Country people can achieve anything they put their minds to, says a Border nurse who fulfilled her dream of working in a major metropolitan hospital.
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Maddy Bowers, who recently returned to the Border to become a lecturer at Charles Sturt University, hopes to spread this message to aspiring nurses in rural areas and encourage them to think big.
It was her motivation and drive to "go the extra mile" that that led her to land a position at the Royal Melbourne Hospital as a Critical Care Registered Nurse (RN).
"I was determined to work as a critical care nurse in one of the bigger hospitals such as Royal Melbourne, refusing to let common doubts often felt by country nursing students hold me back," Ms Bowers said.
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Growing up on a small property in the rural NSW town of Buraja, about 45 minutes from Albury, she witnessed her father go into cardiac arrest at a local footy club when she was 17 years old.
The traumatic event led to a burning desire to become a nurse, which she saw as a way to save lives.
"There's a stigma of coming from a country background and country hospitals when you're one of roughly 20 nurses and then trying to prove yourself at a big city hospital that has more like 280 nurses," she told Nine Network TV series Emergency.
"It didn't bother me because, when you are caring for someone during the worst day of their life, nothing else matters."
After completing her Higher School Certificate at Corowa High School, Ms Bowers studied a Bachelor of Nursing degree at Charles Sturt University in Albury-Wodonga.
She then undertook a Graduate Nursing Program at Northeast Health Wangaratta before achieving a Postgraduate Certificate of Nursing Practice.
Ms Bowers has returned to the Border to become an Associate Lecturer in Nursing at the Charles Sturt University.
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