Grace Metten is one of the graduate nurses to work as a rural reliver across hospitals in Dysart, Proserpine and Collinsville.
Rural relievers spend six to eight weeks at each facility and undergo a longer orientation to provide some additional skills they will need.
Grace said she was looking forward to the challenge to working in smaller hospitals.
This follows time spent as an Assistant In Nursing at Mackay Base Hospital while she was studying at CQUniversity.
“I’m a Mackay local and have been here all my life. I wanted to do nursing since I was at school and got into uni, and found the first year really hard so I took an extra year to do my degree,” she said.
“I got some good support from the uni to keep going but it wasn’t until I got a job as an AIN at the Base that my world changed. Everything suddenly made sense.
“To see nursing come alive in front of me and to see other registered nurses practicing, made all the difference and I knew this was exactly where I wanted to be.”
Grace said she worked on the medical ward and in the casual pool while studying which gave her a wide view of different wards.
“My last placement in ICU was amazing and I hope to get there eventually,” she said.
“I’m planning to go back to uni this year for post graduate studies.”
