Cobar High School Year 12 student Tiana Jones, who has aspirations of pursuing a career in the health sector, has spent her final two years of school getting a head-start on her future profession.
Tiana recently completed a School Based Apprentice Traineeship which required her to do 100 days (700 hours) of on-the-job learning while also completing her Year 11 and Year 12 school studies.
She’s been working each Sunday and Monday at the Lilliane Brady Village (LBV) aged care facility and also did a two week (80 hours) acute care placement at the hospital as part of her Assistant in Nursing (AIN) training.
Tiana has now finished her study and has a nationally recognised industry qualification as an AIN.
She plans to go university next year and continue her studies.
“I’d like to study nursing, or paramedicine or psychology—something in the health spectrum, in that sector.
“I’ve got early preselection, but I’m waiting to get my results to decide what I will do,” Tiana told The Cobar Weekly.
She said the hands-on learning she’s had with staff at the LBV over the past two years will give her “a leg in the door” at Uni.
“Very early on when I started I was taught how to take vital signs, including how to manually check blood pressure,” she said.
Tiana said she’s really enjoyed getting to know her “patients” over the past two years.
“It’s made me realise the type of nurse I want to be,” she said.
One of the “perks” of Tiana’s job is that she’s been able to spend her lunch breaks with her nan who became a resident of the village last year.
Since gaining her qualification, Tiana has been picking up a lot of casual work at the LBV and when she’s finished her university training we could see her back in Cobar.
“I’d like to come back or go to another rural facility. I’m not really interested in going to a city to work, I’m a bush kid,” Tiana said.
