Peter, thanks for making memorable student experiences

Our Central West Site Coordinator Peter Coombes is sadly packing up his desk for the final time today.

Based in Longreach, Peter has for the past eight and a half years coordinated our university student placements across a vast area while they gain rural training experiences in medical, nursing, midwifery, dental and allied health.

Although he is way too modest to admit it, Peter has been influential in why students are creating great memories of their clinical placements, and in some cases, returning to further their career in the region.

The main sites for training are Barcaldine, Blackall, Longreach and Winton, with students also placed at Alpha, Aramac, Boulia and Muttaburra.

They travel across the Central West Hospital and Health Service (CWHHS) footprint, including remote Birdsville near the South Australian border.

When Peter commenced there were just 57 students training over 415 weeks in 2014. So far this year there have been 133 students for 735 weeks.

He puts down the increase in students to excellent student accommodation, clinical health supervision and central coordination of their placements for universities and the CWHHS.

“When a university wants to place a student in Longreach and our placement capacity has been reached, I often encourage them to consider other sites,” Peter said.

“This has enabled more placements, as well as students gaining a better understanding of rural health.

“We’ve also been able to offer flexible placements. An example is Barcaldine where nursing students can be rotated through the Aramac and Muttaburra Primary Health Care Centres, as well as the Barcaldine Hospital and Multipurpose Health Service.”

Peter said meeting people and community engagement had been the most rewarding part of his role.

“Engaging with health providers so our students can deliver external health checks has been enjoyable for both myself and the students,” he said.

“The health checks are delivered in a variety of ways and locations including blood pressure and blood glucose testing at the Blackall cattle sales to larger engagements, including more health support such as physiotherapy and mental health checks at Westech Field Days in Barcaldine.”

He’s also happy that nursing students who have done clinical placements are returning to the region to start their careers.

While the universities organise placements, it is people like Peter, and his team, who assist students on the ground to create memorable experiences, which ultimately achieves our aim of improving health outcomes in rural and remote areas.

Our students will miss you Peter – and these happy students in the picture are thankful for the new lounge suite you delivered to their JCU accommodation in Longreach just before retirement.