A South Australian cancer nurse who has spent her career bringing care and treatment to regional Australia has been awarded a $10,000 scholarship to complete her master's degree.
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Since becoming a nurse, Belinda Bedggood has set up the award-winning South Coast Infusions Unit, advocated for seven years to secure funding for a haematologist and has undertaken two master's degrees at the same time.
Hard road to cancer nurse
Before she became a nurse, Ms Bedgood worked for an airline.
When she looked into other occupations, the only options that would work with her childcare responsibilities were nursing or teaching.
"From there, I wasn't too sure what type of nursing I wanted to do," Ms Bedggood said.
Just after she went into her nursing degree, her step-father was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Soon after, her mother was diagnosed with myelodysplasia, a type of blood cancer which developed into acute myeloid leukemia.
Ms Bedggood's mother was treated in Victor Harbour, a South Australian town with fewer than 20,000 people.
"There was just no support nor clinical interventions available whatsoever in the town," Ms Bedggood said.
"And that sort of started making me quite interested in cancer nursing."
Just before she began her nurse training, her mother passed away.
"At that point I went, 'I don't want to do the training anymore'," Ms Bedggood said.
"It was in the same place as where she passed away."
Ms Bedggood's boss at the time encouraged her to continue with her training after a period of grieving.
She did so, and loved it, but shortly after completing it, her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Her sister was treated at the nearest big hospital, the tertiary education facility at Flinders Medical Centre.
"There was an obvious disparity - no fairness, no equitable access to healthcare - between metro and regional patients," said Ms Bedggood.
"So that's where my interest really started to develop."
No slowing down
Ms Bedggood is finishing up her master's degree in nursing advance practice in June.
While studying, she realised there were an increasing number of cancer patients transitioning to oral or low-risk treatments.
Although these patients may be relatively stable and not as complex as those on chemotherapy, they can still require regular treatment.
"So why not look at things like nurse-led clinics to see those type of patients?" Ms Bedggood said.
"So to do that I am doing my nurse practitioner, which is a different master's degree."
Ms Bedggood started the nurse practitioner master's in January - six months before she will finish the nursing advanced practice degree.
As a nurse practitioner, she hopes to be able to run her own clinic under the guidance of an oncologist and prescribe medications that can otherwise be difficult to get access to when the oncologist isn't onsite.
"So just providing a lot more access to patients in the local community to a really good standard of care, even if the oncologist isn't there," she said.
The MooGoo Postgraduate Cancer Nursing Scholarship will help her towards finishing the second masters degree, which she expects to complete within two years.
Ms Bedggood is one of four nurses to win a scholarship.
Georgina Sebar
Journalist at the Bendigo Advertiser. Email me at georgina.sebar@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Journalist at the Bendigo Advertiser. Email me at georgina.sebar@austcommunitymedia.com.au
