What’s it like being the only doctor in a small outback town?
Cotton grower Sarah Burrell thinks she’s found the key to longevity for doctors working and living in rural Australia: community.
Embedding herself in volunteering and hobbies outside her GP clinic has allowed her to happily work in her home town of Dirranbandi in southern QLD for two years now, with plenty more in the tank.
After leaving her family’s cotton farm to study medicine, she saw her home town suffering in the absence of consistent medical care and returned to give the job a crack.
“There’s a shortage of doctors internationally, let alone rurally, and my home town didn’t have a permanent doctor,” she says.
Sarah accepts the reality that being the only practicing doctor in a rural community can be difficult from a social point of view.
“A lot of people find it tough to live out here. Long-term, a lot of doctors burn out and leave, as it gets a bit much.”
To help avoid that burn out, Sarah works hard at establishing clear doctor-patient boundaries with Dirranbandi locals.
“It’s definitely more grey than black and white. I think farming people are quite pragmatic and if you're honest with them they respect that,” she says.
“I’ve been lucky as I think I’ve been away long enough to come back as a professional, rather than a local, and you wear that professional hat at work when you're at work, then take that hat off I suppose.
“It’s about educating people that you want to be there long-term and to maintain that clear relationship and respect your privacy, and hopefully with time it’ll get a bit easier.
“It’s difficult to detach. You know about issues in town that most people wouldn’t know and I think it makes it more difficult to foster some relationships because you're a bit more aware of things. Some doctors tend to recluse or hibernate a bit because they know a bit too much of what's going on.”
Sarah makes a concerted effort to be involved with social sport, volunteering for community groups and takes part in hobbies outside the clinic, like camp drafting.
“A community is as good as you make it,” she says.
“The doctors that stay are the ones that are embedded in the community as they have something else keeping them here.'“
These stories are part of a partnership with Cotton Australia showcasing some of the legends of the Aussie cotton industry. You can read Frank Deshon’s story here, or listen to Lauren Roellgen’s story here.
