By Natasha Fujimoto
LOOKING to extend her career prospects, aircraft maintenance engineer, Rutu Shukla and her husband, Bhagyesh left India in 2018 to live in Melbourne, where Rutu enrolled in a Master of Science in Aviation at RMIT.
By the end of 2019, however, Covid had effectively brought the aviation industry to a standstill, leaving Rutu in limbo with an incomplete degree.
Nevertheless, obtaining her Master’s in 2020, Rutu and her husband moved to Mooroopna where she gave birth to her son, Aarush.
Isolated from friends and family back in India, Rutu was blown away by the exceptional care she received from midwives at GV Health during Aarush’s birth, inspiring her to envisage a new career path.
Already from a family with a strong medical background, and only too aware of increasing shortages in nursing, Rutu’s career impasse had come to an end.
Signing up at GOTAFE in Shepparton to study as an enrolled nurse, Rutu’s advancement in the field was assisted by joining The Flamingo Project, a not-for-profit, local organisation that supports women through specialised mentorship to obtain a foothold in a new industry.
Assisting Rutu to transition between two very different professions, Sonia Strachan, a specialist prostate cancer nurse at GV Health, has been an invaluable mentor, as Rutu said,
“It’s been challenging for me to so completely change direction. I’ve gone from leading a team in a corporate environment but now I am back at first base.
“At first, I was very nervous, and I thought I was over the age of studying, but Sonia has been marvellous in talking me through my concerns.
“She told me to be open to learning, listen to what senior nurses are telling me from experience and always to reflect upon my practise,” Rutu said.
To find out more about The Flamingo Project, head to www.theflamingoproject.com.au
