Global Experience

[Music] it's definitely changed my view on how I lived my life here and the nurse that I want to be and the person that I want to be I came back with a completely different perspective all these little problems here that we think are huge they're

not as a student nurse you really are building a profile for yourself but you're also trying to make sense of the world that you're living in it's not very often that you get given the opportunity to immerse yourself in another country to get a global perspective on what Healthcare is India have a a really strong and developing country there's lots of opportunity for us to learn from the way that they do things and lots of opportunity for us to teach them about how we do things as well I was just wanting a new perspective of Nursing and how I can better myself as a nurse I'm 41 never been overseas I did include my for children in this decision and they're yeah go for it what are you waiting for the new Columbo plan is a government funded um Grant it's an opportunity for you to go and have an immersive experience in another country the hours that they do over there are recognized um as a clinical placement just as they would be if you were doing a local placement here it was a bit of a culture shop as soon as we landed in Mumbai um especially the airport we landed right next to a slum busy smelly heavily armed security guards at the airport were very confronting it was definitely a shock for all of us we were all there to support each other we got through it as someone that went over and didn't like Flavor in food it was definitely something that I had to adapt to really quickly um but it was something that has changed I'm going to say my life forever the Indian students that we collaborated with they were so helpful very proud to show us everything that they have Australia I'm glad we had a chance in exchanging our thoughts and experiences we miss them so

much the travel was definitely not what I expected quite bumpy and windy was definitely exhausting and tiring but the travel was an experience in

itself we have a very Community minded Focus for this placement aged Care Pediatrics um children the schooling system also the Primary Healthcare centers where we see a lot of the really heavy lifting happening for the Indian Health Care System it's a very Community minded country and they do it incredibly well I've worked in age care for 15 years so that was what one thing I was really looking forward to We visited shantai which was called the second childhood which is like an age care home it's very communitymed Age Care Facility they live in dorms like their normal houses over there um they all share one room together so it's just like a you know 20 beds in the one area which to us we first walked in there and we were quite shocked that they would still want to live like that there's incredible interaction with those residents and students and our students got a chance to be a part of that and there was dancing and singing and just so much laughter and joy it was very

moving it was such a nice part of their culture that they did share everything being able to go out and see the rural part of their little Health hubs um was something that really interested me and how they adapt so we visited a couple of their Primary Health Cent which were like our GP clinics however they were run by a lot of students um that went out and helped so they look after each other they don't have to go to a big hospital for a minor cut it definitely opened my eyes up to not look at what we don't have um instead of look at what we have and we how we can use that in our lives to with everything really not just nursing

[Applause] based holiday was really fun to be a part of it was definitely one of the best days that I had over there and to be able to take part in such a special day for their Community was really fun they danced they sang it was all day from about 5:00 in the morning you could hear kids out the

street to be able to throw paint at each other and dance and just be a part of their culture was really special and something that I'll definitely hold on to for the rest of my [Music] life you definitely need to be open to trying new things and just getting as much from the experience as possible and putting your hand up to give things a go you need to have an adventurous Spirit have the ability to be adaptable because um culturally things are different I definitely think when I went over I was confident but I definitely came back a lot more confident I think think that it will deepen your relationships with uh other Indian nurses that you work with um but it may also give you a bit of a taste of um Global nursing and whether that's something for you and something that you'd like to pursue it's something that I would do again in a heartbeat I can guarantee you that you will learn an incredible amount about India it will grow you as a professional but also personally you'll come back with a new mindset and a deep respect for them as a nation I just wanted to soak everything in wanted to meet people learn things see things and we got to do it all in 3 weeks.