Alice Swanton is one of the newest graduate nurses with Central Australian Aboriginal Congress in Alice Springs.
Originally from Melbourne, Alice left school after Year 9 without a clear plan. But one thing she always knew is that she wanted to be a nurse. As a teenager, her mum sent her on a bus trip to Uluru, stopping at indigenous communities along the way. It was by going on that trip that changed her life.
“That was the first time I was exposed to the gap in our health system for Indigenous people,” she said. Alice went on this trip each year for three years. In her fourth year, she spent 3 weeks living and volunteering in the community of Mutitjulu.
After finishing a Diploma of Nursing during COVID, Alice struggled to find a pathway into remote nursing from Victoria as a newly qualified Enrolled Nurse. She widened her search and landed a 2-month contract in dialysis in Katherine, like many she stayed over two years, and completed her Bachelor of Nursing online through Charles Darwin University (CDU) along the way.
Alice first heard about the Grad2Remote NT program, during an online class.
Our Grad2Remote NT program supports final-year nursing and allied health students across the Northern Territory and beyond. It connects them with funding, like the NT Thrive Grant and Health Workforce Scholarships. It also gives them tailored recruitment support as they move from study into a health career.
“I kept my eye on the Congress website, and when the ad went up, I applied,” she said. Within days she was speaking with Congress Senior Clinical Educator Joeleen Brown about the graduate program and what it would involve. “Even before my interview, I think I was telling people I was moving to Alice.”
The NT Thrive Grant helped ease Alice’s relocation from Katherine to Alice Springs. “It made the move less stressful,” she said. “I still needed the money upfront for things like petrol and furniture, but it was comforting knowing it would be reimbursed.”
Now working at Congress’s Larapinta Clinic, Alice says clinic hours and the variety of the role have been a welcome change from shift work. “Our days are so varied I could be assisting with an annual health check, immunisations, wound management,” she said. “I’ve seen presentations I’d never seen before, and I feel more confident every time.”
One of the most rewarding parts of the job, she says, has been building rapport with clients and having that continuity of care, including a toddler she has followed since starting at the clinic. “Being able to see them each week, and seeing their progression and improvement, has been really amazing.”
Alice’s advice for anyone considering a similar path: “Don’t put pressure on yourself to know everything. It’s such a different area to what you’d see in a metro hospital or on a ward, and that’s okay, that’s why we’re doing the program, to learn.”
Interested in a nursing career in the NT?
Find out more about Grad2Remote NT program or email our team: futureworkforce@ntphn.org.au today.
