Six new student doctors thrilled with lower South West placements

The lower South West is now home to six new student doctors who will be honing their skills in the Warren-Blackwood area over the next year. Mitchell Pratt, Leesha Bryan, Alexander Lawrie, Megan Weed, Monique Wishart and Clara Lee will be working in select hospitals and GPs around the lower South West over the next year as a part of the Rural Clinical School of WA placement program. The student doctors will be spread between the Warren District Health Service and Southern Forest Medical Centre in Manjimup, the Bridgetown District Hospital and Bridgetown Medical Group, the Boyup Brook Medical Centre and the Balingup Doctors Surgery. Ms Lee said after seeing the medical centres they would be practicing in and meeting the doctors they would be shadowing, she had a lot of confidence they would all learn a great deal over the next year. “All the doctors sound very excited to have us there, very enthusiastic and involved and let us have much more of a hands-on experience than maybe we would get to have in Perth when there are so many more of us,” she said. Mr Pratt said the student doctors who applied for an RCS placement submitted a preference list outlining where they would like to work and study and when he found out he was heading south he was “stoked.” “Essentially, we applied last year and then you get allocated to different sites throughout WA, so we are actually pretty stoked to be down here in the Warren-Blackwood region,” he said. “We have heard a lot of good things in the previous years and the doctors have all been really friendly and we are looking forward to the responsibilities you get in working in a rural setting.” The six new student doctors said they were hoping to get to know the region, the people and the practice very well over the next year and were looking forward to what lay ahead.