Having served the community for over 40 years, Dr Harrison was announced as the Peter Graham ‘Cohuna’ Award winner at the recent Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine and Rural Doctors Association of Australia conference.
Named after Dr Graham, who was a dedicated doctor in Cohuna for nearly 50 years, the award honours outstanding advocacy and medical service to a community.
Dr Harrison was recognised for training hundreds of medical students and junior doctors, and contributing enormously to the work of multiple rural health organisations.
“I am incredibly lucky to have been able to follow my chosen career path, and to have been so involved in my community and the profession of rural medicine,” she said at the conference.
“Training the next generation of rural doctors has really been the icing on the cake.”
Following her second year as a hospital medical officer in Melbourne, Dr Harrison and her husband, Ian, laid their foundations in Echuca and had two daughters in town.
While the young family had a two-year stint in the UK during Dr Harrison’s anaesthetic training, the community’s appeal drew them back from overseas.
Upon her return in 1989, rural doctors were on strike, and there was much discussion about the formation of the Rural Doctors Association in Victoria.
With Dr Graham nearby and heavily involved in the movement, the pair’s association was sparked by their mutual interests.
“I joined RDAV and ACRRM early on, and continued my journey as a partner in our general practice, as well as working at Echuca Hospital,” Dr Harrison said.
“In my early days on the RDAV Committee, I would chauffeur Doc Graham to meetings ― I didn’t have to say much during those drives!
“He was such an inspirational rural doctor and a passionate advocate for better access to healthcare for rural communities.”
Across her career, Dr Harrison has been involved in general practice and Echuca Regional Health, where she expanded junior doctor education and worked as a director.
Through the University of Melbourne’s Echuca hub, Year 2 to 4 medical students are now training in town, which Dr Harrison said was “fantastic”.
She is currently the chair of the Senior Victorians Advisory Committee, where she hopes to highlight the challenges of access for rural older people, including to healthcare.
It seems she was destined for a career in medicine from a young age, which she reflected on at the conference.
“I grew up in small towns in Victoria, as my father was a teacher,” Dr Harrison said.
“My parents have told me I would carry a little home-made first aid kit when my sisters and I went off for our adventures in the bush.”
While studying to become a doctor at the University of Melbourne, she recalled a surgeon making a sexist remark about prospective female doctors taking up “valuable places” in the course.
Dr Harrison said progress since then had been hard fought, but inroads have been made in recognising the valuable contributions female doctors make to health settings.
RDAA president Dr Sarah Chalmers praised Dr Harrison for her exceptional contribution to the Rural Doctors Association movement over her many years of involvement.
“For many, especially women in rural health, Sue has been a role model and a source of steady inspiration,” she said.
“We warmly congratulate her on receiving this highly deserved award.”
26°C