Not even a new baby and a 376km round trip from her home to TAFE SA’s Port Pirie Campus could deter Sarah McWaters from taking part in the Regional Enrolled Nursing Cadetship Program over the past 18 months.

After abandoning two previous attempts at nursing studies due to competing demands, the mother of three was determined to gain her qualification and embark on a career in health care.

“I’ve always loved the idea of nursing. I like looking after people and I love the medical and scientific side of things, too,” she says.

“I had tried studying the Bachelor in 2010 and the Diploma in 2016 and both times I had to drop out due to other things in my life taking up my attention.

“I’d decided to try again and I’d applied to university but then I saw an ad for the cadetship which appealed because it provided paid work and more hands-on opportunities for learning.”

The SA Health cadetship program combines study in the Diploma of Nursing at TAFE SA with paid part-time work as an Assistant in Nursing in a regional hospital.

Sarah (pictured with baby Harry) was offered a cadetship just two days before giving birth to her third child, but she was determined to take up the opportunity and says a combination of great family support, understanding lecturers and the convenience of online study enabled her to achieve her goal. 

“My baby was three and a half weeks old when I went to campus for orientation and five and a half weeks old when I started working at the hospital,” Sarah says.

“There were no childcare options in our region at the time but I’m lucky to have wonderful in-laws who helped my husband with our kids.”

Based on Yorke Peninsula, Sarah travelled to TAFE SA’s Port Pirie Campus for face-to-face study commitments and worked at Maitland Hospital. 

TAFE SA’s diploma course includes a mix of online and on-campus study, which Sarah says enabled her to fit study around other commitments.

“I’ve studied in my car at footy training, parked somewhere random while my baby is asleep in the back, empty offices at the hospital, my in-laws’ house, the TAFE SA library, just about everywhere,” she says.

“The online part is great, and then bringing it all together on campus was a great balanced way to learn.

“I also loved the hands-on opportunities at the hospital. I learn best by doing, so being able to work in an acute ward with an outpatient department, emergency department and high dependency unit was an incredible environment to learn in.

“I found that when I was on campus, I was able to answer questions faster than other students and develop my clinical skills quicker because I was exposed to things in the hospital all the time that helped consolidate what I was learning at TAFE SA.”

Despite driving in excess of 12,000km, Sarah says her 32 trips to the Port Pirie Campus were something she looked forward to.

“I felt really supported by the lecturers who are nurses, teachers and mums, too, so they deeply understood how crazy it was for me to juggle everything and they were incredibly supportive whenever I asked for help,” she says.

“They were there for my wins and also to give me a pep talk when I needed it.”

Sarah says the fast pace of emergency and acute nursing is her favourite area to work in but she is enjoying building her skills and knowledge across all areas and finds it rewarding to “add a little relief to someone’s terrible day and make them feel safe and cared for when they’re in pain or unwell”.

She has recently completed her cadetship and is now working part-time in acute care at Wallaroo Hospital as well as taking on casual shifts at other hospitals on Yorke Peninsula.

“I’ll be forever thankful for having a cadetship. It’s been an incredible way to learn and no, I’m not stopping studying, I’m already enrolled at university to become a registered nurse so the work, study, family juggle will continue for a while,” she says.

Image:
Sarah with her TAFE SA classmates Kristen, Alicia and Sarah.