The face of the future: the helping hands that could help ease the health pressure

For the past year she has been working as a registered undergraduate student of nursing (RUSON) at Ballarat Base Hospital, helping ease the pressure on exhausted nursing staff in the hospital's COVID ward.

Fletcha Bryan-Wakeling already knows what life will be like as a nurse once she graduates from her Bachelor of Nursing at ACU.

For the past year she has been working as a registered undergraduate student of nursing (RUSON) at Ballarat Base Hospital, helping ease the pressure on exhausted nursing staff in the hospital's COVID ward.

Seeing the workload first hand, hearing tales of burnout and juggling shiftwork, study and nursing placements have done little to dampen her enthusiasm.

Ms Bryan-Wakeling is in her third year of studies at ACU and joined the RUSON program, which the state government expanded last week, after working as a COVID entry screener at the hospital during the early stages of the pandemic.

"I am just there to support the nurses and ease some pressure off their workload. I'm allocated a nurse at the beginning of my shift to buddy up with and help with things like personal care of patients, transferring patients, equipment stocking, small tasks to help lighten their load."

Working in the COVID ward has given her exposure to many more types of patients than she expected, and given her a unique insight in to infection control and other COVID measures.

"You have to be flexible because every single day it's new. It's also having to be prepared for a mix of patients you are dealing with - from medical to maternity to surgical it's all very flexible and adaptable but it gives me such valuable skills I will be able to carry when I graduate." She said she had no concerns going to work on the COVID ward as she knew they needed the support..

"They did say if I felt uncomfortable I could switch wards if ... I wanted, but it's been such a good learning experience. Going on placement sometimes I have more knowledge than the ward I go to because I've come from that experience. It's really helped me with safety, infection control and all those skills."

And she admitted she felt safer on the COVID ward than in the community. "It actually isn't nerve-wracking. If anything I feel safer in the COVID ward than the supermarket."

Ms Bryan-Wakeling said each ward at the hospital had three or four RUSONs with one rostered on during morning and afternoon shifts. She usually works two eight hour shifts each week - which is separate to the 800 hours of nursing placements she has to do as part of her degree.

"It's such an encouraging environment to work in and the team I have is so supportive," she said. She believes working as a RUSON will definitely help make her a better nurse.

"It's helping me build rapport with patients, collaborate with nurses and members of multi-disciplinary team s and I feel like a valued contributor to the health care team. It's helped my confidence and all those other skills like learning how the ward is run - on placements we are only there a short time but being here long term, seeing how the team works together and being part of that team is fantastic.

Ms Bryan-Wakeling said hearing tales of burnt-out and exhausted nurses might have deterred her from joining the profession if she hadn't already been in the health care workforce, but believes working with a good team can help balance some of the pressure.

"Health care burnout is a thing and it does happen with people I work with but it helps and makes all the difference having a supportive team. I'm excited to be working there and helping relieve some of that work for them."

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