Postcards from Coober Pedy nursing placement

Student encourages others to spread their wings

It was in Year 10 during a work experience stint at Mount Gambier’s aged cared facility Boandik Lodge that Taylor Fatchen really started to see where her future lay and when it was time to leave school a plot a career path, it was nursing that stood out above all other options.

“I have always liked helping people and when I spent that time at Boandik I just loved it,” she said. “And while I wasn’t against moving away to study it sparked my interest a bit more when you could study nursing at the uni campus here.”

Taylor’s placement last year, when she was in her first year of study, was at Noarlunga where she was again working in aged care but in a hospital setting.

“I just got to see so much – more than anyone else did that year so I feel really lucky,” she said.

Taylor (pictured above right with a colleague) is now at the tail end of her second year of her Bachelor of Nursing and her mid year placement to Coober Pedy has only ratified her decision to pursue nursing and having had the opportunity to see a wide variety of clinical situations while at the same rural facility, all it has done is open her eyes to the diverse possibilities her future holds.

Studying at a friend’s house when the news of her remote placement came through, Taylor admits she didn’t even know where Coober Pedy was.

“I was stressed about it at the beginning,” she said. “It was just so far away from everyone and everything I knew and it was for a month.”

In the end, she made the road trip with her dad and spent aa day with him getting settled before embarking on the unknown.

“I was scared, even a bit petrified – I just didn’t know what to expect,” Taylor said.

But she settled into the nurses’ quarters just a few metres from the hospital and prepared herself for whatever lay ahead in the small community facility.

With only 14 acute beds, four aged care and a small three bed emergency department, Taylor’s main concern was what would she even experience in this small hospital and how busy would it really be – fears that proved to be completely unfounded.

“To my surprise, I was exposed to so many different things that I believe I wouldn’t have seen if I was to have completed my placement closer to home,” she said. “From emergency resuscitations to RFDS flyouts, my trip to Coober Pedy was nothing short of amazing. I feel as though the exposure has made me much more confident in my skills and has given me some more of an idea on what my future as a nurse may look like.

“I thoroughly enjoyed working closely with the Indigenous community and found it very interesting learning about their health needs and even learnt some of the language from some of our long stay patients. It has given me a new appreciation for those that work in rural and remote areas and has inspired me to develop my skills so that I am able to work wherever I may choose in the future.”

And with two more extended placements to go next year, in the final year of her Bachelor of Nursing, she knows there is still time to make a decision about where she wants her nursing career to take her.

Taylor is no stranger to hard work and is already juggling a number of jobs alongside her nursing studies.

She is an SSO at St Martins Lutheran College, works at Boandik as a personal care assistant and has hospitality and dance teaching gigs as well.

And Taylor did need that backlog of savings from her many jobs given financial support for students who do have to travel far from home for their university placements is next to non-existent. Taylor did manage to secure a scholarship but that was $250 for travel and she was 1300km away from home.

She is one of many regionally based students who welcome the lobbying from Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell to rectify this issue and given the popularity of the course locally, that campaign will almost certainly continue.

UniSA Mount Gambier Campus regional manager Ian McKay said the local campus currently supports more than 70 Bachelor of nursing students and has offered nursing since we began teaching locally in 2005.

“From the initial years of offering nursing, enrolments have grown and now remain reasonably consistent each year with a healthy number of commencing students,” he said.

“Our regional hospitals and other health care agencies value our local graduates, with all nursing graduates gaining employment after completing their degrees.

“At present, there are more nursing employment opportunities in our region than we have graduating students making nursing a career worth considering by residents in our area.”

The regional manager also acknowledged the challenges facing regional students when it came to placements.

“UniSA understands that there are significant travel costs for students who must travel to undertake placements and are aware that this has a considerable impact on some students,” he said.

“The university has a range of placement grants available to support students with the costs of undertaking placements away from home.”

And Taylor can certainly recommend the value of stepping outside your comfort zone as part of these placement opportunities.

“I was worried about how my placement experience might pan out due to its remoteness, but after arriving I quickly fell in love with the place and its people,” she said.

“I stayed with many other agency nurses from all over Australia in nursing quarters just metres from the hospital.

“I found the company of these girls helped me settle in so much quicker, and I have made some wonderful memories and lifelong friends from the experience.

“I am so grateful for my time in Coober Pedy and would encourage anyone else that might be worried about accepting a placement so far away to go for it.”