2017 Scholarship Report – Isobel Gower

My rural experience in Broken hill

From the 8th May – 2nd June I spent 4 weeks on placement at the Broken Hill base hospital in Broken Hill. My 4 weeks were spent in operating theatre in which I witnessed the surgical treatment of trauma, delivery of babies, removal of cataracts and many other life impacting operations.

The learning environment, and encouragement of both doctors and nurses in student involvement was both empowering and lead to me assisting and gaining an understanding of procedures I had not been involved in until now. This included assisting in theatre, pre-admission of patients, anaesthetic preparation, recovery from surgery, and day surgery & discharge home.

In addition to time spent in theatre, I was lucky enough to spend a day at the RFDS base in Broken Hill where I was able to talk to staff and develop an understanding of what a career with the RFDS would be like.

My placement in Broken Hill was an amazing experience in which I was able to develop my clinical skills in peri operative nursing, meet incredible people, re confirm my desire to work in rural/ remote medicine and has motivated me to pursue a career with the RFDS in becoming a flight nurse.

Isobel Gower, Nursing student, Hobart