Healthcare Professionals
Leading the way for future rural doctors
Rural doctors require a broad scope of practice to serve their communities. Teaching within RCSWA is grounded in rural generalism. Our medical education program is delivered by qualified clinicians living and working in Regional and Remote WA. Learning experiences transcend the silos of specialties, reflecting real-life rural practice. Student placements are entirely based in rural locations with experienced rural generalist doctors and rural or visiting specialists. Learning through real clinical cases forms the core of the program and complimented with supplementary small-group tutorials.
A day in the life of an RCSWA staff member
GP-life is busy as the population is growing so quickly here in Busselton. There’s the opportunity to do all those sub-specialties - obstetrics, anaesthetics, procedural skin medicine, teaching - all of those things are available to GPs here, which gives you such a variety in your working day and week.Dr Russ Hartley
RCSWA Medical Coordinator, Busselton
Meet some of our experts
Mentor, Great Southern
Kirsten Auret
Kirsten is a Medical Coordinator and Research Supervisor in Albany. She was inspired to go down the path of palliative care and general medicine after meeting a talented doctor who provided brilliant palliative care support to her sister-in-law. Kirsten was part of the expert panel involved in WA's Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation and she was the Deputy Head of the RCSWA from 2013-2019. Kirsten enjoys the deeper connections fostered with patients when working and living in rural areas, and following patients across their care at home, to hospital, to hospice.
What I love about the RCSWA
I love that it is a values-based organisation, my colleagues are fabulous, I feel well-supported in my academic work, and that we are a mix of three different universities.
Contact: [email protected]
Mentor, Metro
Helen Wright
Helen specialises in paediatric medicine and is based in Perth. Hailing from Scotland, she originally envisioned her career taking the path of a farmer's wife and rural GP. Instead, Helen now calls WA home and finds passion in working as a specialist paediatrician, medical educator and rural health advocate. Helen's introduction to the RCSWA was teaching the Port Hedland cohort in 2002, before relocating to Perth in 2005. Helen loves the variety of clinical work on offer in rural areas, as well as driving and flying to Aboriginal communities with her supportive, skilled rural colleagues. She believes her time spent working in rural WA has advanced her career.
What I love about the RCSWA
My colleagues are inspiring, committed people who do wonderful work in rural WA. It is rewarding to see students progress through their careers, especially those now working as remote paediatricians.
Contact: [email protected]
Mentor, Great Southern
Mat Coleman
Mat is a Psychiatry coach and Clinical Academic Chair for Rural and Remote Mental Health Practice. He is based in Albany but is often on the road or in the air travelling to other RCSWA sites for psychiatry teaching sessions. Mat was inspired to work in this field due to the complexity of mental health, combined with the humanity of its practice. He finds the variety in rural medicine incredibly rewarding.
What I love about the RCSWA
I love working with amazing generalist colleagues who are dedicated to quality medical education, training and practice.
Contact: [email protected]
Ophthalmology COACH, Broome
Angus Turner
Angus is the Director of Lions Outback Vision and an ophthalmologist based in Broome. He is responsible for coaching the opthalmology curriculum at the RCSWA. Angus was first intrigued by the field of opthalmology when he dissected an ox eye at age 15, and has loved working in the specialty since. Angus thinks rural work is very rewarding, understanding that patients are highly appreciative of having access to speciality care close to home, and says rural areas are great places to raise a family.
What I love about the RCSWA
I love the passion for good teaching and genuine care for students demonstrated by the staff, as well as the motivated students who are so engaged with their communities for their RCSWA year.
Mentor, South west
Sarah Moore
Sarah is a GP obstetrician in Busselton, she splits her time between teaching at RCSWA, a private GP practice, and the local hospital. Sarah was part of the pilot RCSWA program in Kalgoorlie in 2002, and was so grateful for the teaching and mentoring she received there that she wanted to stay on as a medical educator. Sarah takes particular interest in mindfulness for personal and professional wellbeing - so much so, it inspired her to complete a PhD on the topic. Sarah loves the special connection with her community that she has developed while working and living in Busselton, engaging with people during many significant stages of their lives.
What I love about the RCSWA
I love seeing former students return to the region to work and to visit. It is so heartwarming to observe them grow and contribute to our health system, becoming an integral part of the community. I also love my colleagues - we are like a big family.
Contact: [email protected]
Medical Coordinator, Kalgoorlie
Christine Jeffries-Stokes
Christine is a paediatrician who has been working in clinical practice and research in the Goldfields for more than 20 years. She has been part of the RCSWA since it was just an idea. She has a PhD and a Masters in Public Health. Along with senior Wongutha woman Annette Stokes, Christine is a Chief Investigator for the Western Desert Kidney Health Project (WDKHP), which has demonstrated new and innovative methods of community engagement. The WDKHP has drawn attention to environmental contaminants as a potentially significant contributor to chronic disease. She has a strong record of collaborative research with the Aboriginal community and has established strong community networks.
Medical Coordinator, Geraldton
Martin Lee
Martin is a Rural Generalist Anaesthetist (RGA) and a Medical Coordinator in Geraldton. His fields of medical interest include emergency medicine, anaesthetics, clinical education and palliative care. Martin enjoys the autonomy and flexibility of rural medicine, as well as the significance that community plays in everyday life. He works hard to ensure medical workplace connections to students are strong, and building students' non-technical skills. Smaller crowds and no traffic jams are added bonuses to rural life in Martin's eyes!
What I love about the RCSWA
I love the dynamic and talented group of like-minded people who are doing great things in rural and remote medicine for their community.
Medical & final year coordinator, broome
Rachel Hall
Rachel is a rural generalist working in the Broome Hospital Emergency Department and teaching RCSWA penultimate year students. She also coordinates the Final Year program in the Kimberley and supports final year students across WA following the Notre Dame curriculum. Rachel welcomes second year medical students to Broome twice a year for a six-week rural immersion called Broome Learning on Country (BLOC). She loves being part of a rural community with its challenging medicine and has made Broome her home complete with cowboy, horses, dogs and 26 mango trees on her block.
What I love about the RCSWA
RCSWA has been a great rural family that has enabled me to live a life in the bush and share my passion for this life and medicine with students.
Obstetrics Lecturer, Albany
Greta Hull
Greta is a registered nurse and midwife at Albany Health Campus. She works in normal pregnancy, labour and birth and enjoys supporting women and their families during this stage of life. Greta worked in the Midwest, Gascoyne, Townsville and Perth before settling in Albany. Prior to joining the RCSWA in 2020, Greta worked with Great Southern Aboriginal Health Service's Boodjarri Yorga program, providing antenatal care to Aboriginal women and their families. Greta enjoys the continuity of care in her speciality field and forming relationships with families.
What I love about the RCSWA
I love the team approach, working with a diverse range of professionals, and the enthusiasm and energy that students bring to their clinical placements.
Make a difference to rural health education
New opportunities to make a difference
Become a GP preceptor
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What’s involved in this program?
Preceptors provide the clinical context for students to learn. It is the Discipline of General Practice’s responsibility to provide the teaching plan.
This will already have been discussed with the student before they arrive, so the student will come with a set of learning objectives that could reasonably be expected of a four or five-week rural GP placement.
The student will be prepared to discuss their objectives with you and be advised about how they should plan their time with you.
For four or five weeks, you will give the student an opportunity to be part of your consultations, either in your office or in an adjoining room if available. You will give them the opportunity to conduct part or all of a consultation. You will offer constructive feedback that will help them develop their consultation skills.
Clinical teaching does not have to interrupt your schedule. The ‘wave’ model of consultation allows an advanced student to see and present one patient to you within a standard 15-minute consultation, so you lose no consulting time. What it does require is strategic planning of patient appointments.
These advanced level students are able to do ECGs, spirometry, research the EB for medications, interview all new patients, input clinical notes and coding into the computer, participate in chronic disease management clinics, respond to patient inquiries about their condition, do records audits, assist with home visits and more.
Ask the student to run through their competencies, so that you can plan to use those which are most helpful in your practice. Please ensure these activities fit with your student's learning objectives.
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Documentation required
Other than providing evidence that you are a legally practicing professional, the University does not require accreditation for professional placements. In the immediate term, there are no accreditation responsibilities.
You need to ensure that your liability or indemnity insurance allows you to accommodate final year students in your practice. A minimum of $10,000,000 insurance is necessary.
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Benefits
GPs can earn both RACGP and ACRRM QA/CPD points for teaching medical students.
GPs can claim 40 x Category 1 points per triennium for teaching medical students by completing an ‘Educator ALM’. The form is available to GPs on the ‘my CPD’ section of the RACGP website and further information about the ALM is included in the QI & CPD handbook.
Should you wish to get 20 to 40 RACGP Category 1 points, RCSWA offers a flexible delivery graduate certificate in rural and remote medicine with two medical education units.
ACRRM members can claim 1 core point per hour for teaching medical students. UWA will apply for these on your behalf if we are informed of your ACRRM membership and provided with your membership number and completed log sheets.
Each 3-hour teaching session attracts a $200 PIP payment from Department of Human Services (DHS), so for a five-week placement, you could be eligible to claim up to $8,000. There is no payment available from the RCSWA for these sessions.
To claim, you will need to complete a PIP claim form for each student attached to your practice and add your CPD to the student's log sheet and sign it. PIP forms can either be lodged online through the HPOS system or faxed to be processed manually with the Department of Human Services, Medicare. Further information can be found at: humanservices.gov.au/pip
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Support and resources
The RGPP administration team will organise student accommodation. The student will stay in a caravan park, local nurses quarters or private self-contained accommodation.
If you have any issues with the student or placement, the first point of contact is the RGPP Placement Officer and team on [email protected]. Depending on the query, the admin team will either advise on the matter or connect you with the RGPP academic staff.
From Students to Mentors
Our RCSWA Alumni
It’s amazing how often you meet a doctor at a hospital or at a training workshop who you have that RCSWA connection and bond with.Dr Sarah Moore
RCSWA Lead Medical Coordinator, Busselton
Get in touch
