Putting meat on the bones of rural medicine

Even on her day off, Dr Elizabeth Clarkson has been known to sit at the lunchroom table at Theodore Medical Centre giving direction to medical students about how to best suture raw meat, fresh from the local butcher.

It’s part and parcel of being a doctor in a regional town.

“I grasped the importance skilled medical professionals had to rural communities from a young age,” Dr Clarkson says.

“Growing up in Moura before moving to a small township near the Sunshine Coast, I was a firsthand witness to the dedication my mother, a veterinarian, and father, a dentist, put into serving the community.

“Some of my family members lived in rural towns without doctors, nurses or medical centres. I saw them either suffer from complications from diabetes or die prematurely from diseases.

“I think if they’d lived in a town where they had access to health care, it wouldn’t have happened.”

After graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from The University of Queensland in 2015, Dr Clarkson decided to pursue a career as a rural generalist.

Following graduation, she gained knowledge and experience from a suite of hospitals and general practices around the state before settling in Theodore to complete her final two years as a registrar.

Now a GP and a fellow of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), Dr Clarkson says she’s always had the desire to go back, raise a family in a rural town and work locally.

“Rural towns need a good, stable medical workforce; without a medical workforce and a regular doctor, towns do struggle,” Dr Clarkson says.

“If we want to keep rural towns alive, the rural medical workforce needs some support.

“I think being a rural doctor keeps you honest in the clinical sense.

“Your patients are also your neighbours and people that you see every day, so in some ways this adds an extra layer of obligation and duty of care.”

Dr Clarkson is proud to have gone through rural pathway training and hopes to quash stereotypes that general practice, and particularly rural general practice, is an easy path.

“Rural clinical practice can be quite challenging; the training program has quite high expectations, and general practice comes with added complexity such as running a small business,” she said.

“I had difficulties deciding with specialty rotations as I enjoyed paediatrics, anaesthetics, obstetrics, emergency medicine, surgery, dermatology and infectious diseases, but I soon realised I got to practise a combination of all of the above and more.”

While Dr Clarkson claims she’s not a natural teacher, her peers and colleagues are thankful that she is working with UQ’s Mayne Academy of Rural and Remote Medicine team, educating upcoming UQ medical graduates.

When she’s not in lunchrooms suturing on her days off, Dr Clarkson enjoys hiking and camping with husband Ben around Banana Shire and is hard at work trying to train their young beagle pup.