Primary healthcare nurses with Murrumbidgee Medicare Local Kay Nash, left, and Judy Reid, who organised health checks at the Jugiong polocrosse carnival on Saturday, are pictured with Canberra medical student Brendan Cantwell.
TWO medical students from Canberra got to experience what it could be like to work in a rural area when they took part in a health pit stop at the Jugiong polocrosse carnival on Saturday.
People attending the carnival were encouraged to call in at the health pit stop to have their blood pressure tested, have blood sugar tests and answer some basic health questions.
The pit stop was organised by primary healthcare nurses with Murrumbidgee Medicare Local Kay Nash and Judy Reid.
One of the aims in bringing the medical students to the carnival was to encourage them and other medical students to consider working in a rural area when they finished their studies.
The students performing the health checks at the carnvial were medical student Brendan Cantwell, from the ANU, and Kimberly Laverty, who is completing her second year of nursing at the Canberra University.
Mr Cantwell, who is studying rural medicine this year, said that he really enjoyed the opportunity to get out and work in a rural community.
He said that from his experience working in rural areas gave him a chance to build a rapport with the people he was seeing.
“In country areas you have to be a jack of all trades,” he said, “and it is challenging but you get the chance to be really involved in the community.”
He said that the people he had seen at the carnival were very healthy and that he had not seen any high blood pressures among those he had seen which he attributed to their healthy outdoor lifestyles.
About 70 men took part in the health checks at the carnival.