The rewarding life of a rural GP

Located 1800 kilometres from Darwin and 2200 kilometres from Perth, Broome is a unique place to be working as a doctor.
 
But for GPs Dr Bianca Howard and Dr Luke Davies, it’s a community they call home.
 
‘One of the most rewarding things is that, not only are you looking after your patients, but you’re looking after their families, and you also see their families recreationally,’ Dr Davies told newsGP.
 
With Dr Howard growing up in the Kimberley and Dr Davies in Perth, the pair met while studying medicine and have ‘taken this journey together’.
 
Having recently finished a five-year stint at the Ord Valley Aboriginal Health Service at Kununurra, the couple and their children have relocated to Broome.
 
Here, they work at the Broome Regional Aboriginal Medical Service, an Aboriginal community controlled health service which opened its doors in 1977 and was the first remote Aboriginal Medical Service in Western Australia.
 
‘Being part of that tight-knit community is so rewarding,’ Dr Davies said.
 
‘When we entered into general practice training, we loved the thought of continuity of care, but in rural areas, such as Kununurra and Broome, we love the feeling of being part of a tight-knit community.
 
‘The other thing is that the medicine is so exciting – the complexity is there, the diversity is there, but also your eyes are opened by the lack of resources and the accessibility to care that these places experience.
 
‘We then have to think on our feet [by asking], “What can we do as clinicians to help our patients?”, and we then see the rewards that our patients gain as well.’
 
Dr Howard said she also enjoys the range that rural medicine offers – often bringing with it illnesses or injuries which would rarely be seen in Australia’s cities.
 
‘There’s definitely a really nice diversity of medicine that you see in a rural GP setting, and you definitely get an opportunity to manage more complex patients or rarer medicine,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘Sometimes in cities where you’ve got easy access to specialists, patients are being managed by specialists a bit more, whereas, when patients only see the specialists once a year or twice a year, you’re often managing on behalf or, in consultation with, the specialists.’
 
Having grown up in the Kimberley, Dr Howard is feeling at home in her new role.
 
But she also encourages anyone interested in a job as a rural GP to give it a go and to see the rewards of remote medicine for themselves.
 
‘It’s always hard being away from family or your support networks, but I think the really nice thing about rural communities is that you can create your own support networks,’ Dr Howard said.
 
‘Even among the doctors that we work with, everyone’s always really supportive.
 
‘There’s always something that’s going on in these communities that can help with making new friends and building your social and support networks.’
 
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