North Ronaldsay, Orkney.

After spending the fifth year of my medical degree in the Rural Medical Immersion Programme, and loving my time in a rural setting, I knew I wanted to continue to seek rural experiences on my medical elective. I also wanted it to provide me with an opportunity to explore a part of the world I hadn’t been to, as well as the ability to gain experience in a health care system that was comparable to New Zealands. This led to looking around the outer isles of Scotland for a rural elective. I emailed most of the outer isles but Orkney was first to get back to me hence why I chose to go with them. › Continue reading…

The first week was eventful week for many reasons. I arrived in Tonga to begin my first placement at Vaiola hospital on Tongatapu island only to find I had arrived the same week as the passing of the the Queen Mother.

What this means for the Kingdom, is a royal funeral – I can’t say I’ve even been to one before. › Continue reading…

Jordan Gibbs and Ursula Poole, sixth year medical students at the University of Otago School of Medicine, have been announced as the 2016/2017 recipients of the Pat Farry Rural Health Education Trust Travelling Scholarship by Sue Farry on behalf of the Pat Farry Rural Health Education Trust’s trustees. › Continue reading…

We’ve left the Orkney Islands, and they have certainly left a mark on me. I have been surprised in the most delightful way by these islands and the people who live there. I thought I’d finish by writing down a collection of the wee moments that have all come together to spark the great love for Orkney that I now have. › Continue reading…

I have had a pretty varied roster in the Balfour lately, flicking between women’s health clinics, A&E, and theatre. Everyone is, as always, very welcoming, and I have found it helpful to try and see things that I hadn’t had a huge amount of experience in otherwise. › Continue reading…

Before we came across to the Orkney Islands, I was really intrigued to find out who the doctors and nurses were on the isles and why they were there. What kind of people were they? Where were they at in their careers? And why were they in Orkney? I’ve since answered that final question for myself – it’s FANTASTIC.

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Orkney is great for many reasons. Another one of these I have come across this week is the participation of Orcadians in the ORCADES study (ORCADES standing for the Orkney Complex Disease Study). This is a genetic epidemiological study based out of Edinburgh that is looking to identify genes and variants of Orcadians that are associated with common diseases that are seen here on the Orkney Isles. There are over 2000 Orcadians who participate in this study, with eligibility criteria being that subjects must be descendants of two Orcadian grandparents. › Continue reading…

One of the many people I admire is a fiercely intelligent woman whose business is in running a large NGO (like an absolute boss). I asked her one day what she would do if she could have her time again. She replied that she would get to know all of her neighbours and maybe throw a street party. That she would start from there within her own community. › Continue reading…

I have spent a couple of weeks floating between the medical team and emergency room here at Balfour hospital. Being a small hospital, there are no sub-specialties. So the general medicine is very general. There are two full time physicians at the Balfour and technically they each work on call once every four weeks with the other weeks covered by locum physicians. But the reality is that the full-time physicians here take on much more than the one week in four they are on call. Given the transient nature of locum placements, all outpatient clinics and follow ups on tests, biopsies etc are left up to the doctors based here in Orkney. They do a spectacular job. › Continue reading…

“Don’t let medicine eat you up, make medicine work for you”

It’s a fine balance in medicine, between dedicating your life to medicine and keeping yourself happy and well. I’ve held on to these words that were shared with me as a medical student, coming back to them particularly when I have become overwhelmed by medicine.

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