Last year I joined a company contracted to provide healthcare to asylum seekers. I made the jump from my old job with hopes of adventure and challenges which would not only make me a better nurse, but also a better person. Little did I know how much it would change the core of my being.
I first worked on Christmas Island as a mental health nurse. It was a real culture shock. I had always referred to the people I cared for as "patients", now I had to learn to call them "clients". I was quick to realise that the clients were often not even called by their names – they were instead called by the boat number displayed on their photo ID card, which had to remain on them at all times. "673/RYB/039!". The practice reminded me of stories from concentration camps in the second world war.
Things got worse as I took on other responsibilities across the island. One of the saddest places I worked at was referred to as "the induction shed". This is where asylum seekers are first led to after stepping onto the island's jetty. Once there they sit and wait, sometimes for hours, without any food or water. Once the bureaucratic paperwork is completed, and after they've answered questions by the department of immigration and signed consent forms, they're sent to meet someone like me.
As a mental health nurse, I would ask a series of questions outlined for us by the immigration department. These forms often asked unnecessary questions and avoided vital ones – we were told to "stick to the script". Time is of the essence, so we had to mill through the clients as quickly as possible.
It was there that I heard some of the most horrific and tragic of stories. Every day, I would be reminded of how evil humans can be to one another. I talked to a young Afghan man who was a Hazara ethnic minority. He has fled his country after a home invasion, where he witnessed his brother and father being murdered in front of him.
read more:http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/21/my-experience-as-a-nurse-on-christmas-island-ch...
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