Dr Grace Neely is a Rural Generalist Obstetrician at Gympie Hospital (Gubbi Gubbi Country).
Grace enrolled in medical science after narrowly missing out on a place in pharmacy. Halfway through her studies, Grace discovered a passion for medicine and decided to pursue a medical degree. ‘I was really interested in all the anatomy, physiology, embryology and medicine-related subjects. I started to think that maybe medicine was the direction I wanted to go,’ Grace recalls.
After taking a gap year to ‘be a person’ in her early 20s and working as a bartender in Sydney, Grace started medicine at The University of Queensland. It was during her first-year elective placement that she encountered the profession that would ultimately shape her career.
With limited funds but plenty of enthusiasm, Grace chose to complete her placement in her nan’s hometown of Cooma, New South Wales. ‘It was just the best 6 weeks ever. The practice was full of incredible rural generalists who were anaesthetists and obstetricians. There was also a very kind registrar who took me to their outreach clinics. I got to see my first births and the midwives were wonderful and encouraged me to be involved,’ she says.
Working across general practice, obstetrics, anaesthetics and emergency medicine opened Grace’s eyes to the breadth and diversity of the rural generalist.
‘They were the type of doctors you see on TV and the sort of doctor you want when someone asks “Is there a doctor on this plane?”. I thought “I want to be you. I want to do everything that you do”.’
The placement left such a lasting impression that Grace returned to Cooma for her fourth-year elective. ‘Armed with a few more skills and bit more clinical knowledge, I was able to do more on my second placement. I got to scrub in on caesars and help with neonatal resuscitations,’ Grace said.
The rural lifestyle also made an impression. At the local practice, Tuesday mornings were reserved for skiing during winter. The clinic closed and the team headed to the mountain to ski for a few hours, before returning to the clinic to see patients in the afternoon.
‘It really cemented the idea that you could structure your work around who you want to be and the life you want to live. This was 100% what I wanted to be able to do.’
After medical school, Grace joined the Queensland Rural Generalist Pathway (QRGP), attracted by the structured training opportunities and broad clinical exposure.
‘The great thing about the QRGP is that it gives you access to the rotations you need, which made it very streamlined.’
Her training took her to Far North Queensland, Bundaberg, Nambour, Kingaroy, and now Gympie. Along the way she discovered something many rural generalists can relate to.
‘Every rotation I did, I loved. Emergency medicine, orthopaedics, surgery, I wanted to do all of them! That's probably how I knew I was a generalist - everything was interesting and super cool!’
Grace also enjoyed getting to know the community and people. ‘Everyone was really welcoming. People genuinely care about having doctors in their community and they make you feel part of it very quickly. You'd see patients at the supermarket, buy coffee from someone you'd seen in the clinic, and everyone knew my crazy dog. You really get to know the community, and everyone was really respectful. They all knew where we lived, but at no point did anyone come knocking at the door and say: “Can you look at this rash?” or anything like that. We were given our space, and it was a fabulous place to learn’.
Inspired by her early medical experiences in Cooma, Grace chose obstetrics and gynaecology as her advanced skill.
‘Obstetrics is fascinating. You're often involved in either the best day of someone's life or one of the most challenging. It's intense, but it’s a privilege to be part of those moments.’
Grace completed her fellowship with ACRRM in 2019 and embarked on a 6-month detour with her husband (also a rural generalist). ‘We quit our jobs and took off in a vintage caravan we’d renovated to do a lap of Australia, before spending the next 5 years in Kingaroy working and growing our family.’
Grace now works part-time in Gympie and lives on the Sunshine Coast with her husband, 2 children and their dog. She feels privileged to be able to make the most of their family time camping, caravanning, surfing, skating and enjoying the outdoors. ‘We’ve specifically structured our lives to maximise time with our kids, at home and as a family. It’s quite different to what a lot of our friends, particularly in metro, are doing but it works for us.’
Grace believes maintaining a healthy work/life balance helps her to be a better clinician. ‘I love my work, and I'm fascinated by it, but I know I do it better because I have time away from it. It keeps me excited to come back.’
For medical students considering their future careers, Grace's advice is simple: find what genuinely excites you.
‘Rural generalism is the best job in the world,’ she says. ‘The training is broad, the opportunities are endless, and you can shape your career around your interests. Whether it's obstetrics, mental health, surgery, tropical medicine or something completely different, there's room for it’.
‘It gets you to think in a different way compared to other specialties where there's a lot of reliance on everybody else. Obviously, there's always mates around, but you learn that you are very capable and that you can do whatever it is that's in front of you. And I think that's really cool. I can't imagine a better job’.
Looking ahead, Grace hopes to continue doing what she loves and may consider rural medicine in another part of the world in the distant future.
‘In 10 years, I'll probably be doing exactly this, maybe a little older and greyer, but still loving it!’