Remote Nursing – enhancing the future of the outback - Cassandra Bailey
Working in rural and remote healthcare has many challenges. For me, as a Remote Health Nurse Educator, my responsibilities to provide clinical education and staff wellbeing support lies across 11 facilities, covering over 300,000 square kilometres (about the same size as Italy!).
I started my nursing career in a large tertiary facility, where resources and support were at my fingertips. Moving to the outback and delving into remote nursing, was a huge learning curve and I now pride myself in supporting other nurses, who are doing the same. You wear many different hats, you grow your autonomy and you become very, very inventive with your practice. You get used to using what you’ve got, and you make it work.
Without visiting these remote healthcare facilities, it is hard to imagine the challenges they face, the reality, their realism, which is different from place to place, community to community. It there a staffing deficit? Most facilities have one or two nurses on site at any one time, most facilities don’t have access to a Medical Officer, we rely on telephone or telehealth support, if the internet is working!
Is there a physical space to resus this person? Are we in the middle of a cattle property responding to a horse accident? How do we call for help in the middle of a telecommunication outage? I hope someone has the sat phone! Is it flooded? Can the plane land to get this sick person retrieved? Some facilities are cut off for months at a time due to wet season flooding, no one comes in, no one goes out. I’m the nurse, but I’m also the hospital-based ambulance, first responder, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. How many hours have I worked again? The reality is, this is their everyday and this is remote nursing.
Enhancing the learning of our nurses and midwives in remote healthcare facilities, means better outcomes for our patients, it means we have well supported staff, it means we grow a community of nurses who will continue to grow and work within our remote communities, support our future generation nurses and midwives, and support the health outcomes of one of the largest populations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The Remote Ready program was developed and embedded this year as its first year, and it encompasses a degree of both clinical and wellbeing content. Run by yours truly, along with my team of dedicated Nurse Educators in the North West, the purpose is to promote the realism of living and working in a remote community, provide skills and knowledge to leverage resources in their facilities, to safely live and work. We see many nurses transitioning from large metropolitan areas or even oversees, with limited to no knowledge of the reality of remote nursing and the reality is, remote nursing is very different, it’s a speciality of its own.
Why remote nursing? It’s an experience like no other. You make a difference in the community, you make lifelong connections, there are many beautiful places to see and explore. The picturesque landscapes, exquisite sunsets, nature and culture at its finest, enriches the journey and the memories of remote nursing.
We are here to support, we are here to give you skills and knowledge to work remote, we are here to provide resources to support mental health and self-care, we are here to guide you and nurture you throughout your remote nursing career and we are here to work alongside you, we see you and we hear you.
Interested in knowing more? Contact me at cassandra.bailey2@health.qld.gov.au