Medical students perfect rural rescue skills

Second year medical students in the Northern Territory have been offered a chance to learn firsthand what life in the bush can really entail as part of the 2024 Rural Rescue Challenge.
 
Sponsored by the RACGP, the day was designed to put students through their paces through a range of realistic emergency scenarios to hone their rural medicine skills.
 
Organisers also hope the day will break down barriers between rural and metro doctors, showing the young Flinders University students just what they are capable of.
 
The cohort of almost 30 students travelled around 100 kilometres south of Darwin to the small town of Batchelor, before several emergencies played out in front of them.
 
Together, the students helped the victim of a buffalo attack, a child with sepsis, and a man with heatstroke.
 
They also took part in a childbirth scenario, which had to take place outside of the clinic building for cultural avoidance reasons, meaning the mother gave birth on the local footy oval.

The students were walked through several emergency situations inside the Batchelor Health Clinic.
 
Medical student Loni Schramm described the challenge as ‘absolutely fantastic’ and ‘really valuable’ to learn from those already working in remote areas.
 
‘It’s really cool because we get exposed to these experiences which are really very realistic and we’ve got exposure to these clinicians who are so independent, they’re so autonomous, and they’re so experienced,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘There are so many factors that we didn’t know about that we’re learning about as part of a community, like you might be having your best friend or your best friend’s mum come in.
 
‘You just don’t know who might come in next, it can be really personal, and it can be really hard, so it’s really interesting and amazing to learn about these things.’
 
The group began its day with a cultural immersion activity at Buley Rockhole inside the Litchfield National Park, land of the Wagait People, connecting them to Country and those living rurally.
 
GP Dr Nige Gray coordinates part of the Flinders University Northern Territory Medical Program and said the day is all about giving these students a taste of the job early in their medical training.
 
‘It’s about expectations, and some students, they’re not going to be keen on remote practice, but at least they know what it’s about,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘But many more wouldn’t have that much idea as to how attractive it is, and the variety of skills that you can develop, and the team that you can work in.
 
‘It’s about actually showing that they can contribute to a team, and showing how team members work together at a very early stage, and just sowing the seed, and it gives them other stuff to think about as an opportunity.’

Rural Rescue Challenge organisers say the event is about conquering the students’ ‘fear of the unknown’.
 
Dr Gray said for many students, the day was about conquering a ‘fear of the unknown’.
 
‘We can actually show that when they come out, they’re going to have the skills that will allow them to practice medicine effectively and rewardingly and they’re going to be supported to do so,’ he said.
 
Log in below to join the conversation.

GPs in training Northern Territory rural medicine