For Steph Morrice, human connection is the crux of her career.
Whether that’s making sure her patients are connected to the appropriate services or connected on a personal level, it’s an important part of her job.
Since 2017, Steph has been supporting her patients every step of the way on her journey to being a senior podiatrist at Bendigo Health’s Outpatient Rehabilitation Services.
But she wasn’t always sure on what part of the healthcare industry she wanted to be a part of.
“I lost my dad at quite a young age and saw what he went through with a lack of services,” Steph said.
“I knew I wanted to do something and take it back to the regions and help people that don’t have access.”
Steph secured a highly-sought after graduate position at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and completed a placement in their high-risk foot clinic.
“That just cemented it for me,” she said.
“I knew that’s what I wanted to do so I tried really hard to get that job (as a graduate).”
Steph, who made the move back to Bendigo just before the pandemic, said the team sees a range of cases come through the clinic.
“A lot of people we see have diabetes and they can have complications from that,” Steph said.
“So that’s a lot of wounds on feet, complications that can end up with people losing parts of their feet, which is the worse-case scenario.”
She said feet issues could often be something not a lot of people think about.
“A lot of people say ‘why would you want to work with feet?’ but you don’t realise, when you get a problem, it bothers you every single step of the way,” she said.
“If you’ve ever had a blister or pain in your foot, you really notice it all the time as opposed to other little things on different parts of your body.
“With the things we do, you can give instant relief to people, they can leave with their pain alleviated immediately. There’s not many things you can do in the healthcare system that can make instant improvements for people.”
Her work in regional Victoria has allowed her to take steps towards bringing care to everyone closer to home.
“We are one of two accredited high-risk foot clinics across the whole of northern Victoria,” she said.
“We get people from Mildura and up into NSW coming down here, people are travelling huge distances to get to us.
“I have a very strong focus on making sure people have that continuity of care, access services locally and link people in with services around them.
“I’ve learnt a lot about the health services and how important all their services are.”
This work has allowed Steph to create those human connections with her patients.
“When I was in my grad year, I had this patient I spent a lot of time with after meeting her in the ICU,” she said.
“At one point, she was having issues with the healthcare system and she said what a lot of healthcare workers don’t realise is, she would see me more than she would see her sons.
“It made me realise; I come to work every day, do what I do and go home after a stressful day.
“You don’t realise for the people you’ve seen that day, that could have been the highlight of their week or what they’ve been looking forward to.
“Never underestimate the value of what you do that day. No matter what’s going on for you, you’ve probably made a significant impact on someone’s life.”
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