Maryam Ahderom relaxes in the outback sun and reflects on three "life-changing" weeks undertaking a primary health placement in Western Australia's north.
"It's been amazing … really eye-opening," she said.
"It's very beautiful up here."
The Edith Cowan University nursing student has nearly finished her placement in the East Kimberley hub of Kununurra.
She said the most interesting day involved flying to the state's northernmost Indigenous community, Kalumburu, to provide education about renal diseases.
It is a place where many people live in poverty and doctors typically fly in and out.
"The reality of the people who live there is so different to people who live in Perth," Ms Ahderom said.
She said her African upbringing in Uganda helped her to understand the wealth and health gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
"I know a lot about what privilege actually means … how privileged we are in Australia and how much some Australians are more privileged than others," Ms Ahderom said.
Connecting with remote Indigenous
Fellow second-year nursing student Sahar Abbasi grew up in Afghanistan and knew what it was like to navigate a new culture.
The 21-year-old spoke Farsi and Dari when she moved to Australia seven years ago and immediately strove to master English.
Ms Abbasi said she could appreciate what it was like for many Indigenous people in remote WA who struggled to navigate modern, bureaucratic health care systems.
"Because I'm from a second language it was really hard for me to get into a new culture and understand people," she said.
"And it's hard for them [remote Indigenous people] to understand the situation and the language, and how health is run in Australia.
"So I can understand and connect with them."
Both nurses said the past three weeks had laid the groundwork for them to return to the Kimberley when they were qualified, and perhaps even live there in the long term.
A taste of remote work
Supervisor Liesl Dowling is an experienced nurse and midwife who fell in love with Kununurra after originally planning a short stay.
She is a clinical facilitator at the Majarlin Kimberley Centre for Remote Health, one of 16 Commonwealth-funded university departments nationwide that gave aspiring health workers a taste of working in a rural or remote location.
Ms Dowling said on-the-ground experience was crucial for the students' development.
"When you come into a remote region and can actually see that there is poverty, it becomes a part of your lived experience and it becomes a concern to you," she said.
"It's okay to read about the barriers to uptake in health care and the gap in outcomes between Aboriginal and mainstream Australians, but it's all really words on paper until you really see it."
Desperate for permanent staff
Research published earlier this year found doctors who spent extended time in a rural placement were more likely to work there into the future.
The federal government has proposed wiping the student debts of senior nurses and doctors if they moved to the bush after graduating.
The Kimberley especially has long cried out for more permanent health workers and has suffered crippling staff shortages in recent years, especially for nurses.
In its most recent annual report, the WA Country Health Service said an increasing reliance on expensive, transient locum and agency staff was partly to blame for higher health care costs.
Ms Dowling said the "immersion" of young health workers in a remote setting would help address the issue.
"Transience is problematic. It poses barriers and some risks in delivering health care, because you don't have that knowledge at the ground level," she said.
"To bring that transience level down is an important part of the health strategy."
A 'tight' work team
The challenges of working in the Kimberley were highlighted during the pandemic.
Crucial staff left the region after growing fed up with workplace culture, conditions and high rates of youth crime.
But final year Curtin University masters student Isabel Morton said her eight-week speech pathology placement at Kununurra Hospital revealed some advantages over working in the city.
"I didn't think I wanted to work rurally, but I'm really enjoying it, so I'm actually very much considering taking on a rural position next year," she said.
Ms Morton said she was impressed by the variety of work at Kununurra Hospital and the close bonds between colleagues.
"We all eat lunch together and they meet up on weekends, so it's a very strong, tight work team," she said.
"Here I'm able to do everything, so I can see some kids doing speech and language and go onto the wards and see some kids with some swallowing issues as well."
Majarlin Kimberley Centre is opening an accommodation facility in Kununurra next year to cater for more remote placements.
