A dream to become a flying doctor with the Royal Flying Doctor Service came true, in part, for UNE medical graduate Lieu-Chi Nguyen. It’s just that her first flying consults were as a doctor of psychiatry.
Still, Lieu-Chi is ample proof of the adage that those who study in rural and regional Australia often boomerang back to provide much-needed care. She’s spent all but six months of her training and subsequent career in a metropolitan centre and is now a staff specialist with the Cairns Hinterland and Hospital Health Service Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Service.
“I grew up in inner Sydney but was always interested in rural life, having heard stories from my Mum about her childhood on a farm in Vietnam that had rice paddies and tropical fruit orchards. I didn’t enjoy city life – the busyness, pollution and lack of space.
“When I enrolled in the Joint Medical Program at UNE in 2010, I received a rural bonded scholarship, which had a regional service obligation, but I had always had the RFDS in the back of my mind. I thought the idea of providing health care to people who couldn’t easily access it was a noble cause.”
Fast forward to 2021 and Lieu-Chi was indeed airborne, initially as a fly-in fly-out psychiatry trainee, then staff specialist psychiatrist for Queensland Health.
“We provided mental health outreach to the Torres Strait and Cape York – these tiny towns and First Nations communities, many of which had old stories and histories of displacement and trauma but also resilience and connection. There was often limited primary health care delivery, and I would fly in every three months or so or, if there was urgent need for psychiatric input, provide a service via Telehealth.”
Previous medical student experiences in Broken Hill and Goondiwindi and then locum psychiatrist experiences in Alice Springs had given Lieu-Chi a taste of the far-flung and a stomach for travelling in small aircraft. As well as a deep appreciation of health care disparities.
“Because I studied regionally at UNE and had lived regionally since I was 18, I appreciated the health barriers and challenges experienced by people from rural backgrounds. It is important to incorporate regionality into care and to understand that experiences and perspectives differ between regions.
“It has been a privilege to visit the regions I’ve been to and to help people in real need. Over time, you get to know people and develop trust. When you work in these communities it becomes a microcosm of the entire health service.”
Not one to remain idle, Lieu-Chi completed a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 2021 – study that, at times, coincided with a Bachelor of Arts, to satisfy her ambitions for writing fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry.
These days, she juggles her part-time Cairns clinical role with PhD studies in UNE’s School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences – her research explores fictional portrayals of complex mental illness and its impact across Australia, including navigating mental ill-health in regional, rural and remote areas.
“It all keeps life interesting and enables me to maintain my varied interests in mental and population health in rural and regional Australia while studying and pursuing creative writing. I’ve been fortunate to have travelled to some amazing places with my work, and it all started at UNE with my medical degree.
I feel like I grew up with UNE – moving away from home and gaining my independence – and it set me up for life. I’m very grateful to have received the clinical training I did.
