Transcript for ‘Health careers in the Cassowary Coast, North Queensland’
[Peaceful background music and bird sounds play in the background]
>> Dr Nicola Woods, PHO:
So I was attracted to this region in general, just cause it's a beautiful part of the world. It's got, you know, the incredible rainforest, there's lots of outdoors things. It's got the Great Barrier Reef, so many things to do on the weekends. There's great markets, there's great food. Bit of all sorts of things really.
I think my favourite thing to do in this area outside of work is probably getting out to the reef. We've got the Great Barrier Reef on our doorstep here and it's a hop skip and a jump. There's lots of, you know, islands, Dunk Island and things that have public access to them as well.
>> Dr Thomas Coombs, Rural Generalist Anaesthetist/Director of Medical Services:
When I first moved here, I really hadn't stayed in any one place for more than a year and a half for a really long time. And when I first started working here, I had no plans to stay here for a long period.
I find that living in Mission Beach, it's a really, it's really good for me. It keeps me really, centred and grounded and I find that just being able to get out into the rainforest to go for a run or get out on the boat to go out to the islands on the reef, it really balances up the quite hectic activity that you can get in a rural hospital.
>> Jessica Crabtree, Registered Midwife:
For us, a special place to go to is probably Etty Bay because it is easy to access. It's probably only 15-minute drive and you get really clear water, and it sometimes feels like you're on a little isolated island cause of the bay, and you get the beautiful Cassowaries walking past. So it's pretty magical.
>> Dr Sally Barkla, Rural Generalist Obstetrician:
I was attracted to Innisfail about six years ago. I was actually here as a sixth-year medical student. I was studying at James Cook University, and I was drawn to more the rural environment in a smaller hospital and we enjoy fishing, and so that was, the thought was to come back here and enjoy the fishing and the small hospital and the North Queensland climate.
>> Jessica Crabtree, Registered Midwife:
What attracted me to Innisfail was the job opportunity. It was an opportunity that I couldn't get anywhere else. I moved down here with not a lot of experience at all. I'd just graduated, and I got to be in a model of care midwifery group practice, which lots of graduate midwives can't get into in Australia. So for me to be able to get that as a new graduate midwife is pretty amazing.
>> Dr Daniel Charles, Rural Generalist Anaesthetist:
Yeah, Innisfail's a, it's a really interesting place to live and to work. It's such a culturally diverse place. Some really interesting medicine, a lot of tropical sorts of medical conditions that we deal with here that are really interesting to treat. And I think the best thing about the place is the team. It's a diverse team that has a lot of different experiences in lots of different areas, really supportive, good-humoured, and, you know, if you don't know the answer to something, the odds are with the team that we've got here, someone else will, or they'll at least know where to point you.
>> Dr Nicola Woods, PHO:
I think in terms of career growth, there's lots of opportunities down here. There's a really good core group of the kind of the senior medical officers that provide lots of opportunities for training. I know, Dr. Coombs, our director down here is really interested in things like ultrasound. So we've got, you know, excellent ultrasound machines, but also the capacity to have people who are willing to teach you in those kind of areas as well.
>> Dr Thomas Coombs, Rural Generalist Anaesthetist/Director of Medical Services:
So aside from the work that we do individually, we're also becoming more of a training facility. So the growth in rural generalism is bringing trainees to the area and we aim to become leaders in the trainees training of rural generalists.
>> Dr Sally Barkla, Rural Generalist Obstetrician:
I love this facility. I enjoy working here because we've got a great collegial network. My colleagues are wonderful and supportive. There's been doctors who've been here for many years now and which is wonderful because it means that they enjoy working here and living here.
>> Dr Daniel Charles, Rural Generalist Anaesthetist:
A lot of people think you've got to go down south to do medical training to become a successful doctor. I couldn't disagree with that more and often, you know, in fact I would almost think the opposite. The doctors that I've looked up to most in my training have done a lot of their time rurally and that, you know, cut their teeth in rural medicine, and that's often the best way to get clinical experience.
>> Jessica Crabtree, Registered Midwife:
I've made some really good friends here and mainly through my work. A lot of the people that work here have moved here for this job and so we all want to connect with each other, and we want to have really deep and meaningful relationships, so I really find that I work with a team that I'm friends with.
>> Dr Nicola Woods, PHO:
I mean, one of the great things about working up here is the commute. So particularly when I was here last year, they put you up in a house that's literally adjacent to the hospital.
>> Dr Daniel Charles, Rural Generalist Anaesthetist:
No traffic at all in Innisfail. It makes me much less tolerable if I'm on a holiday in a big city because living up here, you never have to deal with anything like that. And then Cairns is right there, you know, you're an hour from an international airport and apparently living in a rural city. So that's, that's awesome to me. So yeah, I think there's, there's a lot more going on in Innisfail, a lot more going forward than people sort of think from that sort of services point of view.
>> Dr Nicola Woods, PHO:
So in, in this area, I feel like there's a really wide range of services. When I was here, particularly last year, I was training for the half ironman. So I was really using those gyms and swimming pools and things which are really accessible.
If I was talking to someone who was thinking of moving to Innisfail to live and work, I would a hundred percent recommend it. I think it's a, it's a great part of the world where the, the opportunities to do things outside of work are just so varied and kind of the kind of things that you can't really do anywhere else in Australia with the reef and the rainforest and things like that.
>> Jessica Crabtree, Registered Midwife:
Sounds really cliche, but it is my favourite job. It is my dream job and probably why I've stayed here for so long. And I bought a house and my husband works here. My children go to the school here. It's given me everything that I wanted, so don't underestimate a small town and give it a go because I love it. It's been a really big answer for me.
[Text on screen] Live, work, play on the Cassowary Coast…
[Music fades out while showing picturesque images of Innisfail]
[Text on screen]Proudly supported by Cassowary Coast Regional Council (logo) followed by Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service logo
End of transcript
Last updated: July 2024