Dr Simon Smith – Staff Specialist Infectious Diseases: I first came to Australia ten years ago to the Sunshine Coast but I really wanted to experience Tropical Medicine and a more rural location so I made my way north was here as a registrar before moving south to complete my training and infectious diseases but really nothing compared and so after working down south I really missed Far North Queensland had to offer.
Dr Melissa Katz – Endocrinology and General Medicine Advanced Trainee: One of the main advantages from a medical perspective of working in Far North Queensland is that you do have the opportunity to see a lot of particularly interesting infectious disease
admissions. We've had people admitted with malaria melioidosis, leptospirosis and other tropical infections.
Smith: You get quite a general exposure to clinical scenarios and clinical problems often you're expected to chip in and help everyone else out and so you get this breadth of exposure to lots of different people with lots of different medical problems.
Katz: Another thing that's quite different is that a lot of patients due to the remoteness of the area that we cover is that some patients do present quite late in their illness which allows you to see quite good pathology and get that experience of dealing with very sick and complex patients.
Smith: With all of our basic position trainees will be able to rotate through at least six months of subspecialty training during their basic physician training and you're able to do all of your basic physician training in northern Queensland. The only requirement would be to go to a small rural hospital for a period of three months and so being able to provide medical services to these communities is very fulfilling.
Katz: I've always felt very well supported in all of my rotations that I've done up here both as a junior doctor and also as part of my basic training. I've had a number of different learning opportunities, I've worked in rural areas. Doing rural time has further enabled me to build my confidence in dealing with more complicated patients.
Smith: As a trainee here you have the opportunity to travel to remote Indigenous communities to provide medical support that includes Thursday Islands, bamaca and all of the areas in the Cape York Peninsula.
Katz: I’ve always had very good consultants that are very humble very approachable which is why I try and learn as much as I could from them. So I was recently given an award for research within the department of medicine there are a lot of very good research opportunities and a lot of consultants that are very interested in research,
Smith: In northern Queensland, every day is a great day, it's always beautiful weather so when I get some spare time and usually find me on the beach just casting a line or well beyond the reef fishing just after some Spanish mackerel or some big coral trout.
Katz: I've played netball since I was 7 years old, so it's always something that I’ve loved. I've This year I joined the team without knowing anyone in my team and the club was very welcoming.
Smith: Everyone's really happy everyone's really supportive and everyone has that same goal to improve the care of people living up here if you show an interest and won't live here and stay even longer but everyone's even happier about that.
Caption: Explore specialty training opportunities in northern Queensland nqrth.edu.au.