Hi, I'm Kayla, I'm a graduate from UOW Bega Valley campus, and I'm now working within the local community as a registered nurse.
So I knew I've always wanted to be a nurse. It's always been a passion of mine to look after people that are, you know, in their most vulnerable.
My mother and my sister are both nurses, and my mother in law and sister in law.
I guess you can say nursing is in my blood. So I chose to study at the UOW Bega Valley campus because it's within my community.
It was close to home, and it was right near the hospital where I wanted to work, and it just opened up the opportunities for me here within the community.
When I received the Aboriginal Cadetship, I was so excited. I've always wanted to work in the hospital, and that was just a little foot in the door before I actually graduated, and I was able to do one working shift a week at the hospital, which really helps me get my experience up.
I was able to use the skills that I learned at uni within the hospital, and my scope of practice went up as my uni degree did.
I was a part of the team, and I sort of knew the lay of the land over there, so it was really good.
So at the moment I'm doing my transition to speciality practice, which is great, learning so much and it's just an incredible program.
So the most rewarding part of my day is just helping people, getting them up and ready for the day, making a small difference even if it's just getting them showered.
But being able to give back in some kind of way, I feel like it's doing my small part to make sure our community stays healthy and strong.
So having my son there from the beginning was a huge thing for me. He was my biggest cheerleader. He really supported me through it as well. And then my partner was there to also support me through it, and I couldn't have done it without both of them.
Also, doing my nursing degree allowed me to have the knowledge to be able to help young kids, you know, especially my son.
If anything had happened, if it injured himself or it made it a whole lot easier.
Feel really proud to be a nurse, and I couldn't have done that without doing my degree here at UOW.
You know, it's such a profession that I can go around and say, I'm a nurse and I'm really proud of that.
I feel like these small regional campuses, like Bega Valley, are really good because it draws people in and gives them a pathway to be able to work within their community.
We're so lucky to have this campus here at Bega Valley.
