Work with Far West LHD

Are you a Health professional living in the city?

Are you sick of spending half of your life stuck in traffic?

What would you do with more time in your life? 

Welcome to Broken Hill and the Far West of New South Wales. A place where you can have all the benefits of living in a small and friendly community, without missing out on the finer side of life.

Out here, you’ll find time for what’s really important, and you might just meet some new friends too.

Imagine having time to explore nature

Or if you’d rather hit the Gym, you’ll have time to smash your health and fitness goals -

Yep, you’ll love it out here, you really have the time to be whatever you want to be.

There’s time to pursue all the new opportunities you’ve been dreaming about.

Want to expand your career through study? …there’s time for that.

You’ll also have more time for clinical training – like at the University Department of Rural Health.

There’s time to EXPLORE NEW ROLES within the Health service too!

And not just in Broken Hill: 

Whether it’s ambulance training in Tibooburra, or primary health care in Menindee, you’ll have time to explore all that working in the regional and remote settings can offer.

When it all gets a bit hectic, you’ll always have time to head ‘up the river’ like the locals do.

When you live and work in Far West New South Wales, you’ll have time to immerse yourself in our welcoming and unique communities.

There’s even time to volunteer – G’day Cody…. (Cody: G’day!)

You’ll have time to explore the local First Nations culture

And discover our outback heritage. (Man: No badge no entry!)

But don’t worry, there’s lots of great modern café and dining options to choose from. When you move out here you really can make the most of your experience.

You’ll have time for events – like the Mundi Mundi Bash.

Time to get creative.

Time for hobbies…Mary would rather watch paint dry, but Richard loves having time for a round of golf.  (Richard: Bugger!)

With all the money you’ll save on housing, you’ll be planning your next holiday in no time.

And because everything you need is close by, you’ll have time get to your meetings and work early.

There’s even time to ride a camel!

Isn’t it about time you moved to Far West New South Wales?

Check out the website today for more information.
 

Male voiceover: The Far West local health district is the largest health service in New South Wales, serving the sparsely populated western region of the state - an area of more than 194, 000 square kilometres.

Operating a variety of facilities, the Far West local health district provides a range of services including critical care, midwifery, mental health, dental, Aboriginal health, community nursing and palliative care.

The Far West incorporates remote, rural and regional settings and offers a unique lifestyle to health professionals who choose to go west.

Emma, Nursing Assistant: Balranald is a community of probably about 2, 000 people and it's just over the border in New South Wales, and it's a nice little rural community.

So I'm an assistant in nursing at the hospital here, and I'm studying to be an RN. 

Yeah the hospital are really supportive and, you know, if I need extra shifts or I need to swap shifts for study they're really helpful. 

(Emma speaks to a patient) “…the pain's still there, but a little bit?”
 
Compared to a city hospital, you're not stuck in the same ward all the time. I work in aged care, but I might be called around to acute care and or I could be called to Emergency.

(Emma speaks to a patient) “…pop this in your ear Gavin, take your temperature.” 

We really know our community so our patients sort of become our family, I guess, and you don't have the ratios like in the city. You get to spend that one-on-one time with all the residents, and we get to care about them and they get to care about us.

Well Balranald's a really good community. They really get to know the nurses even if they're only here for a short period because they know that we need more nurses, and what a great job they do for our community.

Kirsty, Occupational Therapist: The reason I came to Broken Hill was because that's where I got my first job offer so I was a new graduate when I moved out here.

(Kirsty speaks to a patient) “Hello Mrs Harris, how are you today?”

Kirsty: I worked on the wards to start with. I got a huge variety of cases. I got to work orthopedics, palliative care, different disabilities. You get a bit of everything. And then when I rotated into the community, again you get a variety of people in a variety of different areas. 

(Kirsty speaks to a room of older people) “Then when you open them you'll notice that the pupil will change.”

So I might have a pediatric client before school, then I might have a home visit for an older person living in the community, and then I might see a school-aged child in the afternoon. 

I think it's just the diversity of the caseload that makes Broken Hill so unique. As far as the health service go, they've been really supportive, the opportunities for attending conferences or workshops are limitless.

We also get things video- conferenced in all the time, so distance isn't a barrier when it comes to professional development.

At the moment there's scholarships available for pediatrics to go and work shadow someone in a metropolitan area. So they pay for flights, accommodation, and you get that experience even though you live here in Broken Hill.

I think living in Broken Hill is what you make it. I think if you come with an open mind then you're going to have a great time.

I think the opportunities to do your leisure activities, your evening activities, they're all here, you just have to take the opportunity when it presents itself. I learnt to ballroom dance so I think that's pretty fun.

Kate, Emergency Nurse: I've always wanted to do remote and rural nursing and I knew that I would gain an awful lot more invaluable experiences than I would get if I went to a big public hospital in the city.

(Kate speaks to a male patient) “Right Leo, what seems to be the problem today?

Because we are in the middle of nowhere, we cover an area of probably 500 kilometre radius, and we have ambulances that go out, we have RFDS flights that go out, pick people up. We can have multiple traumas. We have walk-in heart attacks, snake bites, you name it we get it

“…and you're on insulin, are you on any tablets with it as well?”

Here remote, you've got your colleagues that you depend on and you work very closely as a team and I enjoy that. You also have an awful lot more autonomy out here, decision making and treatment planning than you would do if you were in a bigger hospital in a bigger city.

It's the desert in Australia, and there's no water for quite a distance but it's beautiful…  
I never thought I would fall in love with red dirt but I have and it's wonderful.

There's something to do every night of the week in Broken Hill. There are loads of clubs and
plenty of pubs and restaurants, cafes, bistros.

There's no rat race here, there's no rat race at all, you don't even have rush hour traffic. Rush hour traffic in Broken Hill would be five car line-up. Now well… how many places do you get that in.

Marie, Health Service Manager: I manage the Menindee Health Service, which is 110 kilometres east of Broken Hill. It's a health service which is basically run by nurses.

“Get the ambulance out I'll just change into my ambulance gear and I'll meet you out in the bay…”

You work as a generalist, so we do lots of different things. In one day, we could be doing emergency, then primary health care, prevention, so it's a wide scope of practice 

“Which Wilcannia road is it on… east or the west side of the river? Okay, any idea about injuries?”

Part of the clinical role is also providing the emergency service, so we also run the local ambulance service.

We can get anything from a full-on cardiac arrest. We attend traumas, road traumas or traumas in workplaces. Anything you can think of can happen here. 

“So it was a sudden onset um about 3 hours ago.”

And then we do phone consults with the Flying Doctor Service, and then they're evacuated usually to Broken Hill, sometimes to Adelaide.

It's very rewarding, it's a good lifestyle living in the smaller communities.

Quite often I've been known to knock off work at 5 o'clock, go out and camp on the river, 
throw a line in, cook a barbecue and sleep in the swag. In the morning, get up
at 6 o'clock, go back to town, have a shower and go to work and it's like you've been away for a long weekend.

Male voiceover: Nursing in the west is diverse and challenging and offers wonderful opportunities for professional growth and career advancement.

Whether you need a change of lifestyle, a better place to raise your family, or a chance to further your career, the Far West may be the answer you're searching for.