My final year phys­io­ther­a­py place­ment at Kar­ratha Health Cam­pus in rur­al WA was an expe­ri­ence I trea­sure and cer­tain­ly mul­ti­plied my eager­ness for work­ing out in the coun­try. There is so much that’s dif­fer­ent and fresh about a rur­al set­ting that makes it so worth­while to experience. 

I appre­ci­ate the vari­a­tion of prac­tice you see and are able to grow skills in. I had place­ment in Pil­bara Pop­u­la­tion Health, which includ­ed out­pa­tient mus­cu­loskele­tal phys­io­ther­a­py, a bit of women’s health, geri­atrics, observ­ing pae­di­atrics, inpa­tients on the ward, com­mu­ni­ty hydrother­a­py class­es, observ­ing plas­ter­ing in the emer­gency depart­ment and out­reach clin­ics to small towns. 

I appre­ci­at­ed gain­ing a taste of what it’s like being a rur­al gen­er­al­ist, as this remains an area of inter­est. I enjoyed mix­ing with demo­graph­i­cal­ly diverse groups of patients, in terms of age, cul­ture and acuity. 

The work­place itself was great – friend­ly peo­ple with a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary team atmos­phere. The staff were wel­com­ing and help­ful: impart­ing their knowl­edge and hav­ing a will­ing­ness to have me along on ses­sions or outreach. 

Out­reach to Roe­bourne and Onslow were also high­lights. A small team of allied health pro­fes­sion­als would vis­it a town for a day or two and have patients from that town come in for appoint­ments (as there is oth­er­wise often no per­ma­nent allied health in the town). It was a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of how our rur­al cit­i­zens access health and the chal­lenges around that.

I found great val­ue pro­fes­sion­al­ly and per­son­al­ly in work­ing with a high­er pop­u­la­tion of Abo­rig­i­nal patients. It is help­ful not just to have some knowl­edge of this health con­text, but to get hands-on expe­ri­ence too. It was encour­ag­ing to gen­er­al­ly see a dif­fer­ent lev­el of respect and acknowl­edge­ment of cul­tures from the peo­ple around the Pil­bara, while also chal­leng­ing to see the extent of socio-eco­nom­ic strug­gles many face and the sig­nif­i­cant dif­fi­cul­ties of health access. I’ve got much to learn.

One of the best aspects of rur­al life is the com­mu­ni­ty. The peo­ple around you real­ly band togeth­er and look out for one anoth­er. The coun­try is often viewed as an iso­lat­ed place. How­ev­er, depend­ing on where you go, there can be lots to do social­ly! I was encour­aged to link in with a local church, and had I been there longer def­i­nite­ly would have enjoyed a social sport.

And to top it off, Kar­ratha was geo­graph­i­cal­ly amaz­ing – such a rugged beau­ty that I hadn’t known before I went! I enjoyed many a walk around the rocky hills that the town is nes­tled in, a cou­ple of nice beach­es (when the tide was in!) and day trips to my favourite spot, Python Pool, a mean­ing­ful and beau­ti­ful must-see site. An over­all won­der­ful place and oppor­tu­ni­ty that I’m extreme­ly thank­ful to have had. I hope to get back there!