Destination Medicine Podcast

Dr Shannon Nott is emphatic in his advice for anyone considering rural GP training: he says it’s an incredibly rewarding career path where you get to choose your own adventure. And adventure is something Dr Nott is familiar with. A Churchill Fellowship scholar who has travelled to some of Earth’s most remote places to study the intersection of technology and remote medicine, he’s now working as a...

When asked what advice she’d give to anyone considering a NSW Rural Doctors Network Cadetship, Dr Kirbie Storrier is emphatic: “Do it, apply for it, 100%, right now, you should have already applied, what are you waiting for?” Dr Storrier had dreamed of becoming a doctor since childhood because her farmer father, who has a chronic disease, had found it difficult to get the treatment he needed. She...

Participating on the NSW Rural Doctors Network was a “no brainer” for Dr Ariah Steel, who says she was attracted to the program because of the wide experience she’d gain as well as the financial support. Dr Steel had started out dreaming of being a presenter on a TV travel show, but after doing work experience with an orthopaedic surgeon her mind was instantly changed. Now happily ensconced in the...

Dr Nicholas Ireland’s journey through life to becoming a NSW Regional Doctors Network Cadet has been a long and demanding one. Expelled from boarding school in year 11, he first became a sheet metalworker on what he describes as a subsistence wage. But it was while he was working as a FIFO welder on oil rigs off the Western Australia coast that he realised he had to do something else with his life...

Edwina Fry was on work experience with a country GP when she witnessed a baby being born. It was a turning point in her life. She says she developed new respect for the human body and started to consider becoming a doctor herself. Now a final-year medical student studying with Deakin University, she came to medicine via an undergraduate degree and entry via the GAMSAT, which proved a hurdle, but n...

Pepe Mifsud is the first to admit that he didn’t give himself enough credit. Throughout his childhood and formative years he’d watched his GP mother take care of their community, and he’d seen the way she and her colleagues were respected. But Pepe just didn’t think he’d ever be able to get into medicine himself, so he embarked on a commerce degree. Medicine, however, kept calling him, and he deci...

If there’s one thing Dr Robin Williams is proud of, it’s providing medical care to a rural workforce that’s crucial to national food security. Happily ensconced in Molong in the Central West of NSW, and working between the local hospital and his own practice, Dr Williams believes all people — even farmers in remote locations — deserve equity in health care. A London-trained GP who hails from Wales...

A local emergency doctor called her his “apprentice.” A determined young woman from a country town, who had wanted to be a doctor since early childhood, had done a first aid course so that she could help out at local football games. Many years later, Ashley is a fifth-year medical student at the University of Adelaide who says anyone can follow their dream to become a doctor so long as they have t...

Few people from Georgia Sims country town had gone to university, and she’d never heard of anyone studying medicine. But with her “anything is achievable” attitude and the support of family and friends, she’s now in her fourth year of a medicine degree, having spent time in the city and in an array of rural placements. Starting out in undergraduate paramedicine, it was while she was volunteering a...

It was sage advice from an English teacher that saw Dr Grace Nelson achieve her aspirations. She was counselled to not only celebrate her good grades, but also work hard to shrink the margin between those good marks and a perfect score of 100 per cent next time. Since primary school Dr Nelson had dreamed of becoming a rural doctor, and, through university, she realised the profession — with its in...

One of the first NSW Rural Doctors Network (RDN) cadets in NSW, Dr Louis Christie only intended staying in Orange in Central NSW for a couple of years, but he found it far too attractive, both personally and professionally, to leave. He’d quickly made friends in the welcoming community and fell for the regional lifestyle. After identifying the need for an emergency physician in the area, he launch...

Born and trained in the UK, Dr Lauren Bradbury came to Australia to experience new things. A short visit turned into a permanent commitment when she experienced the joys of working as a rural medical oncologist in regional NSW. First thinking about becoming an emergency doctor, and then a surgeon, it was while she was doing an internship in geriatric care that she discovered the professional fulfi...

Even though he was established in a good job as a radiographer, Will Anderson still secretly harboured what he calls a life-long ambition to be a doctor. He didn’t want to be a “passenger” in the health care system — he wanted to be in the driver’s seat. So, in spite of the fact he’d just invested in a house, he decided to leave radiography behind, and to study to become a doctor. In this episode,...

Dr James Sterrey’s path to regional medicine wasn’t a direct one. As a city boy with a science degree, it was while employed as a research scientist, on Parkinson’s Disease, that he realised working directly with patients, rather than in a laboratory, would be more fulfilling. So, he turned to medicine, and left Sydney for a regional placement in Orange. There he found a collegiate environment whe...

Fascinated by what she calls the “mad” characters in children’s’ books, Dr Danielle Winch knew that she wanted to be a Psychiatrist when she was just eight years old. Her initial ambition was to work in paediatrics but it was working with older people where she found her calling. Now working in her “dream job” in and around Orange in NSW, Dr Winch says she has h...

While working as a lawyer with Indigenous clients in Western Australia’s remote north, Rafael Szumer says he became frustrated that his clients’ health issues affected their ability to attend appointments with him. A strong believer in social justice, he decided to swap the law for medicine so that he could help them more directly. Now studying in a two-year placement at the School of...

Dr Jeremy Curtin is living his life-long dream: raising a large family in a regional city just minutes away from a specialist practice. He says he is enjoying the best of two worlds by undertaking an engaging and challenging clinical speciality while still raising a family in the country. Having been brought up in regional NSW as part of a medical family, he knew these ambitions early in his life....

A country boy from the boots up, Dr Dominic Horne was brought up on a cattle station near Wee Waa in northern NSW. Now part way through training to be an anaesthetist, he dreams of one day running cattle and kids on his own property, as well as serving regional communities as a physician. He’s a strong proponent of the benefits of living and working in regional areas and says that it’s...

Moving from the United Kingdom to Wagga Wagga was only supposed to be a one-year adventure for Dr Matthew Thompson. Three years later, he’s now vowing to stay put in a position, and a regional centre, that he loves. A young Matt Thompson decided to become a doctor as a schoolboy after being taken to emergency with a dislocated knee and admiring the physicians working around him. But as he st...

Dr Yvonne Chang’s journey to medicine wasn’t a direct one, but her travel experiences while studying agricultural research certainly cemented her wishes to work in regional and rural Australia. After consulting with an important mentor and friends who were already studying medicine, she decided that a life in the lab wasn’t for her. Yvonne craved greater personal interactions as...

Doctor Rhys Harding has obtained extraordinary medical experience for a young doctor by throwing himself into the deep end in some of the most remote places on Earth. From Nepal to the volcanic southern Vanuatu island of Tanna, to a stint for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Rhys has lived the dream of working as a solo doctor, with all the variety and challenges that that entails. He’s now...

Taking the skills he learned in the city to a new environment, Dr Patrick Dwyer is a prime example of how one individual doctor can make a huge impression in a regional setting. He’s dreamed of living the regional lifestyle since childhood, and by way of placements in Central Queensland, has spent the last decade working in radiation oncology at Lismore Base Hospital. This father-of-triplets...

After toying with the idea of becoming an investment banker, Daniel Van Der Merwe thought paramedicine would be the perfect mix for his personality and lifestyle. But it was during his first-year placement that Daniel had something of an epiphany. While watching a cool and calm intensive care doctor take charge of the treatment of a stroke patient he realised that he had a new ambition, and starte...

Dr Maddie Kelly knows what she wants, and she goes and gets it - even if it takes longer than expected, and especially when she's told she can't do it. What has helped in achieving her goals is making the most of every opportunity. Today, Dr Kelly has come home to Orange, NSW to train as a GP Registrar. Even more, she’s come home to build a career where she can balance her own interests, hea...

After successfully completing a nursing degree with three small kids and working full time, Nikki knew there was nothing stopping her from continuing her education and studying medicine. It wasn’t the smoothest journey through the admissions process with a newborn in tow, but she’s had the unrelenting support from her family, community, and academic staff. More importantly, she has bac...