When Clare Hardie was in her third year of medical school, she fell in love with a sheep farmer. or signup to continue reading Dr Hardie, a GP-obstetrician, was doing a clinical placement in Narrogin in Western Australia's wheatbelt in 2015, a move that changed the course of her life and career. "I met a fella who is going to live rurally for the rest of his life, so I guess I'm stuck in Narrogin," she jokes.
She is the only GP-obstetrician in the agricultural centre of 5000, working beside locum and junior doctors to keep the rural maternity service running. It's a rewarding job that keeps her busy, along with farm life and raising two young sons. "You deliver babies, then you see them growing up in the community and treat them as toddlers," Dr Hardie told AAP.
"That's a journey that's only going to get longer." With her specialist skills and connection to the country Dr Hardie is a dream for a rural town, as doctor shortages grip regional Australia and force the closure of many maternity units. A first-of-its-kind study confirms exposing doctors to rural practice in their early years - before they've made big decisions about marriage, mortgages and family - is crucial to keeping medics in the bush.
The research followed 1220 medical graduates from nine Australian universities to track where they were working five, eight and 10 years after graduation. GPs were nearly three times more likely to be practising outside the cities after a decade, as the specialty has greater rura.