Ear­li­er this year, I embarked on my final ten week place­ment. I’m in my fourth year of a Bach­e­lor of Occu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­py (OT), major­ing in Indige­nous Health, study­ing at South­ern Cross Uni­ver­si­ty. My place­ment was based at Mount Isa Base Hos­pi­tal, and I was placed with a fel­low South­ern Cross OT student. 

From day one, I knew the expe­ri­ence was going to be unfor­get­table, but I wasn’t aware of the huge pos­i­tive impact it would have on my per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth, and my out­look to work­ing in rur­al and remote areas.

In Mount Isa, the sup­port for stu­dents is well set up through the JCU Mur­tupuni Cen­tre. We were pro­vid­ed with a pri­vate room in shared accom­mo­da­tion, shar­ing with oth­er stu­dents doing place­ments in many med­ical fields, from nurs­ing to phys­io­ther­a­py, med­i­cine and speech pathology.

The clin­i­cal side of place­ment was an amaz­ing learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty, with the abil­i­ty to work across dif­fer­ent areas of OT in the hos­pi­tal. This includ­ed such activ­i­ties as con­cus­sion assess­ments in the acute ward, neu­ro­log­i­cal screen­ings with patients with sus­pect­ed strokes and stroke reha­bil­i­ta­tion, show­er and toi­let assess­ments on the med­ical and sur­gi­cal ward, work­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with allied health pro­fes­sion­als, work­ing along­side fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties to safe­ly dis­charge patients home with assis­tive equip­ment, pal­lia­tive care man­age­ment and being a part of MDT meet­ings and com­plex dis­charge dis­cus­sions, to name a few.

I was able to devel­op my clin­i­cal skills, as well as my inter­per­son­al and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills. Hav­ing a strong the­o­ret­i­cal base of cul­tur­al­ly safe prac­tice is some­thing I val­ue very high­ly, and I was able to col­lab­o­rate with First Nations patients, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties to ensure cul­tur­al­ly safe and com­pe­tent health­care ser­vices were delivered. 

My time in Mount Isa has shaped me and my future prac­tice as an OT, to come at sit­u­a­tions with the abil­i­ty to under­stand diverse per­spec­tives and to be crit­i­cal­ly reflec­tive of my prac­tice and areas I can improve on. 

This learn­ing will be some­thing I car­ry with me through­out my whole career and has made me even more excit­ed to become a health pro­fes­sion­al and work in rur­al and remote areas of Aus­tralia through­out my career. 

Apart from the amaz­ing clin­i­cal expe­ri­ence, liv­ing in the out­back was noth­ing short of amaz­ing, with week­end adven­tures and friends that I’ll have for­ev­er. We reg­u­lar­ly went away camp­ing (thanks to JCU’s free camp­ing gear) and explored places such as Adele’s Grove (Waanyi Coun­try), where we met and befriend­ed the locals who helped us cross some tricky water cross­ings to get into the park, kind­ly gave us local tips and knowl­edge about areas to explore and had some yarns with.

Week­end races were a reg­u­lar occur­rence, with events such as the Gre­go­ry Annu­al Canoe Race. When we stayed in Mount Isa for the week­end, I joined the local trail run­ning club, which pro­vid­ed me with a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the local com­mu­ni­ty spir­it and land­scape. Meet­ing oth­er like-mind­ed young health pro­fes­sion­als out and about made the week­ends ever so social. Oh, and how can I for­get, join­ing the local line danc­ing club (Mount Isa Line Dancers) each Wednes­day, for some boot-scootin’ fun! I’ve tak­en it back to the Gold Coast with me and have taught a few friends some moves I picked up.

I’m a big advo­cate for expe­ri­enc­ing rur­al and remote health care whilst study­ing. It has helped me grow immense­ly and is an expe­ri­ence I hold dear­ly, and can look back on fond­ly through­out my career. So, if any­one is unsure or unde­cid­ed about whether they should give it a go, my advice would be – go for it. You’ll meet so many amaz­ing peo­ple along the way, be exposed to clin­i­cal expe­ri­ences you just wouldn’t see in urban areas, which chal­lenge you to prob­lem solve and get cre­ative with the resources you have, and make life­long friends.