Medicine wasn't a path young Dr Casey Sullivan thought she'd take. At 16, she did her work experience at a veterinary clinic. "I always wanted to be a vet ... I did think it would be the best job ever, but I came to learn there were aspects I just wasn't built for," she said. A year later, her high school principal encouraged her to attend a Medical Science program designed to entice upcoming students at the University of Newcastle.
"Rurally, we struggle to get doctors," said Dr Sullivan. "It's difficult to attract doctors to rural medicine because there is this idea that they're unsupportive environments. They're secluded from the beach, from friends or family, all those sorts of things. "So, I wanted to make sure that doctors wanted to be here and stay here.