Flinders University recently celebrated 20 years of medical training in the Greater Green Triangle area with a cocktail party at the Mount Gambier City Hall complex.
The event was hosted by the Dean of Rural and Remote Health for the College of Medicine and Public Health Professor Robyn Aitken.
Guest speakers on the evening reflected on their experiences with the Flinders University Parallel Rural Community Curriculum (PRCC) program and shared fond memories, heartfelt stories and laughs.
Past students Dr Carrie-Ann McKenzie (2009), Dr Angus Baumann (2011), Dr Chula Murray (2019) and Dr Jacinta Clark (2017) spoke about their time in the program and their career paths since graduation.
Professor Jennene Greenhill, past Director of the program was unable to travel to the event but shared a video and spoke about the beginnings of the GGT program and her appreciation of the staff, students and amusing challenges faced in the early days.
Past manager of the program in the Greater Green Triangle Professor Lucie Walters commended the PRCC program.
“This program is all about relationships and about the journeys that people go on after they have made their friendships and have the remarkable experiences they come to have in this region,” Prof Walters said.
Dr McKenzie believed the PRCC program was all about providing top-quality doctors to rural people.
“I think it really delivers that because rural people are not third-class citizens and deserve the best quality healthcare and this program delivers that,” Dr McKenzie said.
“I think this program has been that people that went through it remember it really fondly, have great memories of it and use what they learn every day to help people in rural areas,” Dr Baumann said.
Dr Jacinta Clark and Dr Chula Murray also shared nothing but praises for the PRCC Program.
“I love my rural patients and that’s part of what keeps me working here is the patients I get to take care of,” Dr Clark said.
“I really loved the PRCC program, I am the doctor I am today because of this program and my patients are hugely in debt to this program and everyone that made it what it was.”
Dr Murray said she loved the PRCC program because it allowed her to be immersed in the community, get to know the community and be part of the community.
“But also develop amazing friendships and relationships with the people that I worked with that I still am incredibly close with today,” Dr Murray said.
“The medicine I learned down here was second-to-none, and I was not just a student I was part of the team and that was really beneficial.”
