Choosing a location

Peter Bothams, Team Manager, CQ Mental Health and Other Drugs, Rockhampton
I moved up to Rockhampton in 2003 and what attracted me was the great opportunities in a regional area in Queensland.
I'm a Queenslander originally, had lived in New South Wales and overseas and was really keen to get back to a regional area and lots of opportunities arose.

Kim Swinbourne, Clinical Nurse, Emergency Department, Emerald Hospital
Emerald's a really vibrant little community. I know that one of my biggest fears coming here was being isolated from family and friends, but once you start working in a small community hospital, you definitely build up such a great rapport with all the staff and I know I can walk down the hallway now and be able to say hello to everybody by name and they know me as well.

Belinda Tidbury, Manager, Oral Health Services
Everyone is so friendly and embracing. I really enjoy the culture here in the rural environment. They make me feel immediately part of the team. I'm actually surprised that I didn't know how much I'd settle into a small town.

Tracy Gunthorpe, Critical Care Nurse, Biloela Hospital
The biggest encouragement to stay with Queensland Health is the people that I get to work with. I've been working at Biloela Hospital for two years now, and it's both a really busy place and exciting place to work but also a place where you feel like the people that you work with are your family in a way.

Sian Barber, Graduate Nurse, Blackwater Multipurpose Health Service
I feel like health professionals here in Blackwater are quite well respected, and that respect is also returned to the members of the community.

Sherry Savage, Physiotherapist, Rockhampton Community Health
Already having ties in the community in regards to family but also sporting endeavours, staying here and working in my community has been the obvious choice, and that has been made easier by my leadership encouraging me to further my career and ensuring that I'm keeping my training and my skills up as well.

Jenny Lynch, Nurse Unit Manager, Mental Health Inpatient Unit, Rockhampton Hospital
My colleagues are friendly, they're positive towards me, I get good response from people, I feel accepted and there's a lot of opportunities here.

Dr David Molhoek, Emergency Department, Emerald Hospital
Probably the biggest draw card to working out here is the fact that it is a centre of excellence for rural generalism. It's the place to be if you want to be a rural generalist trainee. You get the experience and the exposure to make you a better doctor. You'll see cases that will prepare you for your training, and you really do get to see a full breadth of practice.

Corey Dern, Harm Reduction Officer, Alcohol and Other Drugs, Rockhampton
So there's a really supportive learning and development culture within the HHS. There's management development programs, clinical leadership programs available at any level. It's a very large organisation, very diverse, and there's lots of different pathways you can go down to to help your career.

Anneka Kanters, Registered nurse/midwife, Maternity, Emerald Hospital
We like to support you for any additional education, if you are undertaking any postgraduate studies. The commitment of management to ensuring that my skills are up to date with current guidelines and protocols is fantastic. I'm actually on my way to Brisbane in a couple of weeks to spend two weeks in a neonatal nursery, taking care of sick babies to upskill myself and ensure that I'm able to provide that care out in Emerald.

Dr Thomas John, Director of Clinical Services, Mental Health, Rockhampton
The universities here include the CQ University which has its own range of topics of advanced specialisation and reputation. There are flights to any part of the country from here, and Brisbane is just an hour away by a flight.

Mollie Neate, Registered nurse/midwife, Women and Paediatric Ward, Gladstone Hospital
So Destination 2030 has really been about improving ourselves as a hospital and strategically breaking down everything so that we're constantly improving the great care we provide to our great patients.

Dr Hitesh Rathi, Principal Dentist, Oral Health Services, Rockhampton Hospital
We're talking more about our vision and our values now, which is great. We are thinking about how we can make this place the best for our patients and continuously striving to improve this place for our staff.

Joanne Wex, Director Clinical Investigations and Diagnostic Services, Clinical Measurements, Rockhampton Hospital
There’s been a massive culture change within CQ Health. There's been a very important four standards that we live by: Respect, Commitment, Care and Integrity. That's really the basis of our values that we provide to our patients and and how we act and how we act to also each other.

Dr Sahitya Kamineni, Staff Specialist Mental Health, Central Queensland Mental Health Alcohol and Other Drugs
I'm very impressed by the organisational culture because they're very responsive, they're very forward-looking, they want to know what your concerns are and they want to hear, listen, investigate it, and put supports in place.

Dr Thomas John, Director of Clinical Services, Mental Health, Rockhampton
Leadership has been able to look at not just in terms of clinical service delivery, they looked at things like what provides satisfaction to the staff and making sure that there is a good voice for the staff to be able to feedback and that's reflected in the staff surveys and the outcomes that are being seen in the staff saying they are feeling respected and valued.

Shastee Walmsley, Director of Nursing / Facility Manager, Blackwater Multipurpose Health Service
What's kept me working in CQ is the great people that we work for, it's always nice to be working for a great organisation, there's been lots of opportunities for career progression and succession planning for staff out here which is great, particularly in the rural areas.

Clay Renwick, Intern (rotations), Emergency Department, Yeppoon Hospital
When everything starts working together, patient care can only prosper from that.

Annette Hill, Advanced Indigenous Health Worker, Adult Mental Health
So Banana is the 'Shire of Opportunity', and certainly that rings true for career advancement within health and certainly with CQHHS. In the past there's been an increase of Indigenous jobs and a lot of opportunities for Indigenous staff and working towards this will help to close the gap.

Timothy Parker, Cardiac Scientist, Cardiac Investigations Unit, Rockhampton Hospital
It's a real community up here, and it's good to sort of have a lot of support when you're starting off in a new career.

Corey Dern, Harm Reduction Officer, Alcohol and Other Drugs, Rockhampton
I've got flexible work arrangements, within work, which helps me with life outside of work as well.

Mollie Neate, Registered nurse/midwife, Women and Paediatric Ward, Gladstone Hospital
I'd heard that the region was beautiful, really close to the southern Great Barrier Reef and that my scope of practice would be much more vast here because it's a regional area than if I was based in Brisbane, which is where my family's from. I was just really attracted to improving my experience and knowledge by coming to a regional area.

Jenny Lynch, Nurse Unit Manager, Mental Health Inpatient Unit, Rockhampton Hospital
I feel like I fit in here and I feel there's a lot of opportunities for me.

Thomas Toner, Clinical Nurse Consultant - Mental Health, Community Care Unit, North Rockhampton
It's not what I expected it's a great laid-back place to live, with everything you need - the beach is 20 minutes away and the organisation is great to work for, there are good career development opportunities, come and try it what's the worst that can happen?

Bernadette Mckinley, Clinical Nurse, Acute Care Team, Rockhampton Hospital
"It sounds too good to be true." I hear this all the time, and it's not too good to be true, it's real. It's actually life changing.

Peter Bothams, Team Manager, CQ Mental Health and Other Drugs, Rockhampton
I had a five-year plan to move here and to move back to a metropolitan region but really, Central Queensland has captured my heart, it's a great place to live and grow and develop as a clinician and I see myself staying here for many years ahead into the future and I hope you'll come and join me.