SuniTAFE student Mackayla Griffiths is hoping to make a difference in her community by becoming a nurse.  

Mackayla was inspired to pursue a nursing career after her own interactions with the healthcare system.  

“I chose to become a nurse because I have had a lot of medical issues and roughly three years ago, I had to have a T2 to T12 spinal fusion,” she said.  

“The nurses who looked after me after the surgery were the best nurses I’ve ever had, and it has made me want to give back to people in the same way that I was looked after.”  

Mackayla is a Barkindji and Ngiyampaa woman and in completing her course, she hopes to contribute to increased First Nations representation in healthcare.  

“We just don’t have enough representation,” she said.  

“Nurses are hardly ever First Nations, and I think to have more of us would provide patients with someone that is easier to communicate with.  

“We can better understand what a patient is talking about, and we recognise the challenges or chronic conditions they may have because most likely they’re going to have something that feels close to home. 

“It will mean the world to me to contribute to this.”  

Becoming a nurse, you can’t be what you can’t see.  

“I think there’s this stigma that if you’re First Nations, you’re going to be making bad choices and you can’t do things like this,” Mackayla said.  

“So this is a way that I can say ‘you know what? We can do it,’ and that’s really important to me. I want to try to change that stigma.” 

Mackayla’s experience in the classroom so far has been both daunting and rewarding.  

“I was really scared coming to SuniTAFE because I’m an adult trying to get back into studying and that’s not something I thought I would ever do,” she said.  

“But, everyone here has been really welcoming and we’ve formed that bond because we’re all here working towards the same goal.  

“If I could give anyone advice I would say give it a try if you want to do something and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.” 

Do you want to make a difference in your community? Click here to see the Health and Community courses available at SuniTAFE, including the Diploma of Nursing (HLT54121).