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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.