Ten years ago, Eh Doh was living in a Karen refugee camp for 16 years before coming to Australia with her grandparents, parents and sisters, and found Bendigo a very welcoming place - despite the initial challenges of learning about other cultures here in Australia.
The career support she received at Bendigo Health included work placements in Mental Health. Not before however, completing the necessary groundwork of tertiary courses and changing from health science to nursing, then finally graduating in nursing.
Eh Doh also took the opportunity to undertake placements in other health services in the Loddon Mallee area, in Echuca, Castlemaine and Rochester.
“At first I didn’t know much about mental health, then I became really passionate about it,” she said.
“Most people from my culture don’t know much about it, we don’t talk a lot about it, so when I started learning about the subject, I realised there’s a lot more to learn.
“So I became very passionate about discovering more about mental health and the underlying psychological issues.”
The Karen people are a caring community, and through living with her grandparents, caring for older people is part of her nature and culture.
“We take care of our older people. We respect them, as they grow older we try to take care of them as much as we can. I’m living with my grandparents as well, looking after them, taking them to their appointments. So I’m really passionate about looking after older persons,” she said.
During her placements Eh Doh felt really supported by the clinical educators who were always willing to share their knowledge and experience.
Eh Doh plans to stay and continue her career at Bendigo Health so will one day be passing on the baton of knowledge and experience herself. “I especially like working here in the Older Person’s Unit, I like the work culture, we are very multicultural, we care a lot about our patients and we care a lot about each other as well.”
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