Dr Rachael Yin Foo is a rural generalist with an advanced skill in emergency medicine based in Winton, Central West Queensland (Koa Country).
Rachael grew up in regional Queensland and initially wanted to be a vet. Hearing the midwifery stories her mother shared, learning about the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) and visiting family living in rural areas, inspired her to help people through medical episodes and showed the real impact rural doctors have. Her mother understood Rachael’s desire to be a doctor, but encouraged her to gain more general life experience before pursuing medicine. Rachael completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, was the manager of a respiratory laboratory and began travelling around the world. Looking back now, she recognises the importance of that time, in developing her own leadership skills, her confidence and the understanding of a life outside of being a doctor.
She completed postgraduate medicine at the University of Wollongong, including a year in Broken Hill, NSW. This placement reinforced her passion of combining rural general practise and remote emergency medicine.
Rachael returned to Queensland for her prevocational training with the Queensland Rural Generalist Pathway and completed advanced skills training in emergency medicine. The allure of living and working in a remote community drew her to a job in Winton in 2019, where she completed her FACRRM, FRACGP-RG and FARGP. You can find Rachael working across both the hospital and GP clinic every day.
‘Joining the team at Winton as a female registrar was wonderful. I was warmly welcomed by colleagues and the community. In my first year, my GP clinic list included a lot of women’s health and child health cases, which I enjoyed greatly. However, it did include conducting most of the cervical screening in town - quite a way to build rapport!’
Aside from emergency medicine, Rachael also enjoys many areas of primary healthcare including women’s health, child health, shared antenatal care, travel medicine, complex chronic conditions, minor procedures and palliative care. She works across all these areas in her highly variable daily consults in the general practice.
‘A rewarding part of my job is walking with each patient and their family through all stages of their life journey. It is a great privilege to be with them from pregnancy, through sickness and in health, all the way to end of life.’
Rachael finds joy in the small things in rural healthcare. Winton doesn’t have a pathology clinic, phlebotomist or a practice nurse, so the doctors themselves are tasked with blood collection.
‘The people in town laugh and joke about how much joy I get with the simple task of taking a patient’s blood sample. I find it’s a great skill to keep using daily, and it helps me get to know the patients, and their veins, before I may need to use them in an emergency.’
While there are only 2 senior doctors in Winton, they are supported with short-term rotating junior doctors from the city. This is another of Rachael’s interests - teaching the next generation of clinicians how to manage patients without having all the gadgets, gizmos, and tests at your fingertips.
‘When you don’t have pathology results for 24 hours, have limited imaging available, or must consider an expensive retrieval - you learn to trust in your history and examination skills. You can still make a well-informed and safe treatment plan. You’ll develop greater clinical knowledge and skills, while boosting your clinical reasoning and ability to formulate a management plan within your context.’
Working in a remote area with limited resources allows Rachael to go back to basics and provides an excellent opportunity to develop new skills.
‘I’ve had opportunities to extend my skill set in response to community needs. For example, I’ve developed my point-of-care-ultrasound (POCUS) skills and become an X-ray Operator.’
Rachael strongly believes rural medicine is not a solo effort. It is built by working together as a team, including the general practice staff, local hospital team and community support.
‘We have a small and close-knit team in Winton, especially within our practice where we have become more like a family. They support me personally and professionally, through the ups and downs, and at times challenging work.’
Her time off the clock is spent with her German Shepherd dog, Diesel, photographing nature, learning languages, and planning her next travel adventure to some wild and remote places (from Antarctica to the Arctic, and maybe somewhere in between).
‘I highly recommend becoming a RG. Yes, it may be hard some days, but it is such a satisfying and interesting career. As Dr Seuss once said, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. (Oh, the places you’ll go!)”. If you decide to become a RG or even just support your rural and remote colleagues with relief coverage, you’re not on your own. RGs are a welcoming, supportive and sometimes quirky bunch, and that helps you learn to appreciate your own quirks!’
‘Being a rural generalist has been my dream. I’m fortunate to be able to continue providing an essential and very rewarding service and I hope others get to experience that too.’