My Rural Story | Week Six | Shannon Springer

AUSTRALIA’S RURAL, REMOTE AND INDIGENOUS HEALTH #MyRuralStory

Featuring Interviews from the brand new 3rd edition of Australia’s Rural, Remote and Indigenous Health by Janie Dade Smith

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-Week Six -

S hannon Springer GP for the Aboriginal Medical Services on the Gold Coast and in Charleville

Shannon Springer

My name’s Shannon Springer, I was born andraisedinMackayinNorthQueensland. I’m an Aboriginal, South Sea Islander man from there, and spent a few years, my younger years, in Longreach which is in fromRockhampton. I went to school there for about four years before moving back to Mackay. I spent most of my life there. Originally I didn’t start out to be a Doctor or to be a GP, which I am today, or an academic for that matter. I was really interested in playing rugby league and I had a scholarship to play football and after I finished year 12, I moved to Brisbane to try and pursue that career. Whilst I wasn’t that good at football, I was also enrolled at university and I studied a degree in Indigenous Primary

Health Care which I studied around a whole range of people, a whole range of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander people, which were really inspirational for me. Afterfinishingthatdegree Idecidedtostart studyingmedicine. It was through a whole bunch of encouragement and support from a whole lot of non-Indigenous people as well, that I enrolled in James Cook University in Townsville which had a strong focus around rural, remote, tropical health and Indigenous health. So, I studied there, it was a six year course and I really enjoyed it. It had lots of placements in rural, remote areas in Kowanyama and The Cape, Ayr, Mount Isa, Charters Towers, so it

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I knew very early on that I wanted to be working in community medicine. I loved getting out of the hospital context, around health promotion, disease prevention and particularly trying to make some in roads around Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander health outcomes. So I completed my hospital bare minimum and got straight out into general practice. Just before I finished my fellowship training I moved back to Mackay and worked at the Aboriginal medical centre where I was for the last six years, working with my own community. That was really inspirational, working with your own family and cousins and relatives and seeing them as patients. That’s something that can happen working in rural and remote, you can’t have that professional divide.

‘It’s the environment, it’s the people and I think it’s the journey on the way to the patient. It’s not just about the patient and the medicine, it’s everything wrapped around it.’

was really, really inspirational for me to do that and stay connected, being in North Queensland, and I’d get to play football as well which was also important. Finishing that degree, I moved to Brisbane, I actually moved to the Gold Coast first to complete my internship, then went to Rural Brisbane Hospital.

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What is different about working in rural and remote areas?

your knowledge level has to be increased in certain areas and that really helps. What advice would you give to students going on a rural or remote placement? I would definitely advise them to go with an open mind. And certainly, while we like to think that medicine and science is an absolute and wherever we go it will be the same, it’s not. So certainly go with an open mindandenjoy theplace that you’regoing. While we like to think that medicine and science is an absolute and wherever we go it will be the same, it’s not. So certainly go with an open mind... There are many parts of Australia that people haven’t seen. And there are fascinating landscapes. It’s a place where you can learn a lot about yourself if you embrace the environment and where you’re going. Also, the opportunities to meet a lot of Aboriginal people who are living and working and doing their stuff on their country and their quite connected to culture and place. I think that’s really valuable, I think you can learn a lot from people in rural, remote areas like that.

One of the differences, clinically, working as a Doctor in a rural practice is understanding your reality and what’s around you. So for example, you don’t have the same amount of resources around you and you really have to think and work with your patients to make sure you’re getting the right diagnosis. You just can’t refer someone in the same town to the Endocrinologist or specialist or the Neurologist because that means that patient has to travel about 400 or 500km, plus an overnights accommodation, to get a 20 minute consult, which is nothing in the city. So, it really makes you think: What are you doing for this patient and what are you trying to get out of it for the patient? Because you don’t have access to CT scans, ultrasounds and all these sorts of things at your fingertips. Patients understand and are quite willing to travel in these sorts of areas and work with you because, like I said, they’re very fortunate to have those sorts of services there, and they really trust your opinion. I think the expectation of working in an urban environment, in order to get better care, everyone has to be referred off and as a GP you can feel like you’re just triaging and making referrals left right and centre. I guess ina sortof a rural or remote context, even more so, there are patients you hold onto, that you will treat and therefore

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Probably the third thing is really try and become immersed in the local community. Community life is quite small, people get to know who you are, and it really works both ways. Try to get to know your community. Be involved in local activities, local events, also be involved in the school. I think it’s a great opportunity for building rapport with your community and you’ll get a lot out of that and the community will certainly respect and welcome any visitors that actually do that. What have you experienced in remote Australia that has changed your world view? The things that I enjoy about working in these areas is even getting to work. For example, I’ve done some work on Palm Island. You have to hop on

a plane in the morning with your stethoscope and then go to work. Working at Charleville, offering services to Quilpie, you have to hop in a car at six in the morning and drive two hours and make sure you don’t hit too many kangaroos. That’s just to get to work. So, I think these sorts of things make it what it is. It’s more than just hoping in your car in the city with your coffee and going to work in traffic. It’s the environment, it’s the people and I think it’s the journey on the way to the patient. It’s not just about the patient and the medicine, it’s everything wrapped around it. And, I think for me, I had those ‘aha’ moments on the way to work. It’s not always with the patient, it’s not always in the clinic. It’s what happens on the periphery, on the outside, in the hallways that makes it for me.

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Featuring Interviews from the brand new 3rd edition of Australia’s Rural, Remote and Indigenous Health by Janie Dade Smith

Share your rural experience now to win a copy of the book @ElsevierAUS #MyRuralStory Please note, the transcripts featured within this publication have been taken from live interviews. Any alterations have been made for the purpose of clarity and do not change the overall meaning of the speaker.

To find out more about this, and many other local Elsevier titles, visit elsevierhealth.com.au