Real stories – Heath, enrolled nurse
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This is a transcript of the video, including visual descriptions.
The first scene shows a young man leaning against the bonnet of a vintage red car. The vehicle parked on an unlit bitumen road. It is dusk and the trees are highlighted against the darkening sky. The young man is wearing blue jeans and a grey T-shirt.
Heath: I just wanted something that was challenging and rewarding and would give me the freedom to work when I want to work.
The next scene shows the young man wearing a white uniform, wheeling a medical trolley down a hospital corridor. We then see him enter a medical supply room and he begins to load the trolley with dressings and medication.
Voice-over: Nursing has proven to be the perfect career choice for Heath. He trained to become an enrolled nurse through TAFE and now has a job at Fremantle Hospital.
We see Heath walking out of the medical supply room and back into the corridor, pushing the trolley past the main nursing station. We shift to see Heath and a female nurse assisting a middle-aged man out of bed and into a chair. The patient’s left arm is strapped across his chest and held in place by a navy blue sling around his back and over his right shoulder. We can see medical monitoring equipment in the background.
Heath: I love the fact that you only have to do 18 months and not 3 years because you can just go straight into a job.
Voice-over: Heath works in the orthopaedic ward where many of the patients are recovering from broken bones or recuperating after hip or knee surgery and he really enjoys the physical aspect of his job.
The patient is back in his hospital bed. Heath and his colleague are preparing to take the patient’s blood pressure. Heath wraps the blood pressure monitoring band around the patients arm.
Heath: We are a very physical ward, we like to get patients up and going and out of there. The most attractive part about my job is working in a team environment, you know you are working with each other to achieve the same goal and you are also working with a different variety of patients.
The next scene shows Heath and another patient, who is wearing blue pyjamas with long trousers. The patient is sitting in a chair next to his bed with his arms leaning on the arms of the chair, and Heath is seated on the bed talking to the patient and smiling.
Voice-over: Heath loves getting to know his patients and helping them get back to their healthy lifestyle.
We see a close-up shot of Heath’s patient who is happily chatting.
Heath: Patients tell me all sorts of funny things. You get to know about their background, you get to know about their love affairs, you get to know about – you know, just their everyday life.
Continuity of care basically means you get to look after the same patients 3–4 days in a row, you get to know what they are doing, what their diagnosis is and you get to care for them and see them improve and see them go home in the end. If you are lucky you might get rewarded in chocolate.
We see a close-up shot of a monitoring screen, a blur of green light flashes across it. We then see Heath standing next to the machine, he pushes a few of the buttons and we see the reading increase.
The next view shows Heath with a stethoscope in his ears, watching the monitor and listening to the heartbeat of his patient. He takes notes in between assessing his patient further and continually talks to his patient through the physical assessment.
We move back to the earlier scene with Heath and the patient wearing blue pyjamas. They continue to chat happily.
Voice-over: Heath also enjoys the sense of teamwork amongst the staff. Registered and enrolled nurses in the orthopaedic ward work together to achieve the common goal of seeing their patients return to full health.
We see Heath standing in front of another nurse who is sitting at a desk. Heath is showing her information from inside a folder.
The next scene shows Heath sitting down with another female colleague, they are looking through some paperwork together and discussing a patients progress. The nurse is wearing a navy blue uniform and other nurses can be seen in the background.
Heath: I get on really well with my colleagues. You see them 3–4 times per week so you obviously build a relationship with them and it’s a fantastic bunch of people to work with.
The scene changes back to Heath leaning against his car.
Voice-over: So, nursing as a career?
We scan through the nursing station with a bright orange counter top, we see two nurses sitting behind the counter. We move back to Heath who is walking down the hospital corridor.
Heath: I would say go for it, because it is such a great job, it’s rewarding, it’s flexible and challenging and you’ll love it.