24/7 support before and as you work in a remote community

NT Remote Locum Program health professionals want to improve access to quality healthcare in remote Aboriginal communities. Quality for people and remote communities is important to us too.

To achieve our goals, we work with you to make sure you feel comfortable and ready to take on a placement in a remote Aboriginal community.

You get ongoing help to learn and practise culturally responsive and safe services in NT Aboriginal communities – before and during your placement. That includes:

  • 24/7, wrap-around support
  • carefully planned placements
  • detailed knowledge of the remote community and clinic where your placement is
  • education on Aboriginal cultures and perspectives.

Learn on the job

You don’t need to have remote work experience. If it’s your first time as a NT Remote Locum Program Registered Nurse, you’ll have constant access to a remote educator.

Your team in the health service assists you day-to-day with remote knowledge and experience. We and your clinical team work in partnership so you can confidently:

  • support sustainable primary healthcare
  • contribute to Closing the Gap outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and remote communities.

Health professionals request placements again and again because they feel safe with the NT Remote Locum Program.

Find out more about NT Remote Locum Program support

Your work and workplace

Placements are for 3 to 12 weeks within a community health service. We don’t ask you to leave your normal job to take a placement.

Your placement workplace will support you to understand the local setting. They’ll also give you all the equipment you need to feel secure in your work.

Some NT Remote Locum Program General Practitioners, Nurses and Midwives choose to bring their own routine equipment, like a:

  • stethoscope
  • torch
  • nursing pouch.

Health professionals in your team will have valuable remote cultural and clinical experience. They’ll help you personally, professionally and culturally.

Pay and conditions

Your workforce officer will arrange the contract between you and the health service, which includes pay and conditions.

The health service will let us know the base rate, which can change with location. Your workforce officer can give you advice about this.

Travel and accommodation

Although you will make your own way to the nearest airport from home, we’ll take care of the rest. Your workforce officer will arrange travel from home to the Northern Territory.

Your health service workplace will house you. It could be a furnished house or unit and it will have cooking facilities.

Sometimes health professionals share accommodation if they’re deployed to the same location.

To get to work, you might:

  • walk from your accommodation
  • have a driver or car to take you to the clinic.

Your contract with your health service could also include transport to get to work if these aren’t an option.

Vaccinations

Part of improving health outcomes for remote NT Aboriginal communities is keeping them safe from vaccine-preventable disease. It’s also important to protect yourself.

The NT Centre for Disease Control (CDC) requires these immunisations for health professionals working in remote communities:

  • Annual Influenza Vaccine
  • Hepatitis B Vaccine
  • Hepatitis A Vaccine
  • Measles, Mumps and Rubella
  • Varicella Zoster
  • Diphtheria Tetanus Pertussis (single dose of Boostrix)
  • Covid-19

Although Tuberculosis (TB) screening is not an immunisation, CDC strongly recommends that all remote health professionals have a baseline TB screen.

Conduct while working and living remote

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, peoples and cultures are diverse.

We and your workplace work in partnership throughout your placement.

Together, we help and guide you with cultural education and ongoing support to work and live in different settings.

These are some things to keep in mind.

Alcohol and drinking

When on a NT Remote Locum Program placement, do not take alcohol into the community.

Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and bush camps are dry. That means alcohol is banned, and the police will strictly enforce these laws.

Drinking alcohol while working in the health centre or during on-call shifts is unacceptable and may result in us terminating your NT Remote Locum Program placement.

What to wear

The communities we work in partnership with are all in the NT.

Areas in the NT vary in whether. Check the season and community profile for your placement location, as it could be wet, dry or very hot.

The NT Top End has a dry season and a wet season.

Central NT has 4 distinct desert seasons:

  • Summer can reach 35 degrees and you should feel OK in light, cotton clothes with good coverage.
  • In winter, night-time temperatures can plunge to sub-zero temperatures and you will need warm gear.

There’s no uniform, but there is a dress code. You will be meeting older members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and the community may expect certain ways of dressing.

Acceptable clothing

  • Skirts and dresses (below the knee, not above)
  • Blouses, shirts and tops with sleeves
  • Loose trousers
  • Loose fitting uniform
  • Comfortable, enclosed shoes

Unacceptable clothing

  • Short skirts (above the knee)
  • Sleeveless tops
  • Tight-fitting shorts
  • Tight-fitting, ripped or very casual jeans
  • Thongs and slides

Your cultural training will include more about this.