One graduate's commitment to rural health

“I chose the University of Sydney School of Medicine primarily due to its exemplary reputation,” says Paul.

During the third year of his medical degree, Lunney was based at the School of Rural Health, Dubbo, NSW. This was an experience he found invaluable and surprising.

“I believed my rural experience would complement and round out the metropolitan clinical experiences I had already gained in my medicine degree,” says Paul.

“However, my rural experience was completely transformational.

"I was blown away by the breadth and scope of clinical practice offered by regional healthcare providers and humbled by the disparate need of the rural communities serviced for access to healthcare.”

Paul’s experience in Dubbo was the catalyst for considering general practice as a career, and his resolve to return to work in rural Australia.

In 2014, Paul graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (Honours). Afterwards, he returned to Dubbo to work in general practice.

“General Practicioners are highly important to rural communities," explains Paul.

:They are often the only medical practitioner present within these settings, so very much need to be the jack-of-all-trades, across a great breadth of knowledge and skill of clinical practice.

He believes the campus in Dubbo demonstrates a commitment by the University of Sydney to rural health, and the community of Dubbo.

“The benefits to studying in regional and rural Australia include an enhanced 'hands-on', immersive clinical experience, which is highly valuable for skill acquisition and development of clinical competence," says Paul.

“Studying in Dubbo, there is also an increased opportunity for personalised support and learning pathways through the inherent smaller academic cohort and relatively greater access to and face-to-face time with clinicians and teachers."

After eight years working in Dubbo, and six months in Gilgandra, NSW, Paul now spends much of his time in the air flying to isolated locations for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).

He provides clinical services through mobile primary care clinics, to remote and very remote communities of NSW and Queensland.

“RFDS workdays are typically fly-in-fly-out from Dubbo to Lightning Ridge or Bourke," explains Paul.

From there, we will drive another hour or more to the clinic destination and provide primary care services for the day.

“This is really rewarding work. It is clinically stimulating and a very much-needed service for these communities.

"I believe it is important to address inequitable access to health care and the consequent disparate health outcomes and life expectancies of our rural communities.”

As well as working on a Master of Health Administration, Lunney is now also lecturing at the University of Sydney’s School of Rural Health in Dubbo.

“It’s exciting to be involved in this program as the University of Sydney expands to offer the opportunity to complete the four-year Doctor of Medicine degree from end-to-end in Dubbo," says Paul.

Lunney is extremely happy with how his career has progressed since finding his passion for rural health while at university.

“I am proud of my commitment to rural health, having exclusively worked in the country in the years since graduating," concludes Paul.

"I am also so pleased to have come full circle from being a student studying at the School of Rural Health, Dubbo, to now teaching as an academic here.”