SENIOR STAFF SPOTLIGHT - March - Dr Elissa Hatherly

• SENIOR STAFF SPOTLIGHT ~ INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY •

Welcome to our annual International Women’s Day Edition of the Senior Staff Spotlight! This project was born an entire year ago with Dr Danielle Wu. It was only ever supposed to be a once-off occasion, but I enjoyed doing it so much, that I decided to continue it on. While I feel interviewing every senior staff member enjoyable, spotlighting our female staff holds a particular importance and weight to me. Inspiring the next generation of young women in healthcare is what this project was initially all about, and I hope this next International Women’s Day feature does that!

So, without further ado, I introduce to you Dr Elissa Hatherly. I knew I had selected the right person for the job when she answered my first question with the phrase ‘pregnant pause.’ Elissa is a highly respected General Practitioner, with a special interest in Women’s Health, and is the Head of James Cook University Mackay Clinical School. She is an admirable role model to anyone in the healthcare field, myself included. So, without listing all her accolades (and there are many), I will let you see for yourself what a wonderful asset she is to our community.

1. You are a very busy woman, tell me about an average week in your life.

‘Pregnant pause.’

Well, I have three clinical days, two of these are spent as a GP at South Side Medical Centre. The other is spent in the Family Planning Clinic. These are my favourite days, but they are also my busiest, and I think if I did this full-time, I would be a non-functional human. So, the other two days are spent as the Head of Mackay Clinical School for James Cook University.

I love my work, and it’s a really privileged position to be in, because not everyone can say that they love what they do.

2. Your career is very centred around Women’s Health, what drew you to this?

This is what I always was interested in. Even when I was at school, I was always interested in biology, and I went to a great school where we had lots of great sex education. So, the importance of reproductive health and reproductive rights is something that I have always been aware of. And then at medical school, I really loved Obstetrics and Gynaecology (except for the hours, which I was not interested in pursuing). Going through general practice, I have been able to do a lot of women’s health and tailor a lot of my work toward that, whilst still maintaining a versatile base of patient’s.

I was fortunate to come to Mackay as a junior doctor. One of the GP Obstetricians who I worked with, Dr Judy Gardiner was about to start the Family Planning Clinic here in Mackay and asked if I wanted to join her. So, we started the Family Planning Clinic in 2004 and I have been doing it ever since!

3. Tell me a bit about the Family Planning Clinic

It is essentially a Gynaecology type of practice. It fills the gap of presentations that fall somewhere between General Practice and Obstetrics and Gynaecology specialists. I see a broad range of women, including the pubertal females who are just getting their periods, the older women that are post-menopausal, people who are seeking early fertility workups, contraceptive devices, and termination of pregnancy.

These things are all so important in this community where there can be limited access to these services.

4. How long have you been in Mackay, and what has kept you here?

So, I came here in 2002, and I never left. Which sounds really sad, but I think it’s awesome. We initially came here because my partner had a Rural Health Scholarship, and Mackay met all our needs inside and outside the hospital. I was one of five interns at that time, things were very different then. For example, patients coming to attend the fracture clinic would sit outside under a verandah to wait for their appointment.

I stayed in Mackay because of that small hospital atmosphere. It is a very collegiate place, where people want you to do well. No one wants you to fail and everyone wants to support you in what it is that you want to pursue. Even as junior doctors, we worked so closely with our seniors, and that was so beneficial.

It has also given me so much variety, and opened a lot of career paths for me that may not have been possible in a bigger place. For example, I worked in the Aboriginal Health Service, the Breast Screen Service, in different clinics in Mackay and in Sarina as well.

Mackay has been a wonderful place to begin and continue my career. There are so many possible avenues to take, and you are not just getting that mainstream approach into a specialty program. You get to know your strengths and weaknesses well and build wonderful connections. I feel that I have been able to build a career around both what I am passionate about, and what serves the community.

We have also raised three beautiful children here, and Mackay has been good to us. Hopefully we have also been good to Mackay!

5. So now we know what you do inside of work hours, but what do you like to do outside of them?

Do I have a life outside of work? Yes, kind of.

I don’t have a lot of free time, but I do really like to hike. Last year I did the Great Ocean Walk. I was supposed to do the Carnarvon Walk this year, but I tore my calf muscle just before. I love travelling and hiking, and now that my kids are a bit older, I can do more of that. I have a trip planned to Iceland later this year as well.

Oh, and if I am having a Rose down at Ocean International, I am a happy camper.

6. You have a Podcast, tell me about it…

Oh yes, so this was a great brainstorming session between the Director of Clinical Training, Dr Stephen Lambert and myself. It is called ‘The Roundup.’

We decided we wanted to start this podcast, and we did our first episode on Intrauterine Devices, and it was not very good. But we persisted, because we wanted to create information to share to clinicians that was regionally appropriate to Mackay. And now we have very fancy microphones that we aren’t sure how to use. It is about keeping our clinicians skilled and broad, and giving the very best care to their patients possible. We started locally, and now we have clinicians joining us from lots of other places, including Cairns and Townsville.

(You can find The Roundup on Spotify, their website or outside Byrnes Café on a banner that can’t be missed!)

Thank you to Dr Hatherly for your time spent doing this interview with me.