Aboriginal grant recipeint Ava on a nursing path

Ava:

I'm Ava Jarrett. I just finished high school, and I completed a Cert III in health through a school-based traineeship. Three years ago when I was in year 10, my Aboriginal education officer got me in for a chat and was saying this was going to be a good idea if I wanted to have a career in health. And so I applied straight away. It was a really good opportunity that I just had to take.

Jonathan:

Hi, my name's Jon Magill, nurse manager for education and professional development. My role is looking after undergraduate students postgraduate. The Elsa Dixon Grant is important because it gives us an opportunity to bring Aboriginal kids in, in year 11 and 12 into the traineeship. We've had grant money for five students since 2018, and this year we've been successful for 10. And it gives us an opportunity to give these kids a pathway, a career pathway, which is fantastic.

Ava:

For this program, I had to go to TAFE every Wednesday for theory and assessment tasks. And I worked twice a week, as well as the Wednesday at the Lismore Base Hospital. The most challenging aspect of the school-based traineeship is probably the struggle with school and balancing TAFE, school and work. And maybe some of the things that happen in the hospital and the reality of life. In those hard times when it gets a bit challenging and we struggle with a couple of things, Charmaine's a really great mentor that we go to and will help us through anything and to make sure that we're okay.

Charmaine:

My name's Charmaine Murphy, and I'm the nurse educator at Lismore Base Hospital. I've been in the position for a number of years, and my role encompasses many things to do with education across the whole of the base hospital. The cadets actually learn a whole raft of practical skills that you can take that are transportable anywhere in the world, essentially. So taking blood pressures, pulses, temperatures, pressure injury prevention, falls assessments, they can do all sorts of paperwork. They learn how to use a lot of the electronic medical record systems. They're very supported. They're not thrown in the deep end. We regularly check in on how they're going and make sure that everything's just right, just right for them.

Ava:

I really enjoyed working in the hospital and seeing all behind the scenes of how everything runs, things that the patients don't see, and it's really made my experience worth it. And I really know what I want to do. My next step is that I have enrolled in university in Melbourne, Monash University, for a bachelor of nursing. And I'd love to complete that. And yeah, start my life as an RN. To the students looking to do this, I'd say definitely do it. It's a great leg up. And everyone's really supportive about it. You learn so much, and it's really fun.

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