For the past four years, Cal­ly has served on the WA Clin­i­cal Sen­ate, a group of health pro­fes­sion­als and con­sumer rep­re­sen­ta­tives who offer impar­tial advice on key health­care chal­lenges to the health Exec­u­tive com­mit­tee and the wider WA health system. 

That expe­ri­ence, along with her deep com­mit­ment to rur­al nurs­ing, made the Round­table a nat­ur­al next step.

She recog­nis­es the Round­table as a way to con­tin­ue influ­enc­ing pol­i­cy and advo­cat­ing for nurs­es in remote areas.

​“Remote nurs­ing is very reward­ing,” she says. 

“You see the results of your labour. You don’t always know in urban set­tings what hap­pens to your patients. In remote areas, you see them in the community.

“But, nurs­es are often under-recog­nised out­side of these set­tings for the skills and the work they do to pro­tect their communities.”

“We’ve seen more and more met­ro­pol­i­tan nurs­es com­ing to relieve in small sites which has helped boost the pro­file of rur­al and remote nurs­es and, hope­ful­ly, if we are rais­ing the pro­file, we are going to attract more nurs­es to go coun­try,” she says.

“But also, we can influ­ence the skillset that is need­ed for nurs­es going rur­al and remote.

“If we pro­mote our­selves, pro­tect our scope, and make sure nurs­es are get­ting the right train­ing and sup­port, we can change things.”

Cal­ly knows first­hand how impor­tant it is to have nurs­es who are well-trained and con­fi­dent in their skills. In rur­al and remote areas, nurs­es often work inde­pen­dent­ly, with tele­health sup­port.
The broad scope of prac­tice is part of the rea­son why coun­try nurs­es are so high­ly skilled com­pared to met­ro­pol­i­tan areas – and it is a draw­card for many health­care pro­fes­sion­als want­i­ng to work in the bush.

“I think the com­mon mis­con­cep­tion is that nurs­es go to the coun­try if they are not as good, not as clever. But when metro nurs­es come out, they are quite shocked at the lev­el of skills required.”

Cal­ly always want­ed to be a nurse and her pas­sion for rur­al health care has been built over years of experience.

Orig­i­nal­ly from South Aus­tralia, Cal­ly trained in Queens­land as a mature-age stu­dent and has worked across dif­fer­ent states.

Nurs­ing since 2005, she first moved to West­ern Aus­tralia in 2006 but lat­er returned to metro prac­tice. How­ev­er, the call of remote nurs­ing nev­er left her.

“I couldn’t stop think­ing about rur­al and remote. So we packed up the fam­i­ly and came back in 2012. And we’ve been in remote set­tings ever since, based in Kalbar­ri, a coastal town north of Ger­ald­ton, for the past eight years.”

Cal­ly, who works for WA Coun­try Health Ser­vice Mid­west, splits her time between clin­i­cal work and staff development.

As a clin­i­cal nurse in the emer­gency depart­ment, she sees the chal­lenges and rewards of rur­al prac­tice. Her oth­er role focus­es on edu­ca­tion, trav­el­ling across WA’s vast Mid­west, where she sees the full val­ue of pri­ma­ry health nursing.

“I deliv­er edu­ca­tion – every­thing from sim­u­la­tion train­ing to Advanced Life Sup­port train­ing and assess­ment. I roll out new equip­ment and poli­cies. Some­times, we dri­ve to a site just to tell them they’re amaz­ing.

​“Rur­al and remote nurs­es go out of their way on the cours­es to sup­port each oth­er and build relationships.”

“The cours­es also give them the chance to meet peo­ple from sites across coun­try WA. We need to pri­ori­tise edu­ca­tion for these nurs­es,” says Cally.

Recog­nis­ing the con­tri­bu­tion from region­al hubs, as well as small rur­al hos­pi­tals and nurs­es in out­back posts, Cal­ly says that every­one has a role to play.

​“Every­one has to con­tribute to health care in these set­tings, or none of it works.”

And, through the Round­table, Cal­ly intends to help make sure all their voic­es are heard.