This is a photo of Rob and Leanne highlighting the entrance of Toowoomba Hospital's A&E.
When we got there, we had a couple of workshops. The first one was all about plastering, which was too cool! I know of friends that are in med school in Calgary were able to do this in their first year. I was quite envious of them but then I realised that I didn't sign up for this sort of workshops in first year (silly billy gilly I am).
After the plastering we were taken out to see the student accommodations. These accommodations are for the MBBS III and IV that come out to do their entire year's worth of rotations at Toowoomba. Students are eligible to do an entire year at a rural place, such as Toowoomba, Hervey Bay-Maryborough, Bundaberg, and Rockhamptom. The accommodations were quite basic, which isn't a bad thing. However, the bad thing about them what that the kitchen sucked! It was very simple, it had: a sink, small fridge and a microwave oven. The only thing that came close to a stove was a mobile hot plate. Shudder.
After that, we came back to the hospital to partake in the last workshop, which was on suturing. It was quite difficult to get the technique in the beginning but once you have a handle on it, it's pretty fun! Here's a picture of a pig hock with sutures a la Veevek. :)
After the suturing workshop, we headed to another very rural place called Oakey, which made Toowoomba look very large. We had a bbq at the house of one of the rural doctors who works with the Rural Clinical Schools. After that we headed to a quaint little winery. This was the first time that I've been to a winery in Australia. It was a good experience to taste all the different types of wine and know what you like and don't like. I ended up buying three bottles of their Classic Red. They were quite cheap and there is something to be said about supporting local wine industries as opposed to the very big names. This place also had herbal wines and were called IQ, White Satin, Buddy, Gee Spot, and Bedtime Bliss. Leanne bought a bottle of the IQ, and will be making its debut appearance at Claire's birthday, which is on Friday. They didn't taste bad at all; however, those wines would have been great as a conversation piece at a dinner party. I wasn't in the mood to do that, well at least not for the next 3 weeks.
Rob took this photo...I like it. See those cool sunnies that I 've on, yeah, they broke yesterday. Stupid big head.
So, here's the thing, I would love to go rural next year. Why? Because most international medical graduates end up getting slotted into rural internships and many of the already trained doctors that are coming into Australia are going to rural places. In 3rd and 4th year, UQ medical students are eligible to do one entire year in a rural location (Toowoomba, Hervey Bay, Bundaberg and Rockhampton). This programme is actually a federally funded programme, which means that international students get the shaft. The perks of going 'rural' is that accommodation is free and you are given a small amount of money for relocation. As international students you aren't given any of that. We can go but only if there are spots left. If it turns out that there are spots available, then we aren't able to stay in the student accommodations (which I sure wouldn't because I want a proper kitchen!), meaning that we would have to pay rent and we wouldn't get any funding towards relocation. This would also mean that the house that I've in Brisbane would have to be subletted or I would just not renew my lease, which would mean that I would have to look for a new place when I came to Brisbane. Ahhh...the decisions. But before embarking on those thoughts, I need to get back to revising for this blasted midyear exam.
Here's a photo that will hopefully tie you over until the next one...
1 comment:
You should definitely do the rural programme. Similarly, in the States rural areas have a lot of trouble attracting doctors to the area, and it's quite difficult to find specialists, even in fields you would think would exist at every hospital such as neuro and cardio-thoracic, which requires constant transfers to the big hospitals, which is very expensive. Maybe you could come work in backwoods Georgia? You could live with my mum!
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