Claire has a five year old son and a nine week-old daughter (see Post of Sept. 3rd below). Her graduation from the Rural Clinical School (RCS) is only a few weeks off. Claire  said:

• My family home is in Burnie and  I certainly intend to live and work on the North West Coast, even if I have to leave for a period of time. In January, I will start as an intern on the Coast.
• I’m a palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) woman, and the entry pathway to university that I used is called the ‘Aboriginal entry Application Process’. During my third year at Hobart, a few of us were able to move to the RCS at Burnie, ahead of the usual intake at the start of the fourth year.
• I have played many ball sports, especially rugby, touch football and “Aussie Rules”.
• During my studies, I went on a cultural exchange to USA and investigated Native Indian medical concepts.
• During my course, I surveyed the potential for “Social Prescribing” in Tasmania. Social Prescribing enables GPs, nurses and other primary care professionals to refer patients to a range of local, non-clinical services to support the health and wellbeing of these patients. I found ‘rural’ GP’s here were mostly in favour of these concepts.  
• I seek to be a rural generalist GP, that is with extra skills which I can apply when circumstances require, such as to work in an emergency department or to be able to carry out certain surgical procedures. As well, I see it as important to have skills that would complement activities in whichever local community I might find myself working.