Nowotny heads program to mentor rural doctors
As a young paediatrician, Michael Nowotny, and his new wife Jo, wanted to do something fun. So they moved to Darwin.
“It was a very busy unit and in the wet season it was crazy because we had really, really sick Aboriginal children come into the hospital all the time,” Michael said.
“We worked really hard, but developed good independence, problem solving skills, and learnt how to deal with finite resources.”
It’s those sort of learning opportunities that the Warragul-based paediatrician wants available to junior doctors in Gippsland.
It’s why he will head up the Gippsland Regional Training Hub, one of Monash University’s two new regional training hubs that are working to create clearer pathways for medical graduates to do their specialist training in rural and regional Victoria.
The drain of junior doctors from regional areas takes place between their second and fourth years after graduation, he explained.
“There are really good opportunities for interns in Gippsland through a couple of well set up intern training programs.”
But after that training opportunities all but vanish, he said.
“Junior doctors who would like to stay in a regional area can't because there aren’t many training opportunities for them.
“These are really, really committed young doctors who have often have come from the region that they're working in, who would like to stay, and who would potentially like to work in the region long-term.
“Unfortunately once they're attracted out of the region and move to alternative regions, meet people in the region and partner those people, it's very hard to get them to come back.”
It was an opportunity 20 years ago – and family ties – that eventually drew Michael and Jo to Warragul from Darwin after seven years.
With Charles Hamilton, Michael established a paediatric practice that quickly grew from the two of them to five practitioners. Education was an important focus right from the start.
With his practice co-located with the Warragul hospital, he teaches in both his rooms and the hospital.
Michael is also head of paediatrics assessment with the College of Physicians.
“Mentoring young doctors is really important to me particularly in the rural space,” he said
“I am trying to be a rural voice to assist in making people understand how good it is to be working in a rural area.”
It’s an enjoyable lifestyle as well. Squeezed around his paediatric practice and teaching commitments, Michael plays the odd game of golf, and runs cattle on a 40-acre farm near Warragul where he and Jo raised their three children.
The farm might see a little less of him as he sets the foundations for the postgraduate training hub.