The opportunity to join the rural generalist pathway in Queensland has brought self-professed country girl Dr Jessica Chambers up to Mackay Hospital and Health Service.
“I’m a country girl from north-eastern NSW, where I grew up on a little farm with a lot of animals,” Jessica said.
“My dad is a vet and I loved veterinary medicine. I could only imagine that practicing medicine with humans and interacting with people would be amazing, so that’s why I went into medicine.”
Jessica, who is from the Armidale area, started studying medicine straight out of high school at the University of Newcastle which really cemented the career path she wanted to take.
“I’m really passionate about rural medicine especially growing up in a town of about 20,000 we don’t just deal with the people who are from our area, but from the surrounds, and seeing what you can do for those people really made me want to give back to that community and help.”
“During my last year of university I did a longitudinal integrated clerkship - which was six months in a small town called Inverell about hour and a half north of my hometown (of Armidale).”
The clerkship gave Jessica an opportunity to experience rural generalist practice and she searched for the right place to begin her career on that pathway.
“Queensland is the place to do rural generalism. Queensland does it well and to the extent that the community needs, and that’s why I’ve come to Queensland,” she said.
“One of the benefits of coming to Queensland has been that we join the rural generalist pathway straight up as an intern. In New South Wales you can’t do that - you begin as a rural intern but that doesn’t feed onto the rural generalist pathway and having that career support right away.
“Working in Mackay also guaranteed rotations during the first two years in obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and anaesthetics – (which) is just amazing and you are not guaranteed that in NSW if you do rural internships.”
For Jessica the rural generalist pathway was attractive as it offered an opportunity to care and support people throughout their lives.
“I love being able to get to know someone, getting to be their clinician and having a long-term relationship with them. Seeing them for maybe their reproductive health in their twenties, then being able to see them give birth to their babies and then seeing their kids grow up.
“I love that, and I can’t wait to be a part of someone’s journey through healthcare.”
Image: Jessica Chambers
