Transcript for Emergency Training in Northern Queensland
[Soft music plays in the background]
[Text on screen] Specialty Training in Northern Queensland, Emergency Medicine.
>> Dr Farah Aziz:
[Text on screen] Dr Farah Aziz, Emergency Medicine Registrar
I came to Australia almost 10 years ago. When I started as a junior doctor, I enjoyed working in ED. Just seeing all kinds of patients and the mix of cases, just from simple rolled ankles to emergencies and resuscitations. So, it was very interesting, very challenging, but very rewarding as well.
>> Dr Julia De Boos:
[Text on screen] Dr Julia De Boos, FACEM, Director of Emergency Medicine Training, Retrieval Senior Medical Officer
The training as a student is amazing because you actually get to do stuff. If your patient needs an ART line or a central line, put it in. If the patient has a subdural haematoma, organise the transfer, but know very well how to stabilise a person. It’s a totally different mindset, it if walks in the door, sort it out.
>> Dr Farah Aziz:
Patients here are very different to anywhere else in the country, we see a lot of Aboriginal patients and we see patients who even come from hundreds of kilometres away from here and from really remote communities and by the time they get to us, they can be really sick. I’ve done some procedures here which I’ve never done before, which is really exciting.
>> Dr Julia De Boos:
It’s a small ED and there’s only going to be one or two of you at the most; so, you’re not fighting with all the other students and everybody else to try and get experience. You’ve got good access to procedures; you’ll never have such good access to consultants the way you do in Mount Isa.
>> Dr Farah Aziz:
It’s a very good team here, the nurses are really good, very skilled. Consultants who come here, they’re mix of FACEMs and FACRRMs and they come from all over the country so you get a very good exposure to different ways of doing things and just picking up lots of tips along the way.
>> Dr Don Bowley:
[Text on screen] Dr Don Bowley, Senior Medical Officer, Royal Flying Doctor Service (Qld Section)
The RFDS is the longest continuously operating aeromedical retrieval service in the world. So, you get to go out and do GP clinics in very remote locations that are often serviced either by no health professional or by a single 24/7 remote director of nursing. You get to know the people who live in these remote locations. You get a better understanding of the challenges and the burden of the disease including very rare diseases like rheumatic fever and things that you just don’t see in urban centres. You’ll also be doing retrievals, going out to care for people with injuries and illness that require being brough to a major hospital, so you’re doing the general practice work and you’re also doing emergency work.
>> Dr Julia De Boos:
You’ll never make a bigger impact anywhere else in the country than you will here. Last week I was doing my Baby Shark dance at the end of a bed for a giggling 15-month-old child, when we got the chest x-ray back, he had more or less white over most his left lung. Just this tiny little bit of air still at the top, but he could still giggle. And that’s just what Mount Isa is like, from tiny through to old. They’re amazing.
>> Dr Don Bowley:
You also get to share the joy that people have in living in these remote areas. There’s a special breed of people who choose to live out here, who were born and stay living out here. You get to become part of the community.
>> Dr Julia De Boos:
If trauma is your thing, come between August and February when it’s Rodeo season. You’ll be amazed at what a hoof can do to any part of the body and you’ll be amazed at what people can actually survive and be absolutely rigidly determined to beat their 7.5 second record the next rodeo around.
>> Dr Farah Aziz:
It’s a great place to bring up a young family, lots of things for the kids to do. It’s a very nice drive to Lake Moondarra, it’s just amazing views from the lookout there. We love to feed the peacocks and they all come and open up their feathers and it’s very exciting for the kids. Every day being different and seeing variety of cases like babies to 90-year-olds and dealing with all that. This gives me a chance to do everything.
[Text on screen] Explore specialty training opportunities in northern Queensland. nqrth.edu.au
All Emergency Medicine specialty training can be completed in northern Queensland.
Cairns and Townsville provide the majority of training with regional and rural placements in Mackay and Mount Isa.
Six months training in Mount Isa offers a wonderfully varied experience, including working alongside the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
This video was funded by the Australian Government Department of Health as part of the Regional Training Hubs initiative. Produced in partnership with northern Queensland health care providers and James Cook University.
[James Cook University crest appears on screen] Northern Queensland Regional Training Hubs. A network of medical training opportunities. nqrth.edu.au
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