Ear­li­er this year, I was priv­i­leged to do a five­week place­ment on the Sur­gi­cal Ward of Alice Springs Hos­pi­tal (ASH). Already hav­ing a pas­sion for rur­al and remote nurs­ing, I was excit­ed to be going not only inter­state, but to be going to such an icon­ic loca­tion. Com­ing from a small­er town in the low­er south-west of Queens­land and know­ing noth­ing of the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry or Alice Springs, I was so sur­prised at the diver­si­ty of not just the pop­u­la­tion but of the land­scape, flo­ra, and fauna. 

The hos­pi­tal pro­vid­ed an envi­ron­ment rich in edu­ca­tion and unique oppor­tu­ni­ties, from the diverse patient pop­u­la­tion to the eclec­tic staffing one. ASH is very sup­port­ive of its stu­dents and grad­u­ates, ensur­ing we saw a friend­ly face every day who was always ready to be a per­son­al cheer squad, cel­e­brat­ing all the highs and pro­vid­ing a safe space through the lows. Hear­ing all the First Peo­ples’ lan­guages was real­ly eye-open­ing, as I had nev­er heard any before my time at ASH. After a while, I was able to iden­ti­fy when I was hear­ing a dif­fer­ent First Peo­ples’ language. 

Even­tu­al­ly, I worked up the courage to try some basics of a cou­ple of the more com­mon lan­guages with my patients; this was usu­al­ly met with a bit of a gig­gle and firm encour­age­ment to keep trying.

These inter­ac­tions enriched my world in ways I could nev­er have fore­seen, deep­en­ing my cul­tur­al under­stand­ing while fur­ther solid­i­fy­ing my foun­da­tion to nurse with empa­thy, with­out bias, and in cul­tur­al­ly safe ways. I would urge all stu­dents to jump at the chance of a place­ment in Alice Springs if giv­en the opportunity. 

Being in Alice Springs for five weeks, I got to expe­ri­ence and see a lot. I enjoyed all the mar­kets had to offer, espe­cial­ly the beau­ti­ful art pro­duced by local First Peo­ples artists.

I was also lucky enough to be there for Anzac Day; it was a beau­ti­ful homage to a ter­ri­ble time deliv­ered to the back­drop of sun­rise over the stun­ning beau­ty of the desert. A per­son­al high­light was Par­rtji­ma: A Fes­ti­val in Light, where I attend­ed a work­shop on bush­food and med­i­cine with Arrernte women Veron­i­ca and Camille Dob­son, where we learned about a wide vari­ety of plants and their uses while being able to touch and smell sam­ples. I was entranced by the Mac­Don­nell Ranges Light Dis­play and mes­merised by the myr­i­ad of dif­fer­ing light dis­plays scat­tered through­out the fes­ti­val, all rep­re­sent­ing dif­fer­ent visions, inter­pre­ta­tions, and stories.

I enjoy hik­ing and explor­ing and Alice Springs did not dis­ap­point, from the his­to­ry of John Fly­nn and Ade­laide House to the beau­ty of the Tele­graph Sta­tion. The mag­ic of Simp­sons Gap with its shy inhab­i­tants, the rock wal­la­bies, to the first rock art I had ever seen at Jessie and Emi­ly Gaps, with Ellery Creek Big Hole pos­si­bly being the cold­est water I have ever braved (up to my ankles!). 

How­ev­er, noth­ing could have pre­pared me for the majesty and beau­ty of Ulu­ru and Kata Tju­ta, fierce and stead­fast in their pres­ence, with Kings Canyon being unlike any­thing else. An alien land­scape rich in diver­si­ty and ancient his­to­ry and equal­ly as sur­pris­ing in its pull. 

I will for­ev­er be grate­ful to CRANAplus and the Aussiewide Trans­port Spon­sor­ship for pro­vid­ing me with the sup­port to have such an unfor­get­table adven­ture through my nurs­ing stud­ies. All I have gained from Alice Springs I will take for­ward with me as I fol­low my pas­sion into rur­al and remote nursing.