Dr Michael Hurley

I’m a rural generalist based in Beaudesert in south Queensland. I’ve worked here since 2014, when I was appointed during the push to reopen the town’s maternity service. My wife Jaime is also a rural generalist here and we are raising our family in the region.

My clinical work is split between Beaudesert Hospital, where I am a senior medical officer in anaesthetics and emergency medicine, and Palen Creek Correctional Centre, a low-security rural prison where I am the clinical lead providing primary care. Alongside that I am a Senior Medical Educator with the RACGP Queensland rural team and a Pathway Advisor with the Queensland Rural Generalist Pathway (QRGP).

With the RACGP I work with rural registrars, as much on navigating life and the rural experience as on the training itself. With the QRGP I work with prevocational doctors, registrars and fellows heading toward a rural generalist endpoint, with a strong focus on prevocational rural experience and on running regular education and workshops.

Initially it was role-modelling. I grew up in Toowoomba and was fortunate enough to be friends with people whose parents were GPs. They shared stories of being a GP and their rural time. Their stories stayed with me and directed me into this specialty.

I love rural generalism (RG) and the breadth of opportunity it provides. I did not want to narrow down to one part of medicine, and general practice – rural generalism in particular – is the one place you get to keep all of it – children, older people, mental health, procedural work, the lot.

In a rural town you get to use everything you have trained in. I do anaesthetics and emergency work alongside complex primary care, and none of that would be open to me in a city practice.

I came to Beaudesert for the maternity reopening, Jaime joined me, we provided procedural services in the hospital and finished our FACRRM and RACGP/FARGP (now RACGP-RG) training in town. We have not left and feel deeply embedded in the community.

The variety in a single day – an anaesthetic list in the morning, the emergency department in the afternoon, a rural primary care clinic the next day. This variety is challenging, but fits my personality and style.

The other part is being an important part of the town’s healthcare, rather than just working in it. You are very close to the ground on what challenges the community is facing and can have a direct role in addressing these. The medical education side of my week, sitting with registrars in rural towns and watching them flourish there, is as good as the job gets.

Being part of reopening maternity services in Beaudesert. There was real community and political pressure behind it, and getting those services running again – and then providing them – is what I am proudest of clinically.

The other highlight is my work at my rural prison. I have been involved in the initiation of a hepatitis C program, an opioid treatment program and comprehensive mental health screening and treatment.

First, to bring a rural generalist voice into the room, particularly while the recognition of rural generalist medicine as a field of specialty practice within general practice moves into implementation.

Beyond that, my objectives sit mostly in education and training: better supervision and support for registrars in small rural hospitals; clear and reasonable policies for RG registrars; more and expanded prevocational rural experience, because that is where most junior doctors decide whether rural practice is for them; practical pastoral care and connection for rural registrars and the supervisors and sites that carry them; and strengthening Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health within rural education.

I have been working rurally since I started RACGP training. The education work grew alongside it.

I was fortunate to train alongside my wife, who completed an A/DRANZCOG prior to our move to Beaudesert. We both completed our training, started our family and built a house. I have continued to provide procedural services, and Jaime has become a practice owner in Beaudesert and we find we both complement each other well in town.

I held senior appointments with General Practice Training Queensland before the transition to college-led training. I was also employed as the Regional Director of Training (Queensland) for ACRRM, and am now a Senior Medical Educator with the RACGP Queensland rural team. Much of my current role is helping registrars navigate life, training and the rural experience all at once, which are rarely separate problems. Our focus is pastoral care, mentoring and staying connected to registrars, supervisors, practices and hospitals across rural Queensland, and our small team has built a rural education suite with face-to-face procedural teaching and regular monthly events.