Narelle’s jour­ney with Rur­al LAP began in an unex­pect­ed place, a nurs­es con­fer­ence in Cam­bo­dia. A chance bus ride con­ver­sa­tion with a fel­low nurse intro­duced her to the pro­gram and the excit­ing world of locum work. 

“She was so enthu­si­as­tic about her expe­ri­ences as a trav­el nurse and sug­gest­ed I apply. That advice stuck with me, and once pan­dem­ic restric­tions lift­ed, I applied,” Narelle recalls. ​“Great advice from a ran­dom meet­ing on a bus!”

For Narelle, Rur­al LAP offers the per­fect bal­ance of struc­tured oppor­tu­ni­ties and flexibility. 

“I like that place­ments come out ear­ly, allow­ing plen­ty of time for future plan­ning. I pre­fer the short place­ments of four weeks or less, and I par­tic­u­lar­ly appre­ci­ate that I am cov­er­ing a posi­tion that allows a reg­u­lar staff mem­ber to take a well-earned break.”

Com­ing into nurs­ing as a mature-aged pro­fes­sion­al in 2010, Narelle had a long career in a dif­fer­ent field before mak­ing the switch.

“I wish I had become a nurse earlier!”

One of Narelle’s recent place­ments took her to Port Broughton Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal on South Australia’s Yorke Penin­su­la. Sup­port­ed by local Gen­er­al Prac­ti­tion­ers and the South Aus­tralia Vir­tu­al Emer­gency Ser­vice (SAVES), the hos­pi­tal pro­vid­ed her with a strong team envi­ron­ment and a wel­com­ing community.

“The hos­pi­tal has a ded­i­cat­ed man­age­ment team and love­ly per­ma­nent staff who are always on hand to lend a hand. The town itself has plen­ty to offer, a beau­ti­ful old pub with great meals,
a deli­cious bak­ery, bike tracks, pic­turesque walks, and a long pier for an evening stroll.”

On her days off, she explored near­by his­tor­i­cal towns and even vis­it­ed the famous Clare Val­ley for wine tasting.

No place­ment comes with­out its chal­lenges, and for Narelle, learn­ing the new SUN­RISE sys­tem was a hurdle.

How­ev­er, the hospital’s man­age­ment team sup­port­ed her with online learn­ing and a face-to-face ses­sion before she start­ed, help­ing her adjust smoothly.

The Rur­al LAP expe­ri­ence

Narelle speaks high­ly of the Rur­al LAP team, espe­cial­ly in terms of logis­ti­cal support. 

“The process is effi­cient from start to fin­ish. On one occa­sion, my flights were delayed on a week­end, but the after-hours team worked mag­ic behind the scenes and found me a flight home. I’ve also stayed in some unique accom­mo­da­tions, includ­ing a cot­tage on an alpaca farm, which was a bit of fun!”

While each loca­tion has offered some­thing spe­cial, Narelle has a par­tic­u­lar fond­ness for the North East­ern Sol­diers Memo­r­i­al Hos­pi­tal in Scotts­dale, Tasmania. 

“I’ve been there twice now. The staff are very sup­port­ive, and the loca­tion is ide­al for explor­ing the North East of Tasmania.”

Advice for aspir­ing locums

For nurs­es con­sid­er­ing locum work with Rur­al LAP, Narelle offers sim­ple but pow­er­ful advice: ​“If you’re look­ing to work in a small com­mu­ni­ty and want to expe­ri­ence nurs­ing life out­side of what you already know, go for it!”

She also shares a per­son­al mantra: ​“Put the hours behind it, then you’ll find out where your tal­ent lies.”