Earlier this semester I completed my rural prac in Kalgoorlie. In an overall sense Kalgoorlie is quite a large town, but the portion of the town that is permanently based there is significantly lower. As such it falls prey to the usual country town syndrome of gossiping. From what other students have told me, they too have experienced this, whether it be another WA rural town or an international placement in a small community. Coupled with this is the fact that the majority of students are still in their early to mid 20's, a well known stage in life in which we are still prone to do silly and even stupid things.
During our rural pracs most of us would have worked longer hours than our metropolitan placements and had no days off. Therefore it is logical to assume that over the weekend we had quite a lot of steam to blow off. The country pubs and international nightspots in south east asia are great places to let your hair down and have a bit of a party. What I only realised after I had done my rural placement, was the potential for anything we had done over the weekend to trickle back to our places of work.
Luckily for me I had an established group of friends in Kalgoorlie and did not get up to any real mischief over the weekends. The real danger is the affect an event over the weekend, in a non-professional setting, can have on your professional reputation during the working week. Not only can you lose respect in the eyes of your fellow health professionals, but you could lose the respect and necessary authority that is needed to be an effective professional in the eyes of your patients. Especially the local ones who would know anything that happened to occur over the weekend. This affect may not even be obvious but it could be sneaky and insidious and undermine your reputation.
So although those that choose to work in a rural and remoter communities over the following years would be aware of this more than I could be, I thought it was important to re-iterate this point. Remember you can have plenty of fun, but be prepared for the consequences to your professional reputation if something you do is considered great gossip material.
2 comments:
What an awkward situation to find yourself in. Unfortunately I actually witnessed this sort of situation happen to two new graduate physio's on my rural placement. They had been out the last couple of weekends and had liaised with some of the local townsfolk. Much to their horror good new supposedly travels fast and one of thier patients actually brought up the incidents of the weekend in a group situation. I was not staying in the small town on weekends so was not present at the time of the incident, however could read the embarrassment that the physio felt and her difficulty to regain authority over the group class. Something to note for future reference that people do gossip and look up to you as a health professional, particulary if working in rural towns!
Ah good ol local gossip. i grew up in a small country town and quickly became aware that my parents would eventually find out what i had been getting up to by default. I guess you have to learn to remember that anyone could be your next client and while becoming better at confronting issues, just remember we're all human. keeping your social life and work life separte is not always an option.
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