aged care nurse

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     SHIKHA MONDAL

“From my heart, I care for the patients; I feel a deep need to help them.”

I work as a registered nurse at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne.

When I finished year twelve in Bangladesh, my family insisted that I go into nursing. It wasn’t my first choice at all. I wanted to be a university lecturer, an academic. In my country, if you’re a good student, you study engineering, or medicine. Usually nursing is for those who are not the best students, or students from poor socio-economic background in Bangladesh.

But my parents sent me to study nursing because they thought that as a nurse, I’d be guaranteed at least a government job, and so I’d always be able to work and survive. I applied for the biggest medical college in Bangladesh. I sat my entrance exam very successfully, and got a chance to study nursing with scholarship. Continue reading →

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     EDGAR TAN

“Sometimes you are the only person with them in their dying moments.”

I am a registered nurse specializing in aged care.

I was always interested in nursing and all things medical, so straight after high school I went to do a nursing course at the Institute of Technical Education of Singapore. Coming from an Asian background where nursing as a career can be frowned upon, especially for males, I was lucky to have a pretty supportive family.

I did a two-year certificate to become an enrolled nurse. Thereafter, I did around four months work in a public hospital before it was time for me to do the mandatory two year military service. Continue reading →

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     MARK TYRRELL

“Trying to get a Holocaust survivor with dementia into a shower is a harrowing experience”

I currently work as a practice nurse in a GP Clinic.

I was never too interested in school, and left half way through year 12. I already knew I wanted to do nursing, as I had been a first aid volunteer a few years by then. I started through a Victorian Youth Development program in 1997, that allowed kids to do cadetships with the army, the navy – and first aid.

I learnt first aid basics, went out with the ambos to events like football and concerts. It was pretty confronting for a kid, dealing with cardiac arrests, drug overdoses. But seeing how the paramedics and the nurses I worked with dealt with these situations and people, inspired me to get into it myself. Continue reading →