RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health: Student Bursary Award

The RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Student Bursary Award is presented to an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander medical student who is currently studying at an Australian university. Celebrating achievements in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, the bursary provides recipients with conference registration, travel, meals and accommodation whilst attending GP18.
 
Ms Ramires was presented with her award by Associate Professor Peter O’Mara, Chair of RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, at the faculty’s session at GP18 on Thursday 11 October.
 
When asked what winning this award meant to her, Ms Ramires saw it as an achievement symbolic of her future in general practice.
 
‘I am very honoured to receive this award and represent my family and people back home,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘This award gives me an opportunity to meet GPs from around the country [at GP18] and to engage in the field that I will be working in, in the future.’
 
‘Hopefully this will inspire me to continue pushing through my medical degree.’
 
Ms Ramires has already set some firm goals in place for her future, with rural general practice fixed on the horizon.
 
‘At this stage in my medical degree, general practice is definitely where I see myself,’ she said.
 
‘General practice has the flexibility to provide a work–life balance, but also it provides the opportunity to work rurally and help people who are isolated from healthcare services.
 
‘I hope in my future I can work in some of these communities, most likely as a rural generalist.’ 
 
Ms Ramires appreciates the human contact that medicine brings her, and these connections with patients are part of what drives her to become a GP once she completes her studies.
 
‘I love having the unique opportunity to learn from patients and hearing about their lives.
 
‘Having exposure to patients and their families is such a privilege. I learn so much from every single patient I interact with and this makes the hard times in medicine worth it all.
 
‘Sometimes you can find yourself getting caught up in the science of medicine and can forget the humanity behind it all.’

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health GP18 medical student RACGP awards Student Bursary Award