Junior Doctors to Call Orange Home

There will be some familiar young faces at Orange Health Service next year, as seven medical graduates from the University of Sydney School of Rural Health (SRH) have come back to start their internships. The students just completed the final year of their medical degree here in Orange and loved studying and working in the community so much, they are coming back for the next stage of their training.

“We are delighted that so many of our medical students were offered internship places at Orange. It’s a highly competitive process with more than 175 students applying for 18 places,” said Associate Professor Catherine Hawke, Deputy Head of the SRH in Orange. “They will join many other SRH medical graduates who have chosen to return to Orange as doctors after finishing their degree.”

The students - Lily Taylor, Timothy Ellwood, Sangmo Gurung, Savisha Fernando, Laura Hall, Joshua Forrest-White and Chris Morris – are all scheduled to begin their medical internships at Orange Health Service in February 2020. The students continue a strong tradition of SRH medical students becoming junior Doctors in Orange, as they also filled seven out of 17 available internship positions in 2018, and nine out of 17 positions in 2019.

SRH graduate Savisha Fernando said, “I grew up in the city so moving to Orange with its open spaces has been a rewarding and a refreshing change. I spent my final year of medical school here and I quickly felt part of the community in both the hospital and the town. The supportive and educational environment at Orange Health Service has also made it impossible to leave.”

For many of the students a future in rural medicine in rural areas is on the cards. Fellow graduate, Joshua Forrest-White added, “I leapt at the opportunity to spend my clinical years in Orange experiencing rural medicine. It gave me excellent hands-on training, as well as clinical teaching and mentorship from senior doctors. I can't see myself as a junior Doctor anywhere else.”

The School of Rural Health has also just welcomed a new cohort of fourth year students, while the new third year students are due to start early next year. These long-term placements not only give the students a fantastic learning experience, but also the opportunity to fall in love with the country lifestyle.