All photos were taken by RN Miriam.
RN Miriam
6 years nursing experience
What inspired RN Miriam, a metro hospital nurse, to try rural and remote nursing and what benefits has she seen?
Read about her Bega adventure in this month’s Nurse Spotlight.
1. How has your time been in Bega, NSW?
Bega was a lovely working holiday for me. I enjoyed my work, the hospital was brand new, and the team was super friendly and welcoming. Exploring the south coast was a definite highlight.
Surfing, hiking, biking, national parks, camping, there is so much to do around the area. The staff where incredibly friendly and keen to share local knowledge.
2. What inspired you to try rural and remote nursing?
I decided to try rural and remote nursing mainly to travel, but also to try something new career wise.
The travel aspect of it is so easy, lots of places to go with accommodation provided. Nursing wise, I loved applying my skills to new settings and seeing different places.
3. What kind of benefits have you seen when nursing in a rural location?
Definite career benefits when nursing in a rural location. With smaller locations and fewer resources there is the opportunity to have far more autonomy and develop leadership skills than in those larger metropolitan hospitals.
This is not something I realised before I went, and skills I didn’t necessarily know I had before I had to use them!
4. What do you enjoy most about the travel nurse lifestyle?
I love to travel, to meet new people, explore new places so I loved this part of it. I loved how contracts vary in length and every place is a new adventure.
I also enjoyed the different work, although ICU nursing is similar every place is different with different presentations, different process, different capabilities.
5. What has been your highlight working with Affinity?
Logistically well managed, my accommodation was lovely and when my contracted was extended it was seamlessly managed, I didn’t have to move, excellent communication from Affinity.
6. You’ve taken many beautiful photos! Do you have a favorite shot? What’s the story behind it?
The sunrise shot. Two other nurses and I from the hospital did the light-to-light coastal 2x day hike. This photo we took the morning of commencing the hike while driving to the trail head.
It is looking south to the Victorian border, I’m sure Victoria is in the photo, it was such a stunning morning in such a deserted part of Australia I had no idea existed and was so beautiful.
A glorious morning. The light-to-light hike exceeded expectations, and I’d recommend anyone visiting Bega on contract to do it.
7. What advice would you give other nurses who want to do travel nursing?
Give it a go! It’s so much fun, start off somewhere not too remote depending on your experience and skills.But you are probably more capable than you think.
Be open minded and adaptable, everywhere does things differently and you’ll learn new. things.Be flexible, outgoing, friendly, and ready to work hard and slot into a new team.
A lot of places are desperate for staff and thankful for agency nurses, but it means there’s lots of work to be done!
If you put in effort, you’ll be rewarded with the wonderful caring generosity and hospitability so often found in rural areas and people.You get out what you put in.
If you’re inspired by RN Miriam’s story, sign up with Affinity and let’s talk about more amazing opportunities that await you!
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