Doctor Gabrielle Keating planned to do a six-week placement in the outback, but very soon found a spark with a local cowboy and fell in love with a regional town because of the social and financial benefits.
The emergency department principal house officer at Mt Isa Hospita is one of several graduates encouraging students to take up regional work opportunities because of the career and personal benefits.
Dr Keating was working in Mt Isa Hospital during her final year of university when she took up a job to be a nanny on a station during the study break.
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In a collective effort, some prominent locals helped set her up on a date with a station manager and pilot who she’s been with for five-years.
“I think he was probably the only eligible bachelor in a few hundred-kilometre radius, and they were pretty desperate for a doctor.
“My boss along with his boss, a couple of locals, even the mayor had a word to him and next thing you know we were together.
“I wasn’t mad about it, it was pretty cute,” Keating said.
Through her placement and job after graduating, Keating’s accommodation has been paid for through James Cook University and then Queensland’s North West Hospital and Health Service, saving her thousands on rent.
She said her starting salary was more than $100,000 before tax.
If she were to move to the city, she would be taking a pay cut of about 20 to 30 per cent.
Keating, originally from the coastal town of Yeppoon, said on top of the financial benefits, regional communities should promote the unique social life connected to small towns.
“Encourage them to go to the rodeos, to go to the campgrounds to have that day off to explore,” she said.
“If I wasn’t welcomed into the community as well as I was from an early med student age, I don’t think I would have stayed as long.
She said her workplace does an eight-day on and six day off roster, giving people a decent amount of time to travel on their days off.
Dr Vidushan Paheerathan,27, is loving the benefits of living regionally, compared to his home in Sydney.
While it takes his friends one to two hours to get to work or university, it takes him an easy five minutes to arrive for his shift at Mt Isa Hospital.
“Some hospitals in Sydney, the waitless is like 10-years to wait to get a carpark. Here you don’t pay for parking, there’s parking all the time,” Paheerathan said.
“It takes all that unnecessary stress out of your daily life and you can wake up and enjoy life.”
His accommodation has also been provided at an intern and graduate.
He estimated he earned about $115,000 before tax as a graduate, which included a bonus granted by the Queensland government to health staff relocating regionally.
After a busy-day at work, he has enough time to kayak at Lake Moondara or see the sunset at The Granites.
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Working with a small team, the 27-year-old is able to negotiate his roster a lot easier than he probably could have in a city hospital.
He also said he had greater chances of progressing in his career because of less competition.
Keating added that she enjoyed working in a regional town because she of the wider variety of patients she was able to treat.
“You get such a wide exposure. There are no subspecialties, there’s no specific kids hospital, so you’ve got to be able to have such a breadth of knowledge and exposure and know where to point the right people in the right direction.”
Both are encouraging more people to consider trying a rural placement with an open-mind.
Paheerathan said he wanted to move regionally because he realised he could make a real difference to a community.
“Me realising as a migrant I have better health care in Sydney compared to traditional owners of the country … I saw the need to come out. I knew I was going to find it more rewarding,” he said.
A regional community was also much friendlier, open to making new friends and socialise.
“If your car breaks down, people stop for you. That didn’t happen for me when I was in Sydney,” Paheerathan said.
The Queensland government has been offering grants of upto $70,000 since 2030 to medical staff who take up regional work.
Despite the incentives, the health system in Mt Isa was still stretched for staff.
“It is quiet, full-on. It does feel very busy. We need a lot more man power to see the patients and do a good job because of the lack of other resources and primary care,” Keating said.
North West Hospital and Health Service is currently searching for various medial professionals to fill in positions.
The young doctors also encourage the government to improve access to childcare and staff at schools because that was a major factor for older staff to leave.
Paheerathan suggested more financial support be given to rural workers to be able to more frequently visit their families outside the towns.