The joy of locum nursing in remote Australia

26 Aug 2024

After 60 hours of night shift, locum nurse Greta Webb spent time telling us how much she has loved being a part of Rural LAP. A veteran of the program, Greta joined Rural LAP 13 years ago and confidently tells us that she has “been everywhere”.

Reflect­ing on her time with Rur­al LAP, Gre­ta said, When I look at my place­ment record, it’s exhaust­ing to read. But what a won­der­ful career I have had, I am for­ev­er grate­ful for this opportunity”. 

Hav­ing worked along­side thou­sands of nurs­es around Aus­tralia, Gre­ta has pro­vid­ed locum relief and sup­port for rur­al and remote com­mu­ni­ties who need it the most.

I am a much bet­ter nurse for all the edu­ca­tion and knowl­edge I have received along the way, thanks to the dif­fer­ent facil­i­ties and staff who have dif­fer­ent ways of doing things.”

Talk­ing about some of her high­lights Gre­ta shared with us the time that she found a scor­pi­on catch­ing a lift in the cuff of her jeans after attend­ing to a vehi­cle rollover in Kakadu or the time she had to stop the car to let a croc­o­dile cross the road.

There was also the time her pilot vom­it­ed on her after brav­ing a storm and run­ning out of fuel just before com­ing to land in Broome. The expe­ri­ences tru­ly are once-in-a-life­time with Rur­al LAP.

Gre­ta also made spe­cial men­tion of the amaz­ing Roy­al Fly­ing Doc­tor Ser­vice doc­tors who have stepped in to help when she was on call in remote loca­tions. And fond­ly remem­bers the Indige­nous Elders and their fam­i­lies that she has had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn from, care for and assist through­out her time in the North­ern Territory.

When asked what Gre­ta likes most about being a Rur­al LAP locum she said, Are you kid­ding me it has been the best ride of my life”.

If you want to expe­ri­ence the ride of a life­time, explore Aus­tralia, and pro­vide sup­port and assis­tance to rur­al and remote com­mu­ni­ties then Rur­al LAP might just be the pro­gram for you. Find out more on their web­site.

More about Rur­al LAP

Fund­ed by the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment, the Rur­al Locum Assis­tance Pro­gram (Rur­al LAP) pro­vides tar­get­ed locum sup­port ser­vices to health­care pro­fes­sion­als and aged-care work­ers in rur­al and remote Australia. 

We under­stand the impor­tance of CPD and recre­ation­al leave and offer vital sup­port to health pro­fes­sion­als to ensure they don’t hit burnout and alle­vi­ate the pres­sures of work-force short­ages. Rur­al LAP goes above and beyond by sup­port­ing and recruit­ing suit­able locums, plus we arrange and pay for the locums trav­el and accom­mo­da­tion, remov­ing the admin­is­tra­tive bur­den for the health ser­vice and locum. 

Join us in our mis­sion to enhance health and aged-care ser­vices in rur­al and remote Australia.

Con­tact Rur­al LAP today to explore how we can sup­port your health and aged-care needs and con­tribute to the well­be­ing of your community.