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My nursing philosophy is about having care centred around the patient and ensuring they are comfortable. I believe that it is extremely important to be able to empathise with your patient. I will always advocate for my patients, so that they get the best possible care and support and will advocate for myself and my co-workers. I recognise the importance of teamwork in the workplace and that there may need to be multiple health professionals working together to assist a patient. Another important aspect in nursing is cultural competence and respect. It is vital that even if other cultures or personal beliefs aren’t understood, they are still respected, as they can be vastly different to your own culture. With that being said, I will always try to learn as much as I can as I love learning and knowledge. I think that continuous learning is extremely important as over time there will be new ways of performing procedures, interacting with patients and refresher trainings. By continuing to learn, your knowledge will stay up to date and you will always be able to help your patients as best you can.

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In the piano piece I have composed and played, the dissonant chords are representing barriers either from political or cultural paradigms me or my family have had accessing healthcare. This had led me to have more of an understanding of the barriers that can come up in healthcare and the effects they can have on people. Personally, causes from a political paradigm of women’s health not being prioritised, is having over 7 years of excruciating pain, not being believed and refusal for surgery that was needed. These experiences will help me to grow and to be able to empathise with patients better as well as having a better understanding that there are many different cultural beliefs and values. I think that my nursing persona would be significantly changed if there were to be either a big political/cultural paradigm shift such as having new policies or systems set in place or learning about a different culture that is significantly different to mine. An example of this is when I was working in a school and had some Buddhist coworkers. I have many tattoos over me and we were talking about them as they weren’t allowed to get tattoos. In their religion, tattoos are viewed as self harm, whereas from my culture, they are a form of expression and something beautiful. This showed two different views about the same thing, which is where judgement can sometimes come in. I am aware of that and always ensure I try to see myself in the other person’s shoes before jumping to conclusions.

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My formal training includes a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care, First Aid Training, Mental Health First Aid and HAAS training. I have been involved in Scouting for many years and am currently a Joey Scout Leader with 5-8 year olds. In my Leader Role I also care for one of my joeys who is non-verbal and has ASD. I assist him with communication and ensure he is being given the same experiences as the rest of the youth. For the National Governor General’s Camp, involving 2,000 people, I was the Welfare Manager. This major event role involved dealing with immediate mental health crisis’, child safety issues and administrative tasks. Previously, I have been the First Aid and Welfare leader at other camps in the ACT and at 17 years old I was the ACT Venturer Council Chair. All of these roles have assisted me in learning how to manage big teams of people, run meetings and coordinate multiple people at once. In my current work as an LSA at Black Mountain School, I have worked with a range of students for the past two years. This has involved dealing with PEG feeds, PEG/J, setting up feed pumps, reinserting PEGs, NGT feeds, medication administration, oxygen, suction and gastrotomy care. I also have manual handling training and use a variety of different hoists. I am able to communicate in a range of ways such as using AAC (eye gazes, proloque2go, PODDs), some sign language and using eye movement to ask yes/no questions. I have also had lots of experience dealing with behavioural issues ranging from meltdowns to students attempting to physically attack staff. I have had various training such as Team Teach to learn how to deal with these situations. As well as working at Black Mountain I also do disability support work and mainly am working with students who have a diagnosis of ASD or cerebral palsy. This can involve assisting with physiotherapy and speech therapy. Previously I worked at Blue Gum Community school for two years in BGOSH, the after school and holiday care program they run. I also worked at one of Blue Gum’s Preschools for several months. I am currently working towards a Diploma in Emergency Medicine and my Bachelors Degree in Nursing.