Being a doctor in regional and rural Australia is not a popular choice for medical students, with less than one in five medical school graduates wanting to work in these areas.
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But, as the shortage of GPs and specialist doctors in these areas worsens, new research from the University of Wollongong shows its medical school is producing more doctors for country areas than others across Australia.
UOW graduates are 1.51 times more likely to work in regional or rural areas than those from other medical schools, a new study, published in the The Australian Journal of Rural Health found.
The research also showed nearly a third of all UOW medical graduates - who study at campuses in Wollongong and Nowra - were working in rural areas in the 10 years after graduating.
This was no surprise to UOW graduate Dr Dell Carter, who works in emergency medicine at Shoalhaven Hospital and also helps train other doctors in rural medicine.
Even though she grew up in Canberra and Sydney, she found herself drawn to working in a small town as she sought a career change in her mid 30s.
"I think role models are really important in people's decisions to study rurally, and for me the inspiration was a friend of the family who was a rural GP in Scotland who told me about what his work involved and I was just amazed," she said.
"Also, my partner was from a small country town in northern NSW, where there was just one GP and they called him Doc Holiday because he would be on holiday for months on end and they would have no GP."
Dr Carter chose to study at the Shoalhaven Campus for her medical degree, because it got her closer to her goal straight away.
She was also enticed by the compulsory one year rural placement that forms part of the degree, which she said helped to "demystify" life as a rural doctor.
"UOW was very clear in its mission statement of wanting to produce doctors to work in rural and regional Australia, and having the campus in the Shoalhaven felt like a way to experience rural life while also studying rural medicine," she said.
"I moved to the Shoalhaven for medical school and have lived there ever since."
The new research, which is based on an analysis of an outcomes database from medical schools across Australia, also showed UOW produces more general practitioners than other universities.
42 per cent of UOW graduates chose to specialise as GPs, compared to 27.7 per cent of graduates from other universities.
UOW said the data showed it was leading the way in addressing the crippling shortage of doctors in the bush.
Associate Clinical Dean Rural at UOW Associate Professor David Garne said the university had been working for more than a decade to address the shortage and was thrilled to see a tangible difference.
"Rural medicine is at the heart of everything we do," he said.
"And for the first time, this valuable dataset shows just how effective our multifaceted approach to improving the health and well-being of regional communities is.
"The UOW graduate medical program is rurally focused, and the students know what they are signing up for when they enrol.
"We give a positive weighting to applicants with a rural background and 70 percent of UOW students spend a full year of clinical training in rural communities, an experience that prepares them for the rewards and challenges of practicing in these regions and opening their eyes to the benefits of living in these areas."
He said country areas faced unique health and social issues, including Indigenous health needs and inequities, farm safety, social isolation and natural disasters.
"These issues are compounded by higher rates of chronic disease, substance abuse and suicide in these settings," he said.
"This is in addition to the basic, day-to-day healthcare that all citizens expect and deserve. A robust, well-trained medical workforce is fundamental to this, but as we all know, many rural communities lack these vital resources."
Dr Carter said she now had a passion for helping to train and encourage other doctors to work in country areas.
"We've become a bit of an incubator at Shoalhaven Hospital for rural generalist trainees who we've had come through in obstetrics, pediatrics, anesthetics, emergency medicine, and palliative care," she said.
"Ideally people come to us and get their emergency experience and then go out across the great dividing range or up into those rural and remote areas that are so poorly serviced for general practitioners at the moment."
She said her job had given her diverse career opportunities, and also a real sense of community in times of difficulty.
"There's a sense that when things are tough, everyone pulls together, you're not an island, you're part of something bigger than yourself," she said.
"That period where there was the 2019/2020 bushf ires that were rapidly followed by floods in the Shoalhaven and then the COVID pandemic, was a formative experience for me, because everyone was keeping an eye out for the person next door."
"You can be a doctor anywhere but to really feel like part of the community working rurally is just such a step above."
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
