GP internship creates a wider lens for medical trainees

A new internship offered through the University of Otago provides Trainee Interns with the opportunity to broaden their General Practice (GP) experience and supports local communities.

This inaugural GP Trainee Intern Elective Student Placement has been made possible by a generous donation from medical waste company Interwaste, with Turanga Health in Tairāwhiti the first host practice. Interwaste is New Zealand’s largest processor of medical waste and the only New Zealand specialist waste company, with a network of four processing facilities capable of processing medical and quarantine waste nationwide.

Through a donation of $7,000, Interwaste will help fund two sixth-year medical students keen on general practice to undertake their six-week elective in 2024/2025 in a GP setting.

Interwaste National Sales Manager Jason Leong says as the company has grown it has been better able to support community initiatives, and as a New Zealand-owned business it’s been important for Interwaste to give back to the communities it serves.

“As part of our initial sponsorship plan, we were looking to sponsor a PhD student in the waste and sustainability area,” says Jason. “We considered the internship opportunity a good fit given we work across the motu with medical waste. The University of Otago is also one of our customers, so we wanted to show support for the University given they support Interwaste.”

As a business operating in a challenging economic environment, he says Interwaste realises the cost pressures businesses are under.

“We know that every dollar helps, and contributions like this will help support the financial challenge that these wonderful practices bear to help train our future doctors.”

He says they hope the initiative will help students access the right training and support to continue their education and help prepare them for their careers.

“We’re proud that we’re supporting an initiative that will benefit the communities we are part of for the next generation. We believe that investing in our joint future through our communities is an important way of giving back to those communities that support our business.”

Reef Edwards (Ngāti Ranginui, Whakatōhea, Nuie, Samoa) is the first intern to be supported by the initiative.

Reef grew up in Tauranga and decided to study medicine when he was at high school and became aware of his own family’s health issues. “I thought it would be pretty nice if I could chip in and make a difference.”

During his earlier medical training, Reef spent time at Turanga Health as part of Otago’s Interprofessional Education Programme and was keen to return for further general practice experience before doing his first postgraduate year in Gisborne Hospital in 2025.

Turanga Health is a rural and Māori Primary Health Care provider, offering a range of health services in Tairāwhiti. While on the elective, Reef is based at their Waikohu Health Centre in Te Karaka, about 30km from central Gisborne.

“I thought it would be nice to get a little more exposure in the field. I like rural medicine, it seems quite different to the big urban centres,” says Reef.

“We have to do a lot here, in Gisborne not just Waikohu. You do a little bit more than what’s expected at your level, which is good exposure.

“With general practice, anyone can walk in with anything. It’s like tying together the knowledge you’ve gathered throughout the years and testing it out. It’s helped me gain a bit of confidence . . . there’s good support but often you get a lot of independence, which I think is a good bridging step with working independently.”

He also helps deliver the other services offered by Turanga Health in the community. “I’m trying to get amongst a bit of those, working closely with whānau in those more intimate spaces is pretty cool.”

Turanga Health Research and Development and Clinical Support Manager, Dr Shirley Keown, says the internship is an opportunity for Reef to apply his practice in a local context.

“It’s a good learning opportunity for him to be able to craft his skill a little bit more and extend his knowledge,” says Shirley.

She says they ensure students are involved in the community programmes at schools and marae, and not just focussed on patient contact at the clinic.

“It’s about trying to create a wider lens and approach to patient care, to whānau care. I think it’s really important to have an understanding about the communities that you serve.”

Reef’s supervisor Dr Mark Devcich says Waikohu is a free clinic, with a high Māori population and a mixed patient base.

“There’s lots of ill health and chronically unwell people,” says Mark. “It’s an interesting clinic. We do lots of mobile services to cover our area, we have mobile nursing, we do clinics in the local Area School, which is Years 1-13, we do in-house care, organise exercise programmes, organise dietary programmes.”

Turanga Health also hosts students at other stages of their medical training, and Mark says the hope is that through the internship and other placements, they help expand the medical education of doctors.

“If I can encourage people to get out of the hospitals and take up general practice as their career, I’m happy about that because we need more primary care doctors.

“There’s a huge inequity in Māori health in the country, so we’re doing our bit to try and close those gaps. He’ll [Reef] see our take on that. I hope he’s going to enjoy it and I hope maybe what he’ll get out of it is that he wants to get out of hospitals and into the real world of medicine.”

Reef says he has three options on his list for the future, with general practice currently at the top.

“I think eventually I’d like to do some more rural practice in the communities where I’m from, make may way to Ōpōtiki or Whakatāne or back to Tauranga.”

He says the internship is valuable for both students and communities. “Especially in the rural areas, any funding that can help support the local community is pretty good and the services they provide, but also giving an opportunity to someone like myself that wants to have a little bit more exposure in the rural areas, I really appreciate their support with that.”