A Landscape of Opportunities: Fast Tracking Down Under

Abstract

Reflexivity is important to nursing as it allows opportunity to reflect on how knowledge, both formal and tacit, and understanding have been developed within the context of the nurse’s own perspectives (Freshwater 2002; Johns & Freshwater 2005). When embarking on my nursing career I was encouraged to keep a diary of my journey so that I would be able to look back and make sense of multifaceted learning experiences I would encounter along the way. Keeping a diary was particularly pertinent as, already having a first degree in psychology, I was undertaking a Post Graduate Diploma in Pre-registration (Mental Health) Nursing Course more commonly known as the ‘Fast Track’ course. The implication of this being that rather than having three years to complete a nursing course, registration is achieved in two years. This paper is a reflexive account of my ‘fast track’ nursing course and the opportunities it afforded me to broaden my horizons regarding my chosen career. In particular I will focus on my experiences of having a clinical placement and presenting a conference paper in Australia. From the first week of the fast track course, the possibility of a placement abroad was introduced and discussed between students and lecturers. At that moment I was excited by the thoughts of what this opportunity could bring, not only to me as a person, but to my future career as a mental health nurse. In that instant I thought of the experiences and avenues a placement abroad could open for me, but where would I go? But then as the course gathered momentum I found myself socialised into a typical student nurse’s life and the idea of going abroad became a distant memory.