Going from odd jobs to ‘awesome’ life as a GP
Martin Mikaere has been a terrible high school student, an OK bricklayer, not a bad security guard, and a good nurse.
Now he’s found his groove as a doctor in Paeroa and is in his second year as a general practitioner (GP) registrar.
He was in the top 10 for a recent clinical exam and was chosen to give a speech to his peers at an annual conference.
But Mikaere’s first attempt at becoming a health professional didn’t go so well.
The Coromandel Peninsula boy describes himself as an unfocused school student and dyslexia added to the challenge.
He had a crack at nursing studies, but left after nine months.
‘‘I went and did bricklaying with my cousin, did some security stuff, worked at a planand-print place . . . just anything, really, but hated it all.’’
By age 20, he got back into nursing through a foundation course at Auckland’s Unitec.
A six-year career in emergency nursing eventually took him to the United States, where he bristled at a culture which discouraged nurses challenging doctors.
‘‘You just had a kid,’’ Mikaere’s father told him, ‘‘so if you think you can do better, do better.’’
So Mikaere, after a few drinks with his brother, applied for med school in Auckland and got accepted for a pre-med year.
If your image of a doctor is a stuffy guy in a white coat, Mikaere might be the person to shake that. He wanders out of his consult room in a grey tracksuit top and jeans, has bright eyes that hint at a bit of mischief, and he’s Ma¯ ori – just four per cent of GPs are, according to a 2017 workforce survey.
It’s Thursday, around lunchtime, and he runs after a patient with a forgotten coat before bringing his tall frame back to talk about becoming a GP.
He likes people, enjoys a good catch-up, and talks about being a doctor using phrases that wouldn’t be out of place in a Kiwi pub.
He likes the Waikato Medical School proposal, for example, ‘‘but people are hating on it’’.
‘‘If you do the classic, the smartest 18-year-old in the country process, you get some good, amazing doctors – I’m not s .... ing on those guys at all – but let’s have a little variety,’’ he said.
‘‘Let’s not just churn out the ones that have been to the private school, the ones that have had the protected education.’’
In the Paeroa area, where Mikaere’s working with Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki, some people look at you like you’ve got a third eye when they find out you’re a doctor.
‘‘When they come into the room, if they think I’m an arsehole, if they leave the room thinking, the guy’s not so bad, it’s a win.
‘‘One day they’re going to need something . . . and they won’t be like, nah, screw that, I’m not going to see that arsehole. They’ll think, the doc’s not too bad, I’ll go see him.’’
After graduating Mikaere got hooked on orthopaedics at Waikato Hospital, which led to 80to 100-hour weeks. He enjoyed it but didn’t have much time for wife Anna, son Harry and new daughter Ihipera.
That’s why he resigned from a Whangarei position and became a GP in Paeroa. And he loves it.
‘‘I feel like it’s a secret . . . I’ve got this awesome job – everybody could have it, but they don’t want it. Sweet, I’ll take it.’’
Mikaere is in his second year of GP specialist training at the Paeroa practice of Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki. His sister, Riana Manuel, is chief executive of Te Korowai – she told him to come home – and the pair grew up in Manaia, a bit further up the Coromandel Peninsula.
Some trainee doctors imagine general practice as ‘‘one cough after another’’, Mikaere says. ‘‘In a day, I’ll do a couple of procedures, maybe, where I put in [contraceptive implants] or remove a skin lesion. Then conversely, I’ll talk to a young person or an older person about depression, or identify somebody who’s suicidal.’’
Mikaere was chosen to deliver the Peter Anyon Memorial Address at the 2018 conference for general practice in July. Each year, a second-year GP registrar is nominated by their local medical educator and approved by conference and Royal NZ College of General Practitioners leaders.