Growing up on the outskirts of a small rural town, I’ve come to understand the rewards and challenges of living and working in regional Australia. Wingham is that small town where “everyone knows everyone” holds true, and being involved in such a community always brought a smile to my face. On the flipside, I’ve also seen how being the new face in a small community can be hard, and at first this daunted me about moving to Armidale for my final year of medical school. This challenge is something that now excites me. I plan to embrace studying in rural hospital, and the opportunity to become a part of what I have been told is a vibrant and thriving rural community. I believe that the Australian Rotary Health Rural Health Scholarship will help me to achieve this goal.

Rotary is an organisation that offers the chance to become more involved in the local community and this is something that, if awarded this scholarship, I plan to embrace fully. I have had the pleasure of being involved with Rotary in the past, and this is something that has had a great bearing on where I am today. In 2011, I was selected to attend the National Youth Science Forum, an amazing initiative supported by Rotary Australia. Without their support, I would not have been able to participate in one of the major experiences that first encourage me to pursue a career in medicine, and I will always be grateful for this. Whilst at the National Youth Science forum, I was hosted by a lovely Rotarian couple from Canberra. I will always remember the weekend we spent picking fruit and making jam, and the thought of how community organisations such as Rotary Australia allows young people like me, to meet amazing people like Kate and Don.

The Australian Rotary Health Rural Health Scholarship will go a long way in helping me to relocate to Armidale and settle into the community there. Without this added financial pressure, I believe that I will be able to focus more on my studies. In particular, I have a strong passion for rural Indigenous health, and plan on focusing my extra time towards this. One of the opportunities I am particularly looking forward to, is becoming involved in a project on the health of Aboriginal mothers and their babies, which operates out of Tamworth and Walgett. This project, Gomeroi Gaaynggal, is the largest of its kind and aims to improve health and health education through art. This scholarship would go a long way to funding the travel involved in this project.

The last 7 months have gone by unbelievably quickly. I settled in to life in Armidale with no issues and have absolutely loved living here. The town is architecturally and naturally beautiful, the community is diverse and thriving, the hospital is new and state-of-the-art, and the staff at the hospital and the university are caring and invested. Everyone I’ve met in Armidale is so lovely, and I have made so many new friends in the short time I’ve been here.

My weekdays are spent largely in and around the Armidale Rural Referral Hospital. So far this year I’ve rotated through general medicine, psychiatry, primary care, anaesthetics, emergency, and intensive care specialities. The teaching here has been wonderful, and I receive much more support from the staff here than I have in urban hospitals. I’ve had the opportunity to see first-hand the issues that are faced by doctors (and therefore patients) in rural communities that those in metropolitan and regional areas don’t have to deal with – no x-ray or pathology services overnight in the hospital, no specialist treatment services for heart attacks and strokes, waiting times for routine GP visits up to 6 weeks. These issues are not simply the result of lack of doctors in rural areas, but lack of government funding.

I have also had the opportunity to be a part of the targeted tutorial assistance program run by the Oorala Aboriginal Centre at UNE, where I tutor a 3rd year medical student. I have also been able to continue my research on childhood education outcomes in the Northern Territory, eye infections in children in the John Hunter Hospital, as well as a new project on gender-based differences in treatment of heart attacks in the John Hunter Hospital.

I am also involved with the local Rotary Club of Armidale Central. Every Friday morning a group about 15 of us meet and sort through books that have been donated for the Rotary Club of Armidale book fair. This year they sold over 70,000 books. Donation rates are so high this year that they will even need to hold a second smaller book fair. The members of Rotary Club of Armidale Central have been so welcoming to me and I have really enjoyed spending time with them. On weekends I play indoor soccer with some of the other local medical students. I like to go hiking or go for drives to some of the nearby towns for lunch.

I have been accepted as an intern in the Hunter New England local health district for next year and am currently hoping to do my first 10-week rotation here in Armidale.

Thanks to the Rotary Scholarship I received the financial pressure of relocating and settling into a small town far from my family has been minimised and I have been able to focus on my studies and on being involved in the local community.

My year of rural medicine in Armidale was one of the most rewarding and interesting placements of my degree. It exceeded my expectations on so many levels – the thriving community, the start-of-the-art hospital, the unbelievably friendly and welcoming community. The year went by so quickly, and I absolutely loved it. It was sad to say goodbye in the end, but I hope to head back over the ranges sometime in the near future.

In terms of my studies, the teaching at the hospital has been wonderful and I received much more support from the staff here than I have in urban hospitals. The staff were genuinely invested in the students, and went out of their way to give us the best experience possible. I will definitely miss them. I learned so many new skills that are unique to a rural placement, such as how to manage patients in the absence of 24/7 x-ray or pathology services and the absence of specialist treatment services for heart attacks and strokes. These are skills that I will be able to use throughout my career.

During the year, I was also lucky enough to be a part of the targeted tutorial assistance program run by the Oorala Aboriginal Centre at UNE, where I tutored a 3^rd year medical student. I have also been able to continue my research on childhood education outcomes in the Northern Territory, eye infections in children in the John Hunter Hospital, as well as a new project on gender-based differences in treatment of heart attacks in the John Hunter Hospital.

I was also involved with the local Armidale Central Rotary Club. Every Friday morning a group about 15 of us would meet and sort through books that have been donated for the Armidale Rotary book fair. Due to the sheer number of donations this year, they held an interim fair in December. The turnout was incredible, with a line of well over 100 people waiting at the door when the fair opened on its first morning. It was great to see the community get behind such a great cause. The members of Armidale Central Rotary Club were so welcoming and I was sad to say goodbye.

I have now started working in the Hunter New England Local Health District as a Junior medical officer. The year I spent in Armidale has prepared me for internship more than I could have expected. The experiences I had and teaching that I received have helped me to become more confident and compassionate in my work. I wasn’t fortunate enough to receive a rural rotation this year, but I am hoping to apply for one next year.

Thanks to the Rotary Scholarship I received, the financial pressure of relocating and settling into a small town far from my family was been minimised and I was able to focus on my studies and on being involved in the local community. The success of programs like this is evident in the number of interns who have elected to work solely in outer regional and rural areas this year, including Tamworth, Taree, and Armidale.