Dr Rebecca Marshall liked a lot of things about her lifestyle and placement in Bundaberg and she stayed for her final two years of her degree.
Dr Marshall enjoyed the close-knit community and welcoming nature of the people she met through sports and other community groups.
She really loved the beaches around Bundaberg, and she enjoyed running along the coast and swimming in the ocean year-round and she also liked how friendly the hospital was.
“People were kind and wanted the best for us, they included us in teams as medical students, and it was really nice to get to know a lot of the staff at the hospital,” Dr Marshall said.
“You certainly aren’t invisible as a medical student in Bundaberg Hospital – but a part of the team!
“The caseload in Bundaberg Hospital was quite varied and we got plenty of hands-on experience managing complex and interesting medical conditions.”
Dr Marshall was the 2022 cohort from Bundaberg Regional Clinical Unit who graduated with a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in a ceremony at The University of Queensland, St Lucia campus.
In 2023, Dr Marshall will commence her career as a doctor, interning at Redcliffe Hospital.
While Dr Marshall hasn’t narrowed down what specialty she would like to pursue, she has praised the broad experience in medicine she was offered at Bundaberg Hospital and she said it allowed her to make “well-informed decisions about specialties” they might like or dislike.
“Living and working in Bundaberg for two years certainly taught me that there are benefits to working in regional communities,” Dr Marshall said.
“From a medical perspective, there is variety in the patient load with less subspecialisation than tertiary centres meaning that doctors manage a wider range of conditions.
“Patients and staff at the hospital also tend to be welcoming and grateful for the work doctors do, and the smaller hospital size makes for tight knit teams.
“I think these benefits make the prospect of working regionally in the future an attractive prospect!”
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