Student outreach visit to Lightning Ridge

Student gains unique experience on outreach visit to Lightning Ridge

(18/10/13)

The NSW Rural Doctors Network supports medical and allied health students to participate in specialist outreach clinics throughout rural and remote NSW. A recent instance of this support enabled Mat McAlpine, a medical student studying at the University Centre for Rural Health in Lismore, to travel to Lightning Ridge to work with Paediatric Psychiatrist Dr Clive Smith during his monthly health outreach visit.

Here, Mat talks about his experience…

"It was an amazing opportunity that I am so grateful for. It was an early flight out of Bankstown (Sydney) and having never been in such a small plane, it was quite surreal. The clinical exposure was fantastic, given my interest in Paediatric Psychiatry, and also due to the uniqueness of the Lightning Ridge community. From both a health point of view and in terms of logistics, it gave me a real insight into the problems faced by remote patients.

I was very involved in the outreach clinic sessions, and despite not having any mental health training, Dr Smith was interested in teaching me during and after each consult. I also had the opportunity to meet other specialists on the trip including GPs, a Cardiologist and Ophthalmologist. Along with the pilots who flew our plane, I was invited to join them all for dinner - a nice touch!

Clinically, I gained great exposure to my preferred specialty ahead of time, particularly in the rural/remote setting that I one day hope to practice in. Unfortunately there’s no scope for such opportunities within my medical degree, and so I wholeheartedly recommend that other cadets pursue similar experiences. My supervisors in Lismore have been interested in my trip and think it's wonderful that I had the chance to see what fly-in, fly-out medicine looks like in the early stages of my training. My peers at uni are all envious! 

I would definitely say that this experience will benefit me in my current med school phase of life, but it also puts into perspective my future career prospects. I’ll now have a physical experience to refer to when considering remote medicine.

It's worth stating that the trip certainly didn’t 'spoon feed' me; it was very much a 'you get out what you put in' sort of experience. This was wonderful for me but for this kind of trip, students should be prepared for anything, and just roll with whatever it turns out to be!

Medical student Mat McAlpine, found flying in a small plane to be "quite surreal".

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