SBS TV to put outback heroines and the rewards of rural medical careers in front of national audience
May 18, 2010The national broadcast of a television documentary about female rural doctors - and why they find their work so rewarding - will help spread the message that rural medical practice is a great career choice.
SBS TV will premiere the Rural Health Education Foundation program about women GPs in rural practice across its national television network on Thursday June 3rd.
Outback Healers and Heroines: Women GPs in Rural Practice, a half-hour documentary which focuses on women GPs who are passionately committed to rural practice, will air for the first time anywhere at 3.30pm on SBS One.
Outback Healers and Heroines was produced in association with the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA), and features on-location interviews with inspirational women GPs who share their varied experiences of working in rural Australia and discuss issues such as practice models, work-life balance, their children’s education, and being part of a rural community.
Inspirational stories earn wide exposure
“We’re delighted that the genuinely remarkable career stories of these outback heroines will receive the Australia-wide exposure they deserve and inspire the next generation of rural women GPs,” says Don Perlgut, CEO of the Rural Health Education Foundation. “We’re also grateful to the RDAA, which supplied ideas, talent and additional funding to help us create a program worthy of a national free-to-air television debut.”
Dr Nola Maxfield, President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, says: “Being a doctor in rural Australia makes for a fascinating career, where you treat an enormous range of conditions, meet some incredible people, and mix the rewards of general practice with the excitement of fields like emergency medicine and obstetrics-all the time providing a critical service for your local community. We want to get the message out to more people that rural practice is a career choice you will never regret…SBS’s broadcast of Outback Healers and Heroines will be of great assistance in achieving that.”
Interviews filmed on location
Highlights of Outback Healers and Heroines: Women GPs in Rural Practice include interviews filmed on location with Dr Jennifer Delima, who currently works in Alice Springs but who began her rural practice at Kintore (540 kilometres west of Alice Springs), and Drs Annette Newson and Elizabeth Parsimei (an International Medical Graduate from Kenya), who are partners in a group practice in Barmera, in the Riverland district of South Australia.
SBS premiere broadcast details
Outback Healers and Heroines: Women GPs in Rural Practice (26 mins) - 3.30pm Thursday June 3rd on SBS One.
More information
For more information about the Outback Healers and Heroines program-including details of the case studies, presenters and associated educational resources - visit the program description page or contact the Foundation.