Tell me about your work at Mid North Coast Local Health District and what you love about it
Well, I’ve got three jobs. The primary one is as senior physio for the Coffs Harbour chronic pain service, and I’ve just got a job as a clinical research physiotherapist for a clinical trial. The study’s looking at the impact of healthy lifestyles as a way of managing pain in regional areas. I also work in the knee and hip osteoarthritis programme in Nambucca Heads one day a fortnight. I think I like the variety. I’ve always liked different jobs. I get a bit bored in just doing one job. And I think working regionally you get a good mix of people that you see – farmers and coastal people and everything and everyone in between.
What first inspired you to combine research with your clinical role?
I think I’ve always liked research. I like to read articles and that came from studying physiotherapy. And I’ve always followed evidence-based practise as much as possible. We go back to what works best, what does the evidence tell us? I’m not up with everything all the time but I think it’s our responsibility to use evidence so I feel I should be involved in research studies when I’m asked.
Being in Coffs Harbour, there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity to be involved in research, but that’s changing. In the last couple of years there’s been a lot of research about chronic pain, and I think, because of my role as the pain physio, I seem to be the first person that people come to and ask to be involved.
NSWRHP has recently awarded you a grant to implement and evaluate a pain management coordinator and educator outreach service in Port Macquarie Hastings. What motivated you to apply for this grant?
There’s a big need in the Port Macquarie area. There is almost no support for people with chronic pain. We run a small pain management service in Coffs, and I tried to do an outreach service, but unfortunately there’s not enough funding. We get referrals from Port Macquarie GPs looking for something for their patients and I feel a bit helpless up here, trying to help people in in the Port area. When the opportunity came up to trial something in that area, I was pretty happy to be involved because there’s a massive gap.
We know they need a service down there, but you have to prove that the service works. I’m hoping that having a pain coordinator, someone who can look into what’s available and help people on the ground, will make a difference.
Do you think that being involved in research helps you in your clinical role?
I think we’ve almost got to justify what we do because I don’t like people being ripped off. It disturbs me to hear some of the things that people do in the name of clinical care – things that cost a lot of money and have impacted my patients emotionally.
The whole point of doing what we do is to help people and you’re more likely to help someone if you’re using a treatment that has been proven to work. Ethically I’m not sure I’d be able to do what I do if I wasn’t using research-backed treatments.
Do you have any advice for other clinicians who are interested in research?
We get the impression that it’s a lot of work on top of our already loaded up schedules, but there are lots of ways to be involved and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Sometimes it’s just giving researchers information about practice on the ground and the practicalities of working with people and in the system, which sometimes they may not have a good grasp of.
I think it’s important for clinicians if they can be involved, even if it’s a small amount, it doesn’t take a lot of time and it’s important for researchers to know what’s actually happening so they can design research that helps us. There’s no point doing research that Isn’t useful to clinicians on the ground.
What do you love most about working in rural health?
I think it’s challenging because you don’t have the resources like they do in the city, and you don’t have so many specialists, so sometimes you need to be a bit more innovative to try and help people problem solve. This is quite a low socio economic area so there are lots of social barriers around treatment and recovery. I find it really interesting to try and help those who don’t have many opportunities.
There’s a certain casualness to people who work in rural and regional areas which I like. You’ve got to be pretty flexible and you do get thrown things, all sorts of things at you on a day-to-day basis. So, I find we’re all pretty open and flexible. And it’s easy to travel to work!
Can you share a game changer moment or an accomplishment you’re particularly proud of?
The pain clinic that we run up here was basically started by the four of us who work there. There was a clinical nurse consultant, a clinical psychologist, an admin support and me. In 2018 they put the four of us together, four strangers in a room, and said here’s some funding go and design a programme.
So we did a bit of research, of course, and looked at and visited some other pain services and then came up with our own model, which has been quite successful. We’re benchmarked against other Australia and New Zealand clinics and we’re one of the best in terms of outcomes[1] .
What do you think has made your clinic so successful?
I don’t know. It’s a good question. We thought maybe it was just our lovely personalities, but our model has now been adopted in Lismore and their outcomes have also improved. They’re lovely people as well up there so that could be part of it. It might also be because we’re regional and we’re small and we get to know the patients really well. Or maybe it is the actual content and not just us. We keep up with the latest evidence and we are constantly tweaking our programme.
It’s been something that’s been really good to be involved in because chronic pain is certainly a passion of mine. Since I graduated, I’ve always liked to work with pain. It’s such an interesting and exciting area to work in – it’s ever evolving and it’s really interesting.
Outside of work, what are your hobbies or interests?
I’ve come out of retirement and I’m playing soccer again. That’s been interesting. It’s been about seven years or so since I last played, so it’s an interesting challenge to my body. I’m doing that because the kids play so I thought I better get on it. I’d like to play with my daughter at some point. She’s 13, so it’d be nice to be on her team and play with her at some point in my life, and then I might retire again.
What’s an interesting or unexpected fact that others might not know about you?
I’m pretty gregarious but the flip side of that is I do like quiet time. I Like cloud gazing and star gazing. People who know me would probably be surprised that I can actually stand still and do nothing.
[1]electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration (ePOCC) https://www.uow.edu.au/australasian-health-outcomes-consortium/eppoc/
