Transcript

Hi, my name's Emma. I'm a graduate registered nurse on my first rotation at Longreach Base Hospital.

I worked as an enrolled nurse for many years on the Sunshine Coast. When I decided to come to Longreach, it was more so that I wanted a bit of a country feel, I wanted a smaller community, work less, have a better home life balance.

Also, the Central West in general has a really excellent reputation. So I started researching for graduate programs and Longreach Hospital was pretty much the top of my list.

My director of nursing at the time, who had previously been out in rural and remote said she was like, you have to go rural and remote, you’ll get like multiple experiences, you get to do ED workshops.

We’re learning how to triage already and I'm only a grad and that's the kind of exposure I guess, that you don't see for like five, six years in a metro hospital. I've learnt more in the last four months as a graduate registered nurse in Longreach, than I have like in my whole nursing career.

I've been exposed to multiple things, like I helped with a C-section on my first day and then I stitched up an old farmer's hand under doctors telehealth, and they're just things that you just don't get to do in a metro facility.

I moved out here not knowing anybody, and I moved here solely for the grad position because I knew what a good program it was and what a great opportunity it was going to be and how much I'd learn.

Yeah, it's been a really positive experience and if you don't take the opportunity, you'll never get to do it. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.