Loved and respected by all that meet her, Dr Deborah Simmons has been a Rural Generalist at Proserpine Hospital for the past seven years and received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) on Australia Day for her service to rural communities.
This is a huge achievement for any individual and even more so for Dr Simmons who, by the age of just 15, had lost both her parents and was taken in by another family.
At this early age, she had to leave school to pursue full-time employment, working as a barmaid and checkout chick.
She became manager of a coffee shop soon after and it was then that she began to wonder whether this was as far as life would take her.
At 20, Dr Simmons decided to go back to school to become a nurse and studied the equivalent of year 11 and 12.
She quickly realised that her academic results not only qualified her for nursing but would enable her to study a degree in medicine.
Completing her doctorate, she took a fellowship and became an anaesthetist for liver transplants and dedicated her life to the fast-paced world of large-scale hospital life.
Then, 10 years ago, when her husband thought she could be burning out, the couple decided to move to the Whitsundays and shortly afterwards Dr Simmons took on some work as a locum at the Proserpine Hospital.
Falling in love with the rural environment where everyone works together across multiple platforms, she asked if there was a position as an anaesthetist but unfortunately there were none.
This, however, prompted Dr Simmons to follow a new career path as a Rural Generalist, a field where she now thrives.
“It’s the best step I’ve ever made,” she said.
“I never felt quite fulfilled [as an anaesthetist] and now that I am a rural generalist I feel incredibly fulfilled – I can help everyone who comes in.”
Dr Simmons has since excelled in the field, writing a course for the Australian College for Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) which is now used around the nation, as well as being awarded an ACRRM Distinguished Service Award in 2020.
On a local level, she has been a pivotal presence in many trauma events at the Proserpine Hospital, taking on triage responsibilities as the team leader in the bus crash on Shute Harbour Road in 2016, which claimed one life and saw nine people admitted into the hospital.
When speaking of her OAM, Dr Simmons remarked that she was humbled and said that she did not feel any more deserving than any other rural generalist.
Caption: Dr Deborah Simmons
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