Michelle Appo’s adopted country is Mamu country in the Cassowary Coast. She is a dedicated Clinic Nurse and Outreach Coordinator in FNQ. She has worked within primary health care for over 13 years in a professional capacity but has life experience as a carer of both her parents with terminal illnesses for over 25 years. Through this, her journey has been marked by a commitment to improving healthcare access in rural and remote areas for her people.
For the past three years, she has practised as a Clinic Nurse in Innisfail, Cairns, Tully and Babinda. She holds a graduate certificate in Clinical Nursing, a certificate in the APNA Transition to Primary Health Care Nursing and is a graduate of the CRANAplus Remote Area Nursing Pathway Program.
Her passion lies heavily in Indigenous Health, particularly within rural and remote contexts. Her recent completion of the Flinders University course ‘Transition to Remote Nursing’ in Alice Springs, in conjunction with her participation on the CRANAplus Nursing and Midwifery Roundtable, has given her the invaluable guidance, support and the critical skill set for a strong foundation to transition to the remote setting and enable her, as an First Nations registered nurse, to strongly advocate and assist in improving healthcare outcomes for Indigenous Health and communities.