My Rural Story

every single day and sometimes people come and can be short and not very respectful, that this is their clinic. They often appreciate that you’ve made the effort to introduce yourself and get to know a little bit about them. I would definitely say do that, because it’s the respectful thing to do and also, they really help you out when you need them. Ask questions, be happy to be there, be enthusiastic and don’t be worried about getting out of your comfort zone... The third piece of advice would be to make sure that you’re really open with the parents and the community in general. Ask questions, be happy to be there, be enthusiastic and don’t be worried about getting out of your comfort zone and doing that sort of thing. If you talk to the parents, if you ask them questions, if you join in on their jokes, that’s going to make you feel more comfortable and that’s going to make the experience much better for you. What has been one of your best experiences working in these remote communities? We were on a clinic up in, I can’t remember the name of the community, it

was probably Arukun, but basically there was this gentleman who came in with this large sebaceous cysts and the option was that we sent the him to Cairns or that the surgeon did the operation that day. I think I was first year medical school, really excited, but I’d actually never seen a procedure like this done before and the surgeon said ‘we’ve got a medical student, let’s get her in’. So I got to stand in and just before he was like ‘It’s ok, it’s going to be good, I’ve done this surgery so many times, this is not a big surgery so I want you to be able to see everything. This is really going to be something exciting for you.’ So, I stood in there and watched the whole procedure andhewas askingmequestions and drilling me. As a medical student, that’s a moment you dream about for your entire life until you get to that point and being in that situation, that it was just me, him and the patient, was so special. And actually, I’d never considered doing surgery up until that point but we got to the end and I thought: yeah, maybe I could do that. I think if my first experience was in a big hospital with a whole bunch of nurses, a whole bunch of doctors, a whole bunch of people in the room, I wouldn’t have felt as comfortable. I wouldn’t have been able to see so closely, I wouldn’t have been so involved. So, that really was a really special experience that I don’t think you can get outsideof the rural andremoteexperience.

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