous learn­ing and pro­fes­sion­al development.

In my free time, I embraced the local cul­ture and envi­ron­ment, vis­it­ing sites like Mary Ann Dam and the Bat­tery Hill Gold Min­ing & Her­itage Cen­tre. These activ­i­ties fur­ther deep­ened my appre­ci­a­tion for the region’s his­to­ry and traditions.

Over­all, this place­ment, sup­port­ed by Aussiewide Trans­port, spon­sor of the CRANAplus schol­ar­ship, allowed me to devel­op a strong skill set and a deep appre­ci­a­tion for patient-cen­tred care, prepar­ing me to con­tribute effec­tive­ly to any health­care team. I am grate­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ty and the sup­port pro­vid­ed, which has sig­nif­i­cant­ly enriched my nurs­ing career. Fur­ther­more, this place­ment and oppor­tu­ni­ty entire­ly has fuelled my desire to even­tu­al­ly become a Remote Area Nurse, and I can­not wait to do future rur­al placements.