Dubbo Base Hospital will receive two new doctors next year, when local resident Lars Newman and Sydney-based Robert Thomson, complete their medical internship.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Lars and Robert are part of seven medical graduates from the University of Sydney, School of Rural Health (SRH) who have chosen rural internships for 2017.
Besides Dubbo, three students choose Orange, one graduate choose Lismore and one will be going to Albury/Wodonga for their intern placement.
During their four-year medical degree with the University of Sydney students can spend one year studying in a regional area where they gain valuable skills, as well as an appreciation of healthcare delivery in the bush.
These seven interns took up that offer, and along with 56 other Sydney Medical School students, are currently completing a year at the School of Rural Health Dubbo and Orange Campuses.
The reasons I want to return to Dubbo to complete my internship are both professional and personal.
- Lars Newman
Next year they will complete a year as a Junior Medical Officer – the first as an intern, the second year as a resident.
Mr Newman is the first Dubbo born and bred local to undertake the Sydney Medical School program and then choose to practice in Dubbo, where he already has strong community connections through family and friends.
Mr Newman said doing his final year of medical studies at the School of Rural Health in Dubbo has provided him with a great deal of hands on learning in preparation for his internship next year.
“The reasons I want to return to Dubbo to complete my internship are both professional and personal,” he said.
Mr Newman said that Dubbo Base Hospital was full of many great people that he would like to work with in the future.
“Additionally with the recent upgrades to the hospital and the planned future upgrades, it is a very exciting time for health care in Dubbo,” he said.
School of Rural Health Associate Dean and Head of School, Associate Professor Mark Arnold said by the end this year, the University of Sydney’s School of Rural Health will have educated 738 University of Sydney medical students.
“We are proud that seven of our 2016 graduates will be practicing rurally with five of these spread between Dubbo and Orange,” Associate Professor Arnold said.
“Next year another 32 final year medical students will train in Dubbo and Orange, and we are optimistic that they will, like their predecessors, elect to work rurally.”
Associate Professor Mark Arnold said studying in rural centres provides School of Rural Health medical graduates with the opportunity to see first-hand the benefits of practicing in regional areas.
Associate Professor Mark Arnold said last year 63 per cent of graduating medical students who had attended a
University of Sydney Rural School expressed a preference to work in a rural area, and 82 per cent would opt for a generalist career.
He said 90 per cent of students who attended a University of Sydney Rural School agreed or strongly agreed their rural medical experience had increased their interest in pursuing a career in rural or regional Australia.
“This is one part of building a sustainable long term medical workforce, and to this end, the University is working on initiatives to allow these motivated young people to undertake the majority of their post-graduation training rurally,” Mr Arnold said.
SRH Dubbo student, Jessica Yabsley, who grew up on a property near Mullaley NSW, is one of three SRH students who have chosen Orange to complete their 2017 internship.
“I have loved the opportunity to come back to the country for the final year of my medical degree - the entire community has been so welcoming and the staff at the hospital have been excellent as mentors and teachers,” she said.
“Rural life has so many benefits, and I am so pleased to be staying in the region for my early years as a doctor.”