It Takes Heart
It Takes Heart is an unmissable podcast where healthcare workers share their honest and unique experiences from Australia’s frontline.
Discover real-life stories of passion and purpose, insight and inspiration from people on the inside and tales that are equal parts heart-warming, heart-wrenching and hilarious. It Takes Heart is co-hosted by cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment CEO Samantha Miklos and Head of Talent and Employer Branding Kate Coomber.
It Takes Heart
TikTok Star Hamish Briggs: Nurse by Day, Viral Sensation by Night
Hamish Briggs is a viral TikTok star and healthcare professional whose career has taken some unexpected turns. Growing up in outback Kalgoorlie, his journey led him from professional dancing - including performing at Disneyland Paris - to working as a COVID marshal, becoming a mining medic, and finally to becoming a registered nurse.
Hear how Hamish leveraged social media to build an audience, attended the TikTok Awards, and balanced content creation with his nursing career. He opens up about the challenges of transitioning between vastly different roles, the resilience needed to navigate career shifts, and the unexpected skills that helped him along the way. Hamish also shares his experiences working in prisons and remote communities, offering a fascinating look at the complexities of rural healthcare.
This episode is packed with flamboyant fun, laughter, and Hamish’s infectious energy. From drag shows in the outback to the unpredictable moments of his career, his story is a testament to adaptability, authenticity, and embracing life’s unpredictability. Don’t miss this wildly entertaining conversation about career reinvention, self-expression, and finding joy in every twist and turn.
It Takes Heart is hosted by cmr CEO Sam Miklos, alongside Head of Talent and Employer Branding, Kate Coomber.
We Care; Music by Waveney Yasso
More about Hamish's Organisation of Choice, The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia.
RFDS is a national charitable healthcare organisation providing primary healthcare and 24/7 emergency services to those in rural and remote Australia. RFDS uses advanced aviation and medical technology to deliver vital care where traditional services are unavailable.
Follow Hamish on TikTok and Instagram.
Get to know cmr better!
Follow @ittakesheartpodcast on Instagram, @cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment on Linked In, @cornerstonemedrec on TikTok and @CornerstoneMedicalRecruitment on Facebook.
Welcome back to Season 2 of it Takes Heart.
Sam Miklos:I'm Kate and I'm Sam, and we look forward to sharing more incredible stories of healthcare professionals making an impact across Australia.
Hamish Briggs:I saw registered nurse on my shirt, I thought I am, I am part of the cool club, and it was. I put my scrubs on and I thought, whoa, I don't know what I'm in for. I said, but I've got a pen and I've got the time and I'll be ready to go. I remember getting this job at a prison and I remember rocking up and you have to have this belt with like a radio and an alarm and keys and I just thought I was shit. I was like, yeah, people who have a million followers follow you back. You're like, oh my God, they know who I am. I just go up to them because I just think they're friends. I love what you're doing. Just go up and talk. Talk to them because at the end of the day, they're still a normal person.
Kate Coomber:We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which we meet who, for centuries, have shared ancient methods of healing and cared for their communities. We pay our respects to elders, past and present.
Sam Miklos:Today's guest is somewhat of a celebrity, who has just returned from the red carpet at the TikTok Awards in Sydney. I have so much to ask about that. This small town country boy began his journey performing in musical theatre, which landed him a coveted role at Disneyland Paris in 2020. But when the pandemic cut that dream short, he suddenly found himself working as a COVID marshal in WA. Originally from Kalgoorlie, hamish Briggs has now found his passion in the world of remote travel nursing. But there is so much more to Hamish than nursing. He's a drag queen, a content creator with over 100,000 social media followers and one incredibly positive, fun and inspiring guy. I feel like I need to sing this Welcome to it, takes Heart. Welcome to it, takes Heart. Welcome to it, takes Heart.
Hamish Briggs:And honestly so excited to be here with you girls today. I know we're going to have a lot of fun. We've got a lot to talk about. So much to do. Let's jump into it.
Sam Miklos:I need to jump into the TikTok Awards. I am showing my age here. I'm from like the MySpace era. My only friend on Instagram is Kate and the company.
Hamish Briggs:Fabulous.
Sam Miklos:How is there a TikTok Awards? What is it? What do you do? Are you all just on your phones TikTok-ing? Does anyone look up?
Hamish Briggs:Well, that's the thing you know. You're on your phone the whole time. You're filming, everyone's taking photos and I think when you enter that space, the first time is quite daunting, because you are on the red carpet, people are taking photos of you, you're getting like your management team to take photos of you and videos so that you can post later on, but everyone's in that one space so you don't feel like you're the only one doing it. We're like if you go to Woolies and you're filming, you're like I'm the only person filming at Woolies.
Kate Coomber:We're there, but you do it. Of course you do it.
Hamish Briggs:But every single person is doing it. So I think now, with social media and how it's growing, it's just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So the TikTok Awards have been on in Australia for a few years now, and are you nominated to?
Kate Coomber:how do you go? So you get an invite.
Hamish Briggs:So obviously my management team I'm with Amplify for social media and they would be one of the biggest kind of management teams for social media. The owner in that has been around for like 10 years in social media, so quite large in that sense and I think like, yes, tiktok is looking at what you're posting and your viewers and your engagement and what you are putting out there to the world. But also your management does play a big part in it. Like it's it's a big hustle industry and like the weeks leading up to TikTok awards, I knew this year after my 12 months being on social media, that was my goal TikTok awards me on the red carpet. Hello girls, let's get into it. But I, every single day, was on the phone to my management. Do I have an invite? Have you realised? I really want to go.
Kate Coomber:Have you gone, please. What do I need?
Hamish Briggs:to do. And they were like yes, yes, yes. And I was like, but I haven't received it, like I need to see it now. And they were like trust us, You've got one.
Kate Coomber:And I said, no, I just need a confirmation, because Do you have to get to a certain level to be invited? Well, that's the thing I think a lot of people do. We have to know the right people.
Hamish Briggs:Honestly, I think it is knowing the right people in a way. But Amplify have a big part with TikTok Australia. So I guess you could say, yes, it's kind of a guarantee that you will get an invite, but you also have to work hard. You're not just going to like. Amplify are a great management but they're not going to take on any Joe Blow because just so you can go to the TikTok awards Like, although that's one night of the year for us all to celebrate the hard yards we've done that year. After TikTok awards ends, no one's remembering what happened at TikTok awards. We all continue posting every day and doing our thing until next year.
Sam Miklos:So is there like best newcomer.
Hamish Briggs:Yeah, so they have like TikTok, creator of the year, they had a food one. This year they had a four good one. They have makeup. Well, yeah, no healthcare industry one, but that would probably fall under the four good one.
Hamish Briggs:So they have all these different and they have about. They have a comedy one, and then they've got about. I think it's five creators within each area that are nominated by TikTok. So TikTok actually choose them that I know of, and then it's up to that creator to post the living hell out of it so that all their followers and fans vote for them.
Kate Coomber:So what you're saying is that you went onto to TikTok and within a year you got here.
Hamish Briggs:So we can do this we could be at the podcast awards.
Kate Coomber:Are we going to the TikTok awards or?
Sam Miklos:the podcast awards Both.
Hamish Briggs:We'll do both. Let's do everything.
Kate Coomber:We're going to both.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, Can I ask, was there like there's got to be like one outrageous story from that night?
Hamish Briggs:I think, when I look at it as a whole, I could talk to anyone right when a lot of people get quite nervous around people who have a large following or people they look up to.
Hamish Briggs:I, in a way, am very used to networking and getting to where I want by talking. It's like I will talk the house off anyone to get where I want. So when you're following people and when they follow you back, it's always so exciting. So when you're following people and when they follow you back, it's always so exciting. Like when people who have a million followers follow you back, you're like, oh my God, they know who I am. And then when you see them, I just go up to them because I just think my friends love what you're doing. And then they know you and that, I think, is better, rather than being like, can I get a photo? That stuff boring, you know. Just go up and talk to them because at the end of the day, they're still a normal person. They just do this as a full-time job and have a following like no other.
Kate Coomber:So who's the person or the people that you really were excited to see?
Hamish Briggs:I think Luke and Sassy Scott. They're quite large on social media and, yes, we have spoken in the past, but it was kind of nice to meet them at the TikTok Creator Camp and the TikTok Awards and just talk like we'd known each other a really long time, like I got on with them really well You're about to say who are they?
Kate Coomber:I'd leave that to you. The Content Creator Camp yes, what's that?
Hamish Briggs:So Content Creator Camp, from what I can understand, is the day before the TikTok Awards. Tiktok put on an event and they basically go through like the latest tips and tricks for you to grow your brand, make the most money, get your name out there. But it's in a way hush hush. For those people there it's not known knowledge. A lot of people who have been in the past say sometimes it's great, you learn things that you're like whoa, that's incredible.
Hamish Briggs:Other times it's like yeah, that's you know we understand that you've got to be captivating in the first three seconds or people are going to scroll. Tiktok is a five-second job. If you can't get someone's attention in five seconds, we don't care.
Kate Coomber:Boring, it's wiping on.
Hamish Briggs:Unlike you know. So you're like next topic, but like Instagram.
Kate Coomber:Have we talked too long around this now?
Hamish Briggs:Like Instagram, we do put a lot of effort in what we're going to post. You know we want to look good in that photo because people are going to continue seeing it when they go on your kind of grid.
Hamish Briggs:Yeah, we're TikTok Next, and I think if people haven't seen it, like if your views are terrible, well then no one's seen it. So who cares? Yep, you know, rather than getting upset that oh, it only got 2,000 views. Well, no one saw it. So you know, it obviously doesn't matter that much, but it is. It's a five-second job in a way.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, right, yeah, all right over that.
Kate Coomber:Cal Goolie, there's only water. Girls, there's only water.
Hamish Briggs:It's a very, very good savvy bee. That's why it's clear.
Kate Coomber:So I want to talk about Kalgoorlie. Yes, so grew up in Kalgoorlie. Yeah, we place a lot of healthcare candidates out that way. What was it like? Tell us about life growing up?
Hamish Briggs:If there's one thing I could say, I wouldn't change anything about growing up rurally, I think it has set me up for the person I am today and for the challenges that I face, being a very flamboyant gay male, stop you. No Me, no, my wife's outside Three kids, no, my wife's outside three kids. But in a way that I had very supportive parents, but not parents that would you know, baby me. If I come home and said oh, so-and-so's been really mean at school, mum would be like not my problem, sort it out. You know it wasn't like oh well, I will talk to his mother and you know it was never that my parents are caring, but not in that aspect Mollicod, but not in that aspect.
Sam Miklos:Molly coddling yeah.
Hamish Briggs:They'll help us with absolutely everything in the world, but they're never going to blow wind up our ass, you know, ever. So I think growing up there was great for me. I always danced.
Sam Miklos:That's what I did for a living. Did you feel like you could?
Hamish Briggs:be yourself, 100%, yeah, and I think my age group, like all those babies born in 1999, were amazing 1999?
Kate Coomber:God, we're amazing 1999.
Sam Miklos:When I was graduating from high school I know it's hard to tell we were getting our MySpace ready and I was like coming into the world, yeah right, but do you know what I think?
Hamish Briggs:growing up, always dancing, I was always in the newspaper. You know, hamish wins this trophy. Hamish is off doing this thing. So everyone in the town always knew me as the boy that danced. That's all it ever was. I tried football, hated it, you know what I mean. But mum wouldn't let me quit because she said no, that's bad sportsmanship. I said, mum, I'm on the sideline, everything like they're not going to miss it.
Sam Miklos:Bring the oranges, bring the oranges, yeah.
Hamish Briggs:Honestly. So growing up there taught me, in a way, to have really big balls, because you have to stand up for yourself in this world, and you, I think. Then it's allowed me to go places where people would never venture or never feel comfortable going because there's all this stereotype of being gay. You can't do not that, you can't do it, but you can't go here and feel safe. You can't work in mining and feel really, you know, powerful and all that. Yes, you can. I think there's like once we get over that there's a whole world out there that you can go and do things you can go, why not go there? Why there's no gays? Whoopie, doo bee, I love being the only gay in the village. Oh, I love it, you know, and people know, and I love that. Like when I walk into a pub, people know, oh, he's gay and stare in a way that I think I'm very happy and confident to stand here and order my Savvy B at the bar while you get your you know, your bluey tins. Whatever you, you know.
Sam Miklos:I don't drink beers. I don't know. I was about to say I use it in the cans, a fosters. Is it a fosters in a blue tin, maybe, or?
Hamish Briggs:like an emu export. Yeah, get an emu. Oh, a bush chook.
Sam Miklos:A bush chook, a bin chook.
Kate Coomber:And I think that's for anyone. I think you don't have to be, you know, the only gay in the village for someone to feel uncomfortable going into a certain environment. I think lots of us just don't have the confidence full stop to go into an unfamiliar setting, whether it be the TikTok Awards or a really outback pub where there's locals everywhere.
Sam Miklos:I've never heard any me chook. Oh, isn't it bush? Is that a shot I need to get at the christmas party? Can we get some bush chooks?
Hamish Briggs:no, it's like a terrible red beer.
Sam Miklos:My brother drinks it oh, okay, I wouldn't touch it with 10 foot pole, but can I ask then, disneyland, paris, like I mean obviously you just said you were always in the news, you were the dancing boy from calgurley. Was that the dream?
Hamish Briggs:the dream of mine was to be in stage shows, so I obviously started dancing at four. I danced my entire childhood. I moved to Perth when I was 15. So this January marks 10 years out of my home, like when I left my home.
Kate Coomber:So you left on your own.
Hamish Briggs:Left and I moved in with another family in Perth from Kalgoorlie. So I've been out of home 10 years. But I moved to Perth, I studied full time and then I got signed up with Jeep Management in Sydney and then I relocated when I was 18 and just hustled every audition, every job, every. I think I was like 18. I went to like a Magic Mike audition.
Sam Miklos:I was like and I said to my manager I said I would love to have watched him. You would have been the I still try to say to my husband can you just do them up the hallway?
Hamish Briggs:It was the most awkward audition of my life, like you had to do the routine and then, like, take your shirt off. But I was this, like scrawny little, like 18 year old, and I thought that none of that is sexy Disneyland Paris.
Sam Miklos:What was your role there before we get?
Hamish Briggs:into the nursing bit. I was a tap dancer in Mickey's Christmas Big Band, so it was a tap show. They basically only hired Australians. So out of about 500 boys that auditioned, they took five of us and we were over there for four months. We would do 25 shows a week. Wow, yeah, it was a huge, huge, huge show, but all live it was like about a 40-minute show. So you had singers, then obviously the Disney characters and then us tap dancers and a 20 piece live orchestra. So I went over there. The French are completely different when it comes to performing arts. Like if you didn't have your Mickey smile on, they'd start the music again. Like one person drops their smile, boom Start again. Yeah, but obviously, like I got that job and that was probably that was my first international job and I thought this is it, my career is about to take off. You know we were looking at cruise ships when I come back and then COVID happened and I lost everything. So we got to finish that contract. I got back in January of 2020.
Sam Miklos:Just before lockdown, so that was like we were over there. Where did you go Back to?
Hamish Briggs:Perth or Kalgoorlie Back. Where did you go? Back to Perth or Kalgoorlie, back to Sydney? Okay, and then I was in Sydney for maybe six weeks and over that period, once COVID had come to Australia, I lost all my jobs in a week. Every day would be a new phone call being that's cancelled, this bar's closed, you know, whatever it would be. And then that was like, oh my God, I've got nothing. Yeah, in 2020, no one was out seeing stuff, were they Nothing? And being in Sydney where they were doing suburb locks, you know, I went.
Hamish Briggs:I was applying for jobs to be like a tomato picker up in like far north Queensland, because I was like I will do anything, like I was ringing IGAs, woolies, and they were all like we've got enough staff, like I said, I will pack boxes, like I would do anything, because obviously I had to make a living and I had to pay rent and I was like I've gone from like this massive high of living overseas and doing what I've worked so hard to do to now back at square one where I've got. And as a dancer, you never have a backup, because it's your life unless it's a backup dancer yeah, for like Nicki Minaj or something no, you need the backup dance, not be the backup dancer.
Sam Miklos:Well, that's right now.
Hamish Briggs:But I think, like you work so hard to be on that stage and you you know it's not the most amazing money, but you're not doing it Like that's what you've worked so hard for.
Hamish Briggs:And then all of a sudden it's like that was the first thing to go. You know was performing arts and clubs and little singing shows. That was like no, can't have you all sitting together Out you go. So when I lost all that, I was like I've got nothing, like not one thing. So it kind of put a lot of things into perspective. And then it was a Sunday, my mum rang me and she said they're closing the WA border on the Wednesday. What are you going to do? And I said, oh well, I don't know, I'll just stay here. And she said, yeah, but you've got nothing. You've got no one over there. Like my friend's mum had to send me toilet paper because there was none in my suburb.
Hamish Briggs:So she sent me toilet paper from an hour away and I said, well, righto, then I'll pack up and I money on food. So I gave that all to my neighbours and this was mum rang me at like 11 and by three o'clock I was on the road to Kalgoorlie Wow, and I had no idea how I was getting to Kalgoorlie. I had no idea what the roads were like.
Kate Coomber:You hadn't done that drive before, never. And like in a Kia Rio, I packed a tiny suitcase With your toilet paper, yeah, everything in Sydney.
Hamish Briggs:And I put a post up and then obviously all the mums and everyone got on board and were like no, you've got to go this way. Oh, now they're closing the border. Three hours earlier and I said to mum I said you log on my Facebook and tell people I'm going to make it and to stop messaging me because my phone won't stop. People were calling and messaging and you know. So I just set off on this and I did it in two and a half days.
Hamish Briggs:I got to their border for an hour to spare.
Sam Miklos:And then, where did the COVID marshalling? Come?
Hamish Briggs:in yeah, very interesting. So I moved back home and had no job and I was like this is boring. So I was on the dole and I hated that. Free money is great but it's not that exciting, you know. And then my friend Abby, she got this job at BHP as a project I don't know, some sort of plant operator, and I thought, well, if she can do it, I can do it. So I took my dance CV into this recruitment agent in Cal and I said, robin, I will do anything. And obviously the last job on there is Paris Disney tap dancer.
Hamish Briggs:And she said oh, I don't have much to work with here. And I said you'll find me a job. Because I need a job. I'm going mad. So every day, four times a day, I'd give her a call and on the Friday she called me and she said Hamish, I've got you a job. And I said perfect, what is it? She said you're going to be a COVID marshal at the BHP.
Hamish Briggs:Nicholls Smelter and I said you'll start on Monday. It's eight-hour shifts, you know 4 am to whatever, and then an afternoon shift to do the night shift. I said that sounds really good. So I went and got my high-vis outfit Outfit. Costume A little cosy Mum was like go tell the people you're doing a diesel mechanic apprenticeship so we can put it on the book. So I did that to pay for it. I said they're going to believe that.
Hamish Briggs:But, anyway and I said oh, I'm just doing my diesel apprenticeship, like I need some stuff. And the lady was like well, normally people would pick those boots there. And I turned around and saw these beautiful blue boots, beautiful. And I said I'll have them. And she goes oh, not many people pick them.
Kate Coomber:And I said I'm not many people.
Hamish Briggs:So I rocked up and I started this kind of COVID marshalling job where I would like go out there with my face shield on, take the truckies temperature and open up the buzz like the boom gate, have a good day, mate, you know. And you would do it for about two hours and then sit there doing nothing because everyone's in work and it would be the odd truck or the odd delivery would kind of come up and you would do. But from there, who managed us was the emergency services coordinator. Now I went to school with his daughters and that's the best part about being back in Kalgoorlie Everyone knows me, you know everyone, so you will always find a job.
Hamish Briggs:And Ken said to me oh Hamish, have you ever thought about being an emergency service officer? I said, ken, I've just gone from dancing with Mickey Mouse, I don't know what you're talking about. And he said oh well, you know, that's like your road crash rescue, vertical rescue, bit of medical, you know listing all these like real butchy things. And I thought, oh, not really, like it doesn't really tickle my fancy.
Sam Miklos:What's the costume?
Hamish Briggs:I'm in my and he was teaching me to do like tie ropes for rope rescue and do all these knots and like butterflies and whatever. And I rang my manager, my dance manager, and I said, well, covid, lasts longer than three months, because that was my idea, I'd be back in WA three months, back in Sydney, doing exactly what I was doing. You know, cruise ship here I come was my goal. And he said, hamish, they are cancelling things for the next two years. Like this is going to last a long, long, long time. And I said, well, I've got an opportunity now to kind of try something that I would never, ever try in my life and make a lot of money. And he said, well, just do it, you're 20. So I was like, okay, I took my super out, I did my cert three in Minds Rescue, which is like a three-week intensive course.
Hamish Briggs:I did my certificate four in healthcare pre-ambulance, which was like the lowest medical course you needed for this job to be an ESO. And then I did my drug and alcohol screening ticket and kind of finished all that. And again, it was a Friday, my cert three finished, I got my little certificate and Ken rang me and said, oh, I've been made redundant, but I've got a job out in Ravensort, which is six hours from town. Do you want a job? I said yeah, I'll take a job there, and rocked up on this mine site with him. This was like real mining. I had to live there for a week.
Hamish Briggs:You know, go to the little cafeteria, eat the terrible food, and that was my job. And I was like what? I don't know what I've got myself into. I was so nervous to go into this cafeteria because it's all like real butchy men and I was like, oh, hi, everyone, Hi everyone, what do we do? Because no one tells you, no one goes. Oh, the plates are over there, you know, and they don't walk you through it. It's very daunting because you walk in and everyone just stares.
Kate Coomber:And what does nervous Hamish look like? Are you still you? And you're just rolling in Because I'll just make a joke out of something.
Hamish Briggs:I'll be like oh, where's the plates? Where do you get a plate from? And then someone will feel sad for me and be like, oh, they're over there. So I'm like, thank you. And it was from that moment that I started this job as being a medic on a mine site and I had no idea there was a medic on a mine site until I was one. And when I mean I didn't know one thing. I didn't know one thing.
Kate Coomber:And because to do that sort of work you sort of need to be good with, you know, being able to look at blood and you know all of that sort of thing, Like not everyone, like I don't know that I could do things like that. How did you?
Hamish Briggs:I've always loved helping people always. How did you? I've always loved helping people. Always I would create shows to do at nursing homes. I would, you know, go to the Christmas ladies' lunch in Kalgoorlie at the Pensioners' Club and sing. It's always been my thing to kind of help people and make people smile and I've always had a massive interest in old people and a massive interest in our Indigenous healthcare and Indigenous people per se Like that was always me as a little kid. So, kind of going into this, I thought, well, I see it. Being a medic or a nurse as your one man show it's you, you do your thing. You've got your patients you know, in a way, yeah, fake it till you make it, because you don't want that patient to see that you don't know what you're doing.
Sam Miklos:Yeah.
Hamish Briggs:Act like you know what you're doing. Leave the room, have a discussion with someone that does know what they're doing, Walk back and it's like you know. You don't be like, oh, I wouldn't have a clue. You know, because then they're like oh, now I'm panicking.
Hamish Briggs:Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know anything about this. The girls had seen me on like they'd Googled me on Instagram and thought, oh God, this boy's not going to last five seconds. And I and we just made the best friendship ever and I said all I want is to be good at this job. I don't, I want to be, I want to know what I'm doing. I say because this is so far from anything I've ever done or known. And I said that's my one goal. And they said, oh, we'll teach you everything we know. And these two girls who just put me through the absolute ringer like they would fake emergencies. They would get the boys to like, pretend they're having a heart attack and I would think it was real. Yeah, so many times they would run these little scenarios and I would be like don't get the defibrillator until the point where I would like just kidding.
Hamish Briggs:And I remember one day like someone come in and I was like nah. I'm over this. This is I'm not doing it yeah, yeah.
Kate Coomber:And they said no, this is a real one oh wow, and I was like, oh sorry, love sorry, let's go but it was.
Hamish Briggs:I was on my live the other night and I said do you ever remember the moment that you first do an ECG? Now that is the easiest task ever for a nurse. You do 50 million of them a day. Boom, boom, boom. Chuck the dots and leads on ripper. But the first ever time I wouldn't even know what an ECG was. Blood pressure, what's a blood pressure? Like all these things that I had like started to learn and I think I've come into it as technically, like a glorified first aider is what the job was yeah, unlike with nursing, where you learn what an ECG is and a blood pressure in your first year, you don't learn that at your first aid course.
Sam Miklos:You know, did you then go on and get a nursing qualification? I loved it, I fell in love.
Hamish Briggs:I did six months of this job and I loved the medical side. I hated the other side of it. It was too butchy for me. Like I was, like I don't want to drive a firetruck down yeah, you know yeah. I loved the medical side, that I wanted to become a paramedic and I didn't get in because I never finished year 12.
Hamish Briggs:So then one of the girls said oh well, there's so many more nurse, there's so many more jobs as a nurse, why don't you apply for nursing? And I thought, thought, well, okay. So I applied with Charles Darwin so that I could study online and continue working full time. On the mind side, the one thing I was like is I'm not rocking up to a uni to watch a lecture, boring, I'll fall asleep.
Hamish Briggs:So I applied and I never paid my fee and I thought oh, random, I feel like I should have heard by now. And I rang the uni two days into the semester and I said hi, and they said, oh, you didn't pay your fee, but if you pay it now we'll just chuck you in the course. So then I got in and I I did my bachelor of nursing um with Charles Darwin and I continued working week on week off or three weeks on one week off in the mines so I could pay for my degree, go on placement wherever I wanted to go and still learn and use medical skills my entire three years. So it's not like I had another job and had no medical background.
Hamish Briggs:I got to do that every single day?
Kate Coomber:And did you have any ideas through that process of once you have your degree, what next?
Hamish Briggs:My main passion is Indigenous health. All my placements were based around indigenous health care. Um, I made I never wanted to do a metro placement. I never really wanted to work in predominantly white hospitals. Um, I think for me I just have a huge passion in that and I love being out in the bush. I love that community feel and knowing everyone. I want to know bloody Susie at Woolies, you know I love that. That's just knowing everyone. I want to know.
Hamish Briggs:Bloody Susie at Woolies, you know, I love that, that's just who I am and, like I said, I can talk till the cows come home. So I've always said, like once I became a nurse, emergency 100% is what I love doing. I like the aspect that I can help you and then send you on your way. I like seeing the patient every day. But I, you know, I love that we are doing. You know what first comes in the door and then we get you ready enough to go to your next location. And I always have known that I wanted to do rural and remote Like I've. As you all know, I've now moved Metro.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, I was just going to say that you've gone Metro. What brought?
Kate Coomber:you to the Gold Coast, but then you're going from the Gold Coast. Yeah, you've gone Metro.
Sam Miklos:What brought you to the Gold Coast, but then you're going from the Gold Coast.
Hamish Briggs:Yeah, so obviously once I became a nurse I got offered a job in Kalgoorlie straight away and organized all that and I started in the ED and kind of float nursing there, which was amazing because that was my last placement. So I did that. And then I moved up to the Kimberley region so I did Derby Hospital, I then did Halls Creek hospital and then I came back to Derby to do prison nursing, which we'll get into a bit later.
Sam Miklos:We need to talk about that, but hang on, we can do the book, yep.
Hamish Briggs:And then, you know, being like coming up to, like it was coming up to my year where I'd been in the remote setting I thought. You know everyone raves about Metro is. Am I missing out on something? Am I missing out on the fact that I'm not seeing, you know, big road pileups on a freeway and strokes and all these kind of things that don't often happen out in the bush, that are happening every single second of the day in the metro, hospitals and in a way, I was really enjoying my social media, but it is hard to do that from a remote setting, because I do want to go to events and I do want to make content.
Kate Coomber:The content is limited and being in, say, halls Creek.
Hamish Briggs:It's not a one flight to Sydney, it's, you know, a flight, a drive to Broome, a flight to Perth. You know, it's a whole day to get there and probably about two and a half thousand dollars. So I thought to myself, well, why not, let's go apply for an ED job at Australia's busiest ED. And I got it and it sort of brought me back over east, which I'm very happy about. I love being over here because I'm more accessible to the world. I love being in the bush, but I now have the opportunity to whiz down to Sydney and say go to an event.
Hamish Briggs:Metro as such is just not my vibe. I think personally, from an outside point of view, we in a way are have a larger skill set in a rural setting, because you don't have that button on the wall to press it and 20 people and specialists come running and I think that's the thing in a metro setting kind of always got someone more experienced than you standing over you.
Hamish Briggs:And you've got to do your job. That's it. Where, in a rural setting, you've got to do the job of three people because you don't have the staff or you know agency, right, you don't know everyone's skillset. So where my my great skillset might be airway, your great skillset might be airway too, but you only want to do airway and I'm like well, I'm happy to do something else where other people will put their foot down. I'm not doing anything else. Where, when they do the rostering for Metro, you're that role and that's what you do and you don't step outside that role.
Hamish Briggs:So I think we do have a larger skill set out in the bush and that's what I'm missing metro, and we don't have all the divisions of ed. You don't have a sub acute. You don't have an acute. You don't have. You have one area. You get kids, you get old ladies, you get really sick people, you get people who don't need to be there and could go down the road to the g. You get that all in one day where, when you're in Metro, you could be in subacute and that's your category fives all day. People who could have probably gone to the GP but have come here and I feel like I'm missing out on those skills where I'm using my critical thinking a lot more or I'm being able to chat with the doctor on a phone, rather than a doctor coming in doing his job and then they're like right, he needs fluids. It's like I would have loved to assess that patient, had a discussion and then learn so much from each.
Hamish Briggs:So now I obviously have decided to kind of step down from my Metro and I know I've only been here like just under three months. But I sat down with myself the other day and I thought what do I really love about my job? And it's my rural aspect, it's my connection with community, it's going to places people wouldn't normally go to and it's putting myself in the deep end in a safe way. Yeah, you know, I would never do something to harm someone, but I learn by putting myself in that situation to then be like perfect, like you know. Now I know the steps of this and let's discuss what happened and why it probably could have gone better, rather than starting at the bottom and working your way up, you know, over two years to get somewhere where I probably don't want to be, where I can go out and find exactly what I want.
Hamish Briggs:So you know, and I think having my entire life on social media comes with a lot of hate and a lot of negativity around me, moving a lot. But that's been me my entire life. Like I'm, I don't think I'll ever be somewhere permanently enough to call home, like my home is everywhere, and I think I build the relationships everywhere I go that I can call someone from any town and say, hey look, I need a huge favor, can I stay on your cat? Sure thing, come past. Or do you know someone who? Do you need nurses at the moment? Yet we definitely do so. That's always. It was with mining. I used to move every three months cause I would get stale. If I'm not learning, I leave.
Sam Miklos:Like I don't understand, travel nursing is almost like the ultimate role for you being able to like go around. We got to dive into derby and the prison work because you know, I think, um, that's a pretty adventurous role too like pretty early on, even location wise.
Kate Coomber:You know some people won't know where that is. Can you paint a picture of where it is? Yeah sure, what's it like?
Hamish Briggs:derby is a small kimberley town. If you know where broom is, it's the kind of the most northern large town of Western Australia and we're two and a half hours inland from Broome and it is predominantly Indigenous. Healthcare, like 98% of your patients, is Indigenous. Background, the odd you know white traveller or grey nomad coming past, but still a very booming town in a way. There's lots of businesses, there's lots of. Obviously we've got the what's classified as the sentence prison of the Kimberley. Broome has the Remand prison but with the overload now of prisoners we've got a mix of both. We're probably half-half when I was at Derby's prison and same with Broome. When I was at Derby's prison and same with Broome.
Hamish Briggs:So I left Derby and went to Halls Creek Agency and I loved it but I missed my friends and I missed everything in Derby and I thought I want to go back to Derby. So I left Derby for two months and then I did a U-ey on the freeway and I went back and I went back and I got this prison job prior to leaving and I said, no, I'm going to go do this travel nursing thing and that's what I want to do. And then I was like, oh no, I miss everyone and it was the dry. There's a lot of things on in the Kimberley in the dry season, so I went back and I took this job at a prison, and now that has always been something that interests me. Why?
Hamish Briggs:Because I just you, I, calgoorlie's got a prison right on town and we used to drive out there and sit in the car park and think I wonder what's behind those gates don't we drive out there, you and your mum or your friends, and we would sit there because it's like all lit up, it's really like, but it's right on the edge of town and I would think I wonder what's going on in there we used to do it with mine sites as well, like what's happening in there, like I was so intrigued because it's so hush, hush.
Hamish Briggs:It's like you know you've got to have special privileges to go in there. And I remember getting this job at a prison and I thought, righto, rocking up, you know you're not allowed your phone You're not allowed. You've got to have a clear with like a radio and an alarm and keys and I just thought I was the shit.
Kate Coomber:I was like yeah, You're like I'm in a movie. His costume's better than the last one, yeah.
Hamish Briggs:Hi Viz, no, thank you. But and you get to the big gates and it's like a big, thick gate with a big lock and it, like the man up in controls like unlocks it and it slowly opens and then it slams behind you and you're like I'm in prison. And it was like I just was always intrigued to know what prisoners were like. And, yes, they're people, but they're people who have 24 hours a day to think about whatever they want to think and to manifest whatever they want to manifest. And they're, in a way, a lot of them. Their way of thinking is so different to ours because they don't have a distraction. You can get on your phone, you can drive to the next cafe, you can talk to your kids or whatever that might be. But when you are in a prison and you say to them say, oh yeah, I'll get this done for you, and you haven't done it. They've had every second of the day to think about. Hamish is going to do this for me, and then when you have gotten busy and not done it.
Hamish Briggs:That's like the worst thing in the world, like you've. You've just teared them apart. So I think, stepping into that kind of prison scene, I thought I was going to save the world. I really did. I thought I'm going to come in here, I'm going to love it, you know, because it's Indigenous people. You know. 99% of people in there were Indigenous. I think we had five white people, you know, and like three Asian descent girls. So stepping in there, I thought I'm going to save the world. I'm going to make something amazing at this place because I will be able to connect with these people and in a way I did.
Hamish Briggs:I built the trust very quickly within that kind of healthcare aspect and probably in a way, by pushing the boundaries a bit with the rules Like there's rules for a reason, but I would push them a bit because I wanted them to get the best care, where a lot of people would be like how would you push the boundaries by advocating for them, completely to the point where I would get in trouble, because I think why are we not giving them the best care? In a way, when we look at Indigenous people, I think there's. Sometimes we have a group of people who health education is very different to our health education. Health in general is very different to our health education. Health in general is very different to our health and every aspect of health is very different to white Australians. So when we have them in an area like the prison, where we can focus mainly on their health, we've got a target audience. I think why are we not doing the utmost in that aspect to get everything done? Why are we not doing groups where people hey, you haven't got these immunizations. I'm not forcing them upon you, but let's have a chat about it. Let's put a group together and let's get everyone this, let's get everyone that.
Hamish Briggs:So by the time they leave, whether it's there in there for two months or 24 years, they're leaving a healthier person and they're leaving not wanting to come back when, unfortunately, it's very sad when you look at Indigenous people, they have a long line of family members and relatives who have been in and out of prison. It's, unfortunately classified as normal. It's not a scary thing for a lot of people because they come into prison and they will list off 20 names to you when you first meet them and I say, yeah, they're all in here, oh perfect, you haven't seen them in years. So it's a. There's a lot of family behind bars and a lot of they've seen people go to prison and it's where.
Hamish Briggs:If I went to prison, I would be, scared, shitless, like it would not be, because I don't really know many people that have gone to prison. So I think, when we are looking at it as a whole, I went in there and I thought how can I make a difference for the people that are here? How can I get them into the medical centre? How can I get them to trust me? And honestly, I just did that. From all their requests they put in some of the silliest requests. But, yeah, sure, come in, let's have a chat about it when a lot of stuff would get disregarded. Now we don't have time for that. Why?
Kate Coomber:Yeah.
Hamish Briggs:We're not busy.
Kate Coomber:And so it's predominantly primary healthcare.
Hamish Briggs:Huge primary healthcare.
Sam Miklos:It's almost like a GP clinic. Who else?
Hamish Briggs:are you working with? So we had, depending on the day, either two or three nurses, a mental health specialist, and then the nurse unit manager was kind of who was in, and then you had your ward clerk who did the admin side of things, so, and then obviously always an officer, and they would shuffle the boys in. You'd kind of do the boys in the morning and then the, then the girls, but I, you know it, it just depended on what it wanted, and when I built that trust with the people in there, it got to the point where the girls would only want to see me.
Hamish Briggs:Now, indigenous health in females is like men and women are polar opposites. So to have that respect from the women, to only line up at the front of my door or say to the lady nurses, no, I don't want to see you. And it wasn't the fact that you know they weren't, you know, didn't have the skills to do Indigenous health, because they're not from an Indigenous health background. It's the fact they didn't build the trust. The girls were happy for me to do examinations and talk about you know private issues that they're going through, or they would write me a letter and we would discuss. You know what they're going through, because I took the time to sit there and speak with them.
Kate Coomber:It's that human element, isn't it?
Hamish Briggs:I think we've spoken to so many guests and it is a human element, like it's listening. At the end of the day, nursing is all about listening. There is so much we can do by just talking to someone and then, oh, all of a sudden, all that pain that you came in for is gone, because that's not the reason you came here. You wanted to get something off your chest and we've done that. And I think, unfortunately, what I have seen in that space is there is a lot of people who chase the money because it is exceptional money when you come into a prison but you are working with a demographic who needs you there every second. You know they want to be able to be like oh, I know Hamish knows what he's doing and will. I can trust him that if he says I'm only going for an X-ray, that's all I'm going for, because sending them out of the prison is a big ordeal. You know, some of these people have not been outside the walls in a long time, so going for an x-ray is like an excursion, even though it's six kilometres down the road, it's not that exciting. But going back into a hospital setting they don't get to go in like us, where we walk, walk they're shackled hands and ankles. That's when they realise they're a prisoner again while they're roaming free inside the prison kicking the footy. You know having a yarn with the boys under the tree, that's great. You know having a durry, but then something happens where, oh, you've got a specialist appointment or we've got to get that finger x-ray, buddy, because I can't do anything more. If you know, then you know, in comes all the things and you see it in their face drop that I've done bad things, you know, and that's why I'm in here. So I just I wanted to understand what we could do better in that kind of health care aspect, but also just that human aspect. That exciting. I think. If I was ever to go back into corrections, I would want to do like a a kind of future planning role where I get to speak with them inside prison and then outside. I loved hanging out with them like it's sad to say, but I would classify some of them as really good friends if I saw them on the outside.
Hamish Briggs:People that I and I know they've done bad things, but you push past that. You can't judge someone on what they've done, because I get to read what they've done bad things, but you push past that you can't judge someone on what they've done, because I get to read what they've done. You know for my own safety benefits when I am consulting someone. But in a hospital, when they come in in their green outfit and offices, you don't know what they've done. They could have robbed a bank, they could have done something catastrophic. You don't know that. You treat them and present and you know treat the factors that they're presenting with and that's all you do. You don't go oh, what have they done? Because I'm now going to change how I act.
Hamish Briggs:So you know, having people who have lit schools on fire or people who have murdered people, they're all people, at the end of the day, that need healthcare, that have issues and that want the best you know outcome for themselves. So I remember the girls said to me they said, hamish, we're all getting fat. And I said, yeah, girls, you know your boyfriends won't like in your bikini when you get out after six months and you're eating the prison food. And they said, well, we're all getting fat and we don't want to. And I said, righto, well, let's start a jazzercise class.
Hamish Briggs:So, I started jazzercise class Saturdays and Sundays for the women.
Sam Miklos:Did anyone go other than you, or you did get a following.
Hamish Briggs:Oh, I made sure they were there and honestly, I just approached the assistant superintendent and said hey look, the girls think they're getting fat. I think it would be very beneficial to get them up moving, because they're just sitting. Let's do something. Let's get them out in the sun, put some music on, have a good giggle, have some fruit after the class, and that's basically what we did. So Saturdays and Sundays I would go now, I'm not a jazzercise teacher, girls but I said I've got the background of a dancer.
Kate Coomber:I've come from Paris.
Hamish Briggs:I will move around to some music. And I said, girls, you put in your song requests and we'll dance. And they loved it. You know getting up laughing, them all being in that kind of like fun. And we used to crank the shit out of the music. I said because Unit 3 was like the locked boys unit right on Unit 4, and I said now our one rule, girls, is we've got to crank the music that loud so the boys would get really jealous and then when I do med round they'll ask me what the music was and I won't tell them Did you end up with a boys' jazzercise class?
Hamish Briggs:No, the boys got a lot inside prison. They got football and basketball and heaps. They got to go to education, where the girls, unfortunately, are segregated in their unit, and I felt really sorry for them because they weren't doing much. You know, they had a garden, whoopie-doo, you know, and they wanted more and I said, well, I will, if you girls come, I will put this on, but if you stop coming, class is cancelled. You know, you've got to put in as much effort as I'm putting in and it started really high and then, you know, slowly weaned off until it got too hot for them.
Sam Miklos:So let's go from like jazzercise to drag queening. Yes, like, first of all, what's your drag queen name?
Hamish Briggs:So my drag queen name is Savannah Blanc or Savvy B.
Sam Miklos:Ah, savvy B name is savannah blanc, or savvy b is savvy b. We didn't get some savvy b, we're just giving you that water, that town water over there.
Hamish Briggs:Okay, it's brisbane water, it's quite nice actually um, when did the drag show start?
Sam Miklos:I know you, is it a one, one, one woman, one woman.
Hamish Briggs:Yeah, I mean drag started when I was 18 in sydney I thought I'm gonna give that a burl.
Hamish Briggs:and my drag show started when I was 18 in Sydney. I thought I'm going to give that a burl. And my drag show started when I came home for COVID. So I came home in say like March of 2020 and started this. You know that mining, you know adventure. And then by October I said to my friend I said, oh, I want to put on a drag trivia, why not? And she said, yeah, do it. And I I published the tickets and it was no joke sold out within about 20 minutes. Wow. And then I had to ring the venue and say, can I add on some more tables Because we're completely sold out. And they were like, yeah, now that I do my shows, so I now do a proper cabaret. So we've just sold out Derby and Kalgoorlie this year.
Sam Miklos:And do you? Is your vision to go to like Derby, work as a nurse and do your shows while you're there?
Hamish Briggs:I think it's a lot easier if you go there and you meet the people and you make that connection within the town. Derby sold out in five seconds because I you knew them. Yep, and I made sure I was very well known in the town in terms of providing healthcare and getting out and about and doing things. So then when I published tickets, it was like, oh my God, everyone will get around something and support it. Because it's unusual, drag queens don't go to Derby. This one does this one does.
Kate Coomber:Yeah, well, that was the question right. It's like is there loads travelling through or you're it?
Hamish Briggs:No, and I think that's why I love it. Why not push the boundaries? Why not push the boundaries At the end of the day? If you don't, I we're selling tickets. You know the tickets aren't cheap. There's $70 a ticket, you know, for the show. People who would, who don't like drag or don't like gay people, are not paying $70. So I think whoopie do like. If people at the pub go, oh, you shouldn't be here, I said sorry, love. So show sold out. No-transcript, because I'm very confident in myself and who I am, that people's words or whatever they want to yell out water off a duck's back.
Hamish Briggs:And I think that's probably my one teaching thing on my social media now is to push past that, because people take a lot of things to heart and I think the sooner you get rid of that, the sooner you will be like, I will feel very confident. You know, doing a travel nurse contract out to Wut Wut as a gay man, or going here and not having any friends and you know walking into the pub being like, hey, I'm new, you know what's there to do here? And it's the same as that with drag. I love performing, I love telling my story and I love doing it in drag. I love to put on a great show and I like to go to places where people miss out on that. You know there's gay people everywhere and there's people of LGBT. You know bubble everywhere we go and they enjoy it because they miss out on a lot there.
Hamish Briggs:You know, you're not moving to Derby to find a husband, unfortunately, because it's very limited. But I can go there, be very happy with what I'm doing and say, hey, look, why don't I bring a drag show here? And we put it on at the pub and we have a great night. And that's exactly what we did, and it just. It blew up Like I was on the phone with the girls while I was on the train. They said, oh, so when's the next show coming? Everyone's talking about it still. So bringing shows to towns that don't necessarily get them is what I love.
Sam Miklos:Perth, brisbane, sydney, melbourne.
Hamish Briggs:You can see a drag queen any day of the week Derby never. That was the first show like that ever to go to Derby, which is just so much more special and I think when people know it's me and you know everyone in the audience, the show's great because you can tell jokes with the people.
Sam Miklos:Because it'd be more intimate too, like that connection with community.
Hamish Briggs:And they like you know you can bounce off each other because you know everyone's kids and you know where everyone works and you know they're pissed as a fart and you can make a joke out of it. And then the whole audience knows them, so it's even funnier.
Kate Coomber:And you're going to keep doing it into 2025?
Hamish Briggs:100%. I hope for so. At the moment it's me and I hire my two friends from Perth and we do like a three-person show it's mostly me, and then they'll break it up with solos and duos and we'll do group numbers. So you know I can have a break and it's not just me. But so for the end of 2025, I would love to have my own one-woman show with a three-piece band and it'd be about an hour cabaret, and we'll probably start with the bigger cities per se just to get it out there and then take it, because obviously, travelling with a band is very expensive and I think that's what people need to consider.
Hamish Briggs:Like, if a ticket's $70, it's not $70, that's going in my bank account. A show is a lot of money to put on. So doing it rurally, where people, nothing happens, so a $70 ticket is like. But in Perth, where they could probably see a show similar for $40, they're like, oh well, why would I go? So you need to get people to understand why they should come and pay that money for your show. So by the end of the year, that's what I would love a little one-woman show.
Kate Coomber:So a bit of travel nursing in between A bit of travel nursing in between.
Hamish Briggs:A bit of travel nursing and we've got our first contract with you guys.
Kate Coomber:It's exciting. Welcome to the community.
Sam Miklos:I just want to jump into, too, finding love in the bush, because I know you've done like a part A and a part B on, you know, yes, finding love in the bush. Yeah, a lot of our younger nurses will talk about that. It can be hard.
Hamish Briggs:It can be very hard and I think it depends what you want to find. Yeah, you know, sometimes you've got to put on I call them your bush goggles. You know you're not where people I do have to say people in the Gold Coast gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, where you head out bush and sometimes you've got to just put on your bush goggles a little bit because they're a little bit rougher. Yeah, you know they might be due for a haircut. You know they might be due for a shave, so be due for a shave.
Hamish Briggs:So you've got to put on your bush goggles and people do become quite gorgeous once you put your bush goggles on and then you might feel like you know going out for dinner with them. But you've got to remember dinner places are very limited, yeah so if you're going on a date.
Hamish Briggs:The whole town knows yeah, they're all seeing you at the pub on that, yeah, cute date in the corner having you know, friday night, chicken parmese special, yeah. So I think in terms of the gays very limited gays you do get in peak kind of dry season when there's lots of backpackers of such, because they all go up there.
Hamish Briggs:There's a lot of events that happen and pop up in dry season and everyone's up doing their rural work to extend their contracts to stay in Australia, so you will get your influx of people then People who are just in the town. It's very limited, unfortunately. And do you know what? For some people that's okay and I'm one of those people Like, I'm not out there looking for love. I'm loving doing my own thing at the moment, but for people out there looking for love, it can be challenging, it's a consideration we might need to give, in our merch packs, a little cornerstone bush goggles.
Hamish Briggs:Bush goggles. Got to put your bush goggles on girls. That's what I would say.
Sam Miklos:Let's talk social media. You're about to hit the 100,000 followers.
Kate Coomber:by Christmas, we're hoping that was this by the time this goes live, you'll be well over. We'll be at 110,000.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, you'll be well over. We won't even be talking, we'll be like a distant memory, which probably would make you a minor celebrity. I imagine, like at that point, I would hope so.
Hamish Briggs:I think people are beginning to realize who I am, which is great because I love. I love talking to people. In that sense, I love when people come up to me and say, oh my God, I know you from socials or I really love your videos and you know, getting into social media was one video saying today's my first day as a nurse and I am so excited and I think it blew up because no one is excited about nursing that's what struck me when I came across you was the positivity.
Kate Coomber:Yeah, like I can't wait to get to work, I'm excited to wear my costume.
Hamish Briggs:Yeah, when I saw registered nurse on my shirt I thought whoa.
Hamish Briggs:I'm in I am part of the cool club and it was. I put my scrubs on and I thought whoa, and I was the float nurse and I was like I don't know what I'm in for. I said, but I've got a pen and I've got the time and I'll be ready to go. You know, I've got my little phone, hello, hamish the float nurse. And from there it just took off. People were interested in why you, you know, you get the. Oh, give it two months and he'll hate nursing. And it's never been like that. I've never hated it and I think I've never hated it because I in myself have the ability to move around. If I start to begin that, I'm going to hate it. Goodbye, you know. Let's go to the next adventure. When I saw registered nurse on my shirt, I thought whoa.
Hamish Briggs:I'm in I am part of the cool club and it was. I put my scrubs on and I thought, whoa, and I was the float nurse and I was like I don't know what I'm in for. I said, but I've got a pen and I've got the time and I'll be ready to go Person and being able to kind of go from place to place and start again. I love that. I love being the new person. Oh, I love it Meeting everyone. I think saying hi is such like I find it rude if people don't walk past me and say hi, like I'm like, oh rude, like I'm always like howdy, how's it going? Which people are like? Oh my God, someone's spoken to me. Yeah, it's very different now.
Sam Miklos:So I guess criticism how do you deal with that Because?
Hamish Briggs:you'd have to have a thick skin.
Kate Coomber:Hugely, or even boundaries, to preserve some sort of privacy.
Hamish Briggs:My one tip for anyone wanting to go on social media is you need to show the world every single aspect of your life, because they will find out regardless if you're not showing them Privacy. Yes, in a way that you need to be able to switch off, but people are interested in your life for a reason, so don't hide anything from them. I think if you hide things from them, they will find out they will because you have serial followers and messages and people who comment on everything.
Hamish Briggs:You know people want to be the first commenter and they'll write I'm the first commenter, like it's a big thing, Wow, you know, I would never comment on anyone's things.
Sam Miklos:No.
Hamish Briggs:So I think if you're going to hide something from them, you've got to be really good at it, because they will find out and it comes to the point where you either have to fess up and tell them or you just tell them from the get-go. Like I've already told people, I won't be traveling with Maverick as much and I'm already copying a lot of heck for that.
Sam Miklos:Who's Maverick?
Hamish Briggs:My gorgeous Labradoodle. Oh, I love him. Sorry, yeah, so I'm already copying, heck, but I like how do you cope with when they put the heck?
Sam Miklos:like you know those comments, do you? Do you describe them?
Hamish Briggs:Well, I always say, like you don't know these people at all and you are going to cop it. You know, don't ever look your name up in Reddit unless you want to giggle Like. If you can laugh about it, go for it, but if it is something that affects you, it's not a job for you because, you're always, people are always going to come for you and if you're happy, love what you're doing and confident people are going to come for you even more.
Kate Coomber:You must have to charge your phone like six times a day. I mean, I can't even take a photo today, because my storage is full.
Sam Miklos:That's because you're older. Maybe it's because I'm just so present online.
Kate Coomber:How do you manage that? Because you must take a lot of video.
Hamish Briggs:And do the ideas come all that like are you just constantly I feel like I'm evolving with it, like I started not being a phone person. I hated being my phone. I hated when people were on their phone at a table. Now I am that person I because it's a second job and I love it. I love it as much as I love nursing, because I love being online. I just there's something about it that I'm like that is so me, like this today microphone, this is so me so pushing past that.
Hamish Briggs:Like I said, you know you would feel awkward filming at Woolies. You get pretty used to that. I'll go to a gym with all these like beautiful muscly guys and me like trying to lift a weight and I'll film myself. And people are thinking why earth are you filming yourself? But you, you just push past it. You think they're gonna look at you for five seconds and think, oh, he's filming himself. And then they forget about it like you can't. And you can kind of see it when you watch people's content if they're nervous about filming in a public space, because you'll see it in their face that they're kind of rushing or you just got to do it like people.
Hamish Briggs:people I don't think care that much, Like we probably think they care more than they actually do.
Sam Miklos:But it's also good, I think, from the nursing perspective, like that awareness people hearing about you know that the video that you did about working in the prison, you know, I think there'd be so many nurses that have watched that and it would create a conversation that if we can get more nurses out to these remote areas and, yeah, halls Creek, derby, all those places, and that's why I love filming and putting it online because there's nothing you can't.
Hamish Briggs:You can't Google what's it like to be a nurse in Halls Creek? Or what's it like to be a nurse in, you know, bidjidanga? It doesn't just appear, you know, like what's it like to be a mechanic? Sure Million stuff's going to come up about that because you've not got much choice. But for us healthcare workers, every um, every aspect of a community is different from one state to the other, from 100 kilometers to one kilometer away. They're all got their own differences. So people talking about it and putting it online now gives people like oh, I'm going to go through Hamish's stuff because he did a whole lot on living in Halls Creek and what is there to do? And I will be honest and I'll say there's nothing to do. You've got to make your own fun, you've got to make friends with people.
Hamish Briggs:But people can then decide whether that's for them or not, and that's the best part about it, Then they can decide, rather than, you know, rocking up and they're like oh the nursing quarters, check out the bedding.
Kate Coomber:So people have a bit of a clue.
Hamish Briggs:And people want to know that stuff before they get themselves into it. Unless you're an adventurer and you're just like hey, give me whatever you've got, there's not a lot of people like that they want to know, a breakdown a step for step.
Hamish Briggs:And that's why, when healthcare centres get like, oh, you're not allowed to post, I think me posting is bringing more people here, me enlightening people on. You know this is all you've got as iga. Come look at the prices so people are aware it's going to cost you twenty dollars for a packet of mints, not six bucks like at woollies. Yeah, so I think in terms of my social media I have been able to kind of bring a light to nursing, bring a light to grad nurses who you know they say everyone gets eaten by their young, which you know is true. But like I say to them, push through. It's your degree. At the end of the day, it's your piece of paper and you can do whatever you want with that piece of paper.
Sam Miklos:And you know, you know on that, sorry on that, just tips. Like that you would have for you know, grads going out to these remote communities.
Hamish Briggs:Like that you would have, for you know, grads going out to these remote communities to make the most of it Is do it, and I think is getting used to not having a lot, because you don't have a lot out there, you might not have a gym, you might not have safe streets to walk around, and that's the real aspect of it. Some of these places are very dangerous and they are very dangerous for, unfortunately, women. I feel very safe as a man, even though I'm a gay man, to go to these places because in Indigenous communities I don't feel like gay is an issue, because there's a lot of trans people and there's a lot of kind of LGBT aspect of their beliefs and culture, where for women I think it is very, very different. And I you know, having the ability to explain to someone where you're going is going to be great and you're going to learn some skills You're never going to learn anywhere else and see some things you're never going to see in white healthcare, but the aspects of it are you might be bored out of your brains. There's one shop you know that closes at 3pm, so getting quick, and then you know if the truck can't come, well, the truck can't come and some of the places you go might be quite dangerous.
Hamish Briggs:So learn and listen to what the people are saying. Never be a legend. That's my. No one's a legend. That's what I tell everyone online. No one is a legend. If you think you're a legend, you're already in the wrong boat because you've got to go there and learn from the people that live there every day. And if they say don't go there, don't go oh, why not, don't go there? You know what I mean. Don't push the boundaries, because that's when bad things will happen, and I think there's so many beautiful places to go to, so many people that you can touch and help, and I think just having a little bit of understanding on what you're getting yourself into prior is going to help you in the long run. And I think us you know people who are on social media, like Indy and all those other great nurses on social media. We have the ability to post it and let you like. Just a bit of intel is better than nothing.
Kate Coomber:So I guess where to now. Yeah, that's that's the exciting question what's the 2025?
Hamish Briggs:2025. I feel like it's going to be a very busy year for me.
Kate Coomber:I'm feeling busy already.
Hamish Briggs:So I would like to reside on the Gold Coast. Um, I've changed my Metro to casual, which has all happened already. So that starts basically when I start my contract with you guys, which I'm going to Cal in South Australia. So that will be exciting. So I am planning on, obviously, now that I have the ability to kind of say, go to a contract for six weeks, have two, three weeks off, I can push my social media in a way. I want to push it. Although I'm very healthcare based, I would like to push it in a way that I'm more of a household name. Um is where I'm kind of directing my socials as well and I think, just getting out there, I would love to start my training for ran nursing. I think that's my calling out in the bush. You know, although hospital nursing is fabulous, I love being out in the bush.
Hamish Briggs:And so that's kind of where I want to end up is doing ranting, and hopefully, like long-term goal would be RFDS.
Hamish Briggs:That's the kind of big picture goal in terms of healthcare, because then I can fly anywhere here there and everywhere, which is, but I honestly I feel like 2025 is going to be busy and I already feel better about kind of leaving that metro space and doing something that I'm happy and passionate about and although that was nursing, but it wasn't my type of nursing. My type of nursing is in smaller places with predominantly Indigenous people and doing that aspect of my job. So that's kind of what I've got in store for 2025.
Kate Coomber:I love that you try things, though I feel like you need to try it yourself, but you need to then know, and that was what Metro was about.
Hamish Briggs:I gave it a good crack and I don't feel like it was a waste of time moving, because I love being over this side of the world. Like I said, I can go anywhere now and I can fly to wherever where. If you live in Derby and do a contract from there, it's very tricky for you know you guys to be like yeah, we'll get you somewhere Exactly.
Hamish Briggs:And now I have the ability to like. I just sat on the train and come, like it was. It was wonderful, so I don't think it's been a bad move. It's opened my eyes up into kind of where I want to be as a nurse and I've met some great nurses at the Metro Hospital and I think I have inspired a lot of them to go and do bush stuff, because I speak about it all the time and they're always like well, I don't know if I'm ready for it. I said, love, you've been at this hospital eight years working in ED, you're ready for it.
Hamish Briggs:And you know, you just go do a small contract somewhere that's not, you know, like Kalgoorlie. Obviously I'm from there and I love it, but that's a big hospital still, in my opinion, with predominantly Indigenous people coming through it. So that you're getting the best of both worlds where you've still got x-ray and CT and ultrasound. You're not going to somewhere that's got none of those and you've got to. You know, kind of scaffold.
Hamish Briggs:That journey, yeah, and then you can get smaller and smaller from there and more and more remote if you enjoy it. If not, go to all the kind of rural bigger hospitals that are. You know not. You know gold coast uni hospital that has every specialty under the sun, but go to some that you know maybe cardiologist comes out once every three months or and work on it. In that sense and I mean just from being a nurse we all know how much work is out there. There's, so there's endless amounts of work in every aspect, and I think that's that'd be my favorite part of the job is there is so much work you will never have a day where you don't have work. If you want to work every day of the year, make it happen, you know. So that's a great part and I think for grads getting out there, always know that if you are not enjoying what you're doing, don't push, push through.
Hamish Briggs:I always say why push through? And like, oh, cause everyone else says you've got to do it. No, think outside the box. What? How is how? Am I going to make them hire me? You're going to write a bloody good cover letter. You're going to tell them why they should hire you. You've got to hustle. At the end of the day I always think the job is not going to find you, you've got to find the job. So, and a lot of people say, oh, I hate working. Say gen med, okay, well, figure out how you can get out of gen med, say in three months.
Hamish Briggs:You don't just go cold turkey and then have no job. You need a job before you quit your next job. That's how it should work.
Kate Coomber:You need to talk to us and we'll help Exactly and like there's so much work out there.
Hamish Briggs:So I think just give it a go, like if you don't give it a go, you, you can't say you, you just have no words to speak about it. You know you've got to give it a crack before you can have a whinge or say you love it really fantastic so look, with every episode we're donating to a charity.
Kate Coomber:Yes, where where are we donating for you?
Sam Miklos:so I had a thought about this and we have, like I don't have a foundation yet but we are going to go with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Hamish Briggs:Obviously that one day is my goal to be up there in the plane. And also, you know, working rural. You do work very closely with RFDS. You know getting your patients to the next point of care, so I would love for that to be donated to them.
Sam Miklos:Wonderful.
Hamish Briggs:Hamish, thank you so much.
Sam Miklos:Honestly, we could have sat here and talked to you for hours.
Hamish Briggs:I feel like we're going to have to do a part A and a part B.
Kate Coomber:I feel like I have to keep like oh my God, I've like there's so many things, stop asking. You've lived a life for 24. I know it's been a busy life.
Hamish Briggs:It's incredible. But we're not slowing down anytime soon, that's for sure.
Sam Miklos:No, and you are so inspiring I know there's going to be so many people that hear this episode and just the energy, the positivity, like you are literally a ray of sunshine.
Hamish Briggs:And thank you so much for making the trek up on the train.
Sam Miklos:I probably wouldn't have done it, so I really it's quite fun actually.
Hamish Briggs:I listen to your podcast while I come up. Oh well, there you go. So what's in my favour?
Sam Miklos:Yeah, look, well, now we'll have this. It'll be a long one. Someone could go to Sydney and back on a plane.
Hamish Briggs:Exactly, but no, we so appreciated your time.
Sam Miklos:Thank you. No, thank you and yeah, all the best with all of these great opportunities and hopefully we get to see a drag show of yours.
Hamish Briggs:Yeah, to a drag shot in the bush. Thank, you.
Sam Miklos:Thanks girls, Thanks for tuning in to it Takes Heart.
Kate Coomber:If you love this episode, subscribe leave a review or share it with a friend, and if you know someone with a great story in healthcare, get in touch. Follow us on socials for all the behind-the-scenes fun, and we'll see you next time.
