Indigenous health | What I Did / What I Do

ROCHELLE LINDSAY

“ED would be a bloodbath night after night.”

I’m a registered nurse working with aboriginal peoples in remote Australia.

When I had to fill in my university application, I wasn’t completely sure what I was going to do. I put down for both nursing and for a Bachelor of Arts. I was accepted to Griffith University Gold Coast for nursing and started uni in 1997. I have not looked back since.

I loved uni and did quite well. I chose to do my grad year at Longreach as both my grandparents lived in rural areas. I quite liked the idea of doing a rural placement. Little did I know that 17 years later I would still be out bush (despite promising my best friend to be back in a year!) Continue reading →

SHEILA MATTHEWS

“During another strike a brick was thrown through the bus window as I was driving. I just stepped on the gas! I didn’t dare stop.”

I recently retired from Melbourne University, as a Clinical Trials Coordinator managing a national project for Indigenous Australian children.

Over 70 % of our Indigenous children have chronic hearing loss from an early age which can affect them for life. The most appropriate treatments for them are still being debated, so the project is following up and measuring the outcomes of 2 different options.

My career path has been convoluted, but certainly not boring. I’ve worked with an amazing array of people and professionals.

My mother told me from an early age that I would follow family tradition and go into nursing. I left high school at the end of 1969, when the major career choices for women were nursing, teaching or secretarial duties. Continue reading →