News & Stories

Nursing a kind ambition

How an act of kindness changed this student’s future.

Freyr Colvin was going through a difficult time when she decided to pursue a career in nursing.

She had been in a terrible accident; in fact, she almost lost her life.

“When I was in hospital, the nurses would do simple things to help me that would make a really big difference,” she said.

After her accident, the nerves in Freyr’s face gave her an unpleasant sensation of insects crawling under the skin.

“It really made me quite upset. The doctor prescribed me more morphine, and wanted to manage it that way, but one of the nurses said ‘let’s just put an ice pack on first and see if that does anything.’ It gave me instant relief.

The nurses that looked after me made probably a bigger impact on my life than anybody else. I thought if I can make a tiny bit of difference to other people’s lives, like those nurses did for me, then I could achieve something worthwhile in life.

“I needed a career change. And here I am.”

And now, Freyr is in the second year of her Nursing degree at the University of Tasmania, with a year left to go. It is actually her third degree, and the one she feels is really her niche.

“If I look at my marks, I’ve achieved significantly higher marks doing Nursing than any of my other degrees. It’s probably the combination of being a bit older and having my life a bit more organised, it’s made me very focused and I know what I’m trying to achieve. It’s been interesting to notice the change in my learning.

I think nursing is one of those things that people can come to later in life, whether they’re returning to work after kids, or they want a career change. You get a broad spectrum of people with different life experience.

Freyr is loving her practical placement experiences.

“We do 880 hours of placement. I like transferring the theoretical knowledge into practical application. We’ve got some great people working as RNs teaching us, with great real life advice.

“I’ve had some really interesting pracs. My first one was at Scottsdale Hospital which I really loved. I grew up on a farm and enjoyed being able to relate to aspects of regional rural nursing” she said.

“My most recent prac was at the RPA Sydney cardiology unit. It was very specialised, and very busy. It was a fantastic experience but completely different to my Scottsdale placement.

“I’m scheduled to do my next prac in the rehab ward at the LGH, so I’m getting variety, which I really like,” she said.

I think UTAS does a really good job preparing us for prac.

Interested in studying Nursing? Apply now.