From Disney to the Outback: Emergency Medicine with Dr Tim Turk

What do Disney cruise ships, rural hospitals, and music festivals have in common? For Dr. Tim Turk, they’ve all been part of his incredible medical journey. In this episode of It Takes Heart, Tim chats with hosts Sam and Kate about how saying “yes” to unique opportunities has led him across continents, specialties, and communities - creating a career rich in purpose, adventure, and impact.

Tim shares how rural medicine offers unparalleled hands-on experience, often accelerating learning and confidence in ways metropolitan placements can’t match. His insights reveal how a values-driven approach - shaped in part by his time with Disney - can turn even the briefest patient interaction into something meaningful.

Tim also reflects on his time as a festival medic, working alongside pill testing teams and witnessing firsthand the powerful shift toward harm reduction. These collaborative efforts not only saved lives but transformed the environment, dramatically reducing hospitalisations and creating safer spaces for young people. It’s a conversation full of heart, humanity, and bold career lessons for every healthcare professional.

It Takes Heart is hosted by cmr CEO Sam Miklos, alongside Head of Talent and Employer Branding, Kate Coomber. 

We Care; Music by Waveney Yasso 

More about Tim's Organisation of Choice, Rural Doctors Association of Queensland.
Rural Doctors Association of Queensland (RDAQ) is a member-based not-for-profit organisation that provides advocacy and support services to rural doctors. Their aim is to ensure access to quality healthcare for rural and remote Queenslanders.

Get to know cmr better!
Follow @ittakesheartpodcast on Instagram, @cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment on Linked In, @cornerstonemedrec on TikTok and @CornerstoneMedicalRecruitment on Facebook.

Get to know cmr better!
Follow @ittakesheartpodcast on Instagram, @cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment on Linked In, @cornerstonemedicalrec on TikTok and @CornerstoneMedicalRecruitment on Facebook.

Episode Transcript

Sam Miklos (00:00):
Welcome to it Takes Heart.
I'm Kate and I'm Sam, and wecan't wait to share more
incredible stories of healthcareprofessionals making an impact
across Australia.

Tim Turk (00:08):
So they're going to go out, they're going to take
their drugs, which is fine.
If you want to take drugs, takedrugs, but if something goes
wrong, they always know themedical team is there to help
them if needed, and we maintainthat non-judgmental we are here
to help you.
I always remember in Kingaroywe had med students that stayed
with us for the entire year andin the first few months they
usually would do more than theircolleagues would do in the

(00:29):
entire year back in a majorhospital like we, because we
would teach them IVs, sutures,stuff like that within a week or
two.

Kate Coomber (00:42):
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the
land of which we meet who, forcenturies, have shared ancient
methods of healing and cared fortheir communities.
We pay our respects to elders,past and present.

Sam Miklos (00:58):
Today we are joined by Dr Tim Turk, who is an active
member of our CMR Doctorscommunity.
Originally from Canada, tim hasa passion for emergency
medicine.
He began his career would yousay that he began his career as
an emergency nurse.
He was even a paramedic for abrief period.
Tim travelled the world as anurse unit manager on a Disney
cruise liner for many yearsuntil he met an Aussie girl and

(01:18):
eventually has settled inAustralia.
Now, a rural and remotespecialist, tim lives in
Queensland with his wife andworks a load of jobs.
But the highlight maybe but thismight change is locating in
some rural locations, working asa doctor on the defence base
and also working as a medic atvarious music and community
events.

(01:38):
Probably that is like a veryhigh-level summary.

Tim Turk (01:41):
Tim, it's great to have you here.
That's sort of the top threejobs, the top three.
I can't wait to hear about theothers.

Sam Miklos (01:46):
Yeah, yeah, welcome to, it Takes.

Tim Turk (01:48):
Heart.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, it's good to be here,thank you.

Sam Miklos (01:51):
That's quite a life and a lot of adventure.
But can we just talk aboutDisney for a moment, because I
went on a Disney cruise with myfamily last year for four days,
yeah, yeah, how long were you?

Tim Turk (02:09):
so I worked there for about a bit over five years on a
boat, on well, so no, so youdid you do four months on, two
months off, right, um, and that,you know, was revolving
contract.
So, whatever the four monthshappened to be, if that was
christmas and new year's, youwere on board.
If that was the middle of summer, slash winter time yeah yeah,
so four months straight on theship, um, and two months off,
and then they would usually callme back during the two months
for like a week or two at a time, just because I worked hard.

(02:30):
So they wanted me on boardevery so often to like if
something happened, if a nursegot sick, they knew they could
just give me a ring and I couldfly into some random location
and hop on board and startsmiling the next day, kind of
thing.

Kate Coomber (02:40):
Yeah, but yeah, it was about five years.
And is it like working indisney, where smiles always on?

Sam Miklos (02:44):
oh yeah, music always playing and like what is
it?
Yeah, what's the best bit aboutthat job?
What is the worst thing?

Tim Turk (02:50):
oh, I mean the best bit, like I mean because it's
working on a cruise ship.
So you're traveling, you'regoing all over the like I did.
I did the mediterranean, I didthe baltic, uh, like multiple
places in the mediterranean.
I did transatlanticings, acouple of them.
I did all around the Caribbean,I did through the Panama Canal,
I did the East Coast of the USand I did the Mexican Riviera

(03:11):
and just I mean over and over,like every week or every 10 or
11 days, we'd do a cruise, soI'd go back to the same ports
over and over again, which meantthat you started to learn them
more and more and you got toknow the nice places to go and
you found the good restaurantsand the good gelato places and
yeah you know, and so that wasreally fun and but yeah, I mean
it's, it is disney.
So you were like we weretechnically we worked for a

(03:32):
separate contracted company butwe worked for disney and and you
, so you had to be on all thetime.
Um, you know, you were, you'resmiling, you're special points,
and so the two finger points andthings like that's an all the.
You actually went and did it.

Sam Miklos (03:44):
I was like what's a point?

Tim Turk (03:46):
Because if you point with one finger, you can
identify a single person Someonemight feel pointed out in a
crowd, whereas if you're usingyour whole hand to gesture, or
two fingers, it's obvious thatyou're telling someone where to
go or what to do.
So we actually did.
You actually do three days ofit's called Disney university
university and you do three daysat the parks in florida where

(04:08):
they teach you all this stuff,um, and you learn history of
disney and you learn like youknow care and quality stuff and
uh, presentation, and then allthe safety stuff of you know how
to get in a lifeboat and whatto do if the fire alarm sounds
and all that kind of good stuffand and um and that kind of kept
going on the ship as well, likethe training and whatnot.
Um, which kind of turned intothe worst thing too, because you
were never not on.

Sam Miklos (04:28):
Yeah, it must have been exhausting.
I felt like overstimulated.
I was so happy.
I was like I just need to geton for a minute.

Tim Turk (04:35):
Well, it's fun because you have the background music
all the time.
You have the music, you knowthere's people walking around
all the time, everyone's smilingand all you know, and most of
the people there really do enjoythemselves.

Kate Coomber (04:47):
They like working there they're having fun.

Tim Turk (04:48):
But the nurses, the doctors, deck crew, stuff like
that.
We're all part of the emergencyresponse teams, so you're on
100% of the time.
So if there's a medicalemergency and it's the middle of
the night and you're supposedto be at work the next day,
you're getting up and you'rerunning somewhere on the ship to
help people.
And you might not like.
We had someone have a heartattack halfway across the
Atlantic one time and you can'tgo anywhere.

(05:10):
You're stuck.
So we're looking after him 24hours a day.
So we have an like.
The medical centers on the shipare four or five consulting
rooms, kind of like an ICU setup, a couple of treatment rooms
and things like that.

Sam Miklos (05:19):
Yeah, like proper, so you can actually manage it.

Kate Coomber (05:21):
Yeah, but we had to do.

Tim Turk (05:22):
you know, there's only three nurses and we had to run
24 hour care on this guy, so weended up doing kind of like 12
on 12 off shifts plus the restof our work to look after this
one woman actually.
One person that was really,really sick and I mean you can
only do so much, like youcouldn't get a helicopter out
there because the seas were toorough.
So we asked them to speed up,but you know you can't, it's a

(05:46):
shit.

Kate Coomber (05:48):
It's not like a car where you can floor it kind
of thing.

Tim Turk (05:50):
You know it's you know , I think they added, they took
about six hours off thetransatlantic crossing, which is
, you know, impressive, um, butit, you know, it doesn't really
change a lot for you.
You're still working, you'reyou're still working pretty hard
, um, and and you know, but itwas fun, it was great fun.
I mean I would.
I would go back in a heartbeat,but, um, it's not.

Sam Miklos (06:11):
You have to know what you're getting into, um can
I ask do you like um, if plutois having an off day, is it like
tim?
You're on a 12 hours off.
Can you be Pluto Like?

Tim Turk (06:22):
do you sub into that?
No, no, no.
So the how can I say this?

Sam Miklos (06:33):
I feel like it's a yes, there's a story there.

Tim Turk (06:35):
No, so all of the characters and stuff all live on
board the ship and they're verystrict on their scheduling and
stuff to make sure they getenough breaks and enough rest.
But everyone has more than onejob.
You know, I actually met mywife on board the ship.

Sam Miklos (06:50):
Yeah, because I remember you'd see them on there
Like there'd be this place andthere'd be that place.

Tim Turk (06:54):
That's why I asked.

Sam Miklos (06:55):
Everyone works lots of jobs, yeah, so I mean she did
.

Tim Turk (06:58):
She was actually a lifeguard and she sold the shore
excursions.
And she sold the shoreexcursions and she would do the
greeting at the theaters atnighttime and then she would do
guest info sometimes as well.
So everyone did multiple jobs.
The only people that didn't domultiple jobs were kind of like
the guys who drove the ship andthe medical team.
Yeah, because we were kind ofthere just to be doctors and
nurses, very specialized yeah.

(07:18):
I mean we're pretty specializedbut we still were.
You know you had to go and dothe meet and greets.
We were officers, so we had togo do meet and greet officer
things.
We had to go do stuff in therestaurant.
Sometimes we do tours, we doyeah.

Kate Coomber (07:29):
Yeah, wow, yeah.
Do you hear Disney songs nowand just hide?

Sam Miklos (07:34):
Well, I've got two four-year-olds so I hear Disney
songs a lot.
You're deep in Disney or rightback there.
Well.

Tim Turk (07:40):
I don't mind it.
After a while you just kind ofget used to it.
You know, I can sing along witha lot of it just as well.
And you know, I think the bestpart was also I was there when
Disney took over Marvel as well.
Yeah, so we got to watch allthe movies the day before they
came out.
Yeah, because they would showthem to the staff and the crew

(08:02):
the day before.
They would set up a theaterjust for crew and we'd have like
popcorns and beverages andstuff.

Kate Coomber (08:07):
Oh yeah, like it was a full on premiere.

Tim Turk (08:08):
but we could dress down, we could have fun and we
were watching a movie likeeasily 48 hours before the rest
of the world would see the movie.
because we need to be able totalk about it, we need to be
able to tell people like, oh,you really want to go see it and
don't leave after this and youreally can't you're not going to
believe what happens to thischaracter and yeah, we had to
talk everything up on the shipand because you're stuck there
and you know, yeah, so premieresat sea and with the ears, with

(08:31):
ears, of course.

Kate Coomber (08:32):
Yeah, so healthcare staff with high, high
levels customer service that'sgoing to then work for you in
your future life?

Sam Miklos (08:39):
Yeah, because that is what.
When you said you've got toknow what you're getting into,
like that would be part of ittoo, yeah.

Tim Turk (08:44):
And that's actually probably the part of it that's
followed me through most of mycareer is the patient is their
guest.
You know we don't call thempassengers, they're guests.
They are there to be treated,they're there to be helped, but
you know they're having a badday and you need to do
everything you possibly can tomake them feel better about
themselves.
And you need to talk to themand you talk to their family.

(09:05):
You need to deal witheverything.
You have to be nice toeverybody.

Sam Miklos (09:07):
You have to smile, you have to give them an
experience.

Tim Turk (09:09):
You have to help them be happy again.
And that just kind of continues.
And it's that sort of idea ofif it takes you two extra
seconds or five minutes to dosomething that will make
someone's day significantlybetter, just do it.
You know like little thingslike that is what we were just
and that was expected on theship.
But then when you start doingit in kind of real life,
everyone's just kind of lookingat you like why are you doing?

(09:31):
that that must have been yeah,it doesn't hurt you, it doesn't
hurt you.

Kate Coomber (09:34):
It doesn't stop me from doing anything.
Why are you?

Tim Turk (09:35):
smiling.

Sam Miklos (09:36):
Yeah, like, why are you smiling?

Tim Turk (09:43):
at you for five minutes, it's like because they
needed to rant to somebody forfive minutes.
And now that they're doneranting, they're calm and we can
talk to we can actually so.

Kate Coomber (09:48):
So take us back.
Like you were a nurse, aparamedic, now a doctor, how is
that even possible?

Sam Miklos (09:55):
because I was expecting you to walk in here
and be really old like to havegone through all of these.
Trust me, I feel like a lot ofstudy, like yeah yeah.
How does that all come together?

Tim Turk (10:06):
So left high school obviously at like 18, you know
when everyone else does and wentstraight into nursing school,
which is a four years ofbachelor of science degree in
nursing.

Kate Coomber (10:14):
In Canada, In Canada yeah.

Tim Turk (10:16):
So went to McMaster in Hamilton, got my degree,
started working in critical careand ED Actually did a lot of ED
psychiatry work just because itwas fun and interesting and no
one else wanted the job.
So I got it right out of school, which is really rare, really
enjoyed it but thought I kind ofdidn't want to do.
Some of the patient care stuffin the hospitals was getting a
little frustrating because youknow you spent more time

(10:37):
documenting than actuallytreating people and that was
getting frustrating.
So I went.
I just was, like on a whim,applied to paramedic school, um,
and got in um, and I don't knowwhy I got in.
I still don't actually know whyI got in because apparently
there was a wait list that yearand it's very competitive, it's
and that's it.
and I tell people like Iliterally just applied for it on
a whim on a night shift andfilled out the paperwork and

(10:59):
filled out the like.
I had to write an essay andthere's like, hilarious, it was
one of those nights wherethere's like two patients in the
ED and both of them were asleepand I'm like, oh, I'm just
going to sit here and write apaper, you know, and I sat down
and wrote everything andsubmitted it and got in how long
had you been nursing at thatpoint?

Sam Miklos (11:12):
Eight months maybe.
Do you wonder if the nursingcomponent fast-tracked you a
little bit?

Tim Turk (11:18):
Probably not, not in Canada at least it's it's very
they're very separated degrees,uh.
So but you know, so got in,went straight back into school,
basically went uh did two yearsparamedics, uh to add on to that
and, um, really, really enjoyedbeing a paramedic and it was
very much my kind of medicineand I enjoyed doing the work did
you keep the nursing?
yeah, actually when I was inschool I would work as a nurse

(11:40):
yeah um, which will come backwhen I become a doctor too.
Yes, but yes.
But then I so I became aparamedic and enjoyed it, loved
it, had a lot of fun.
But also, this is Canada.
I hated dealing with people onthe side of the road when it's
minus 30 and there's no light,and you know people are driving
past too fast on a snowy roadand you're just like.

(12:01):
You know, I really like heatingand fluorescent lights.
This is this is a little much,so all right, whatever, what can
I do differently?
And that's when, um, I randomly, you know, I looked at cruise
ships and I didn't even knowthat disney had a cruise line at
that point.
Um, I knew disney existedbecause you don't, unless you've
got kids yeah, I didn't untilseeking out the disney cruise so

(12:24):
I I actually applied to a fewother cruise lines and then
someone kind of commented like,oh, apply to this company too,
they do Disney.
I was like, disney has cruiseships Cool, all right.
Applied and they called me andI was like, yeah, you know, did
an interview on the phone and,you know, talked to them and did
some clinical scenarios withtheir nurse practitioner that
they had working for them, andthey were like, okay, we'd be
really happy, but when can youstart?

(12:45):
I'm like, well, I mean, when doyou need me?
And they're like well, whatabout next week?
And this is like Monday.
And they needed me on board theship Tuesday, the next week.

Sam Miklos (12:55):
I was like it's like a theme.

Tim Turk (12:57):
Yeah.

Kate Coomber (12:58):
You've got to do all of that training.

Tim Turk (13:00):
Then that was the thing is like, so can you do it?
And I'm like, well sure, Irealized at that point, I mean,
that's how much you're going topay me, kind of thing.

Kate Coomber (13:07):
But I was like I guess why not.

Tim Turk (13:16):
And they're like, OK, well, so we're going to send you
the flight details for yourflight out on Wednesday.
You're going to come to Floridaand then you're going to get
had to like pull up.
This is, I mean, I'm old, sothis is like pre-Google Maps.
I have a few questions I had topull up a map and be like, okay,
where am I going?
Oh, I'm going there.
And then the crew okay, great,Whatever Trust it.

(13:37):
Just what's the worst thatcould happen is kind of how I
lived.
You know, I spent four nightsin the resorts in Disney and
because you work for them, yougot free access to the parks.
So we would do class forusually about four or five hours
a day and then they would justkind of dismiss us and there's
buses, like there's free busesin Disney.
So we'd just get on a bus and belike which park do we want to
go to today?
It's like oh, let's go to theAnimal Kingdom today, why not?

(13:59):
Like it's.

Kate Coomber (13:59):
It's all free, we don't care.

Tim Turk (14:01):
Let's go check it out.
So we went and saw three of themajor parks in those three days
, kind of thing We'd go todowntown Disney at nighttime and
just have fun, learn a lot Likelearned a lot, but just had a
lot of fun too and then hoppedon the ship.
And how did you then become adoctor?
So the last contract I did forDisney.

(14:21):
So when I started working forDisney they only had two cruise
ships.
Now they have five and almostsix.
I think I think the sixth one'scoming out next year, but I
don't know anymore.
I was the first crew when theyso they had these two ships for
about 10 years and then theywere like all right, we need to
expand, we're doing really well,we need to expand.
So they bought two new ones.
They built two new ones.
You don't buy a cruise ship.

Sam Miklos (14:45):
It's so.
They can't go to a dealership,can't go to a dealership.

Tim Turk (14:46):
So they had to, you know, maybe after COVID, well
it's actually anyway, but theyso they were building two new
ships and the first one to comeout was the Disney Dream.
And I went to Bremerhaven inGermany and I was the first crew
, I was part of the first crewthat brought it over to North
America to start working againin the Caribbean.
And that was my last contractand I kind of was getting a

(15:12):
little bit bored doing nursing,liked it, I was enjoying it.
But I was just like, oh youknow, should I be a nurse
practitioner?
Should I just do a criticalcare certificate?
Like, what should I do next?
And I was in the US at thispoint, like I'd basically been
living in the US for six yearsat this point, five years at
this point.
And I just went like, well,I'll just apply to med school.

Sam Miklos (15:27):
Again like why not, why not, why not?

Kate Coomber (15:30):
Actually it was a day.

Tim Turk (15:32):
But it was hilarious because, you know like, people
asked me like well, what wereyou doing?
I was like, well, I wasactually sitting on the filling
out a med school application,just chilling on a cruise ship
filling out a med schoolapplication, and it was the same
kind of thing.
I got a call a few weeks later.
They did an interview andthey're like hey, do you want to
join us?
I'm like I guess I'm going togo be a doctor now.

Kate Coomber (15:58):
So you're very relaxed about how these things
have come about, but clearlyyou're highly intelligent and
must have very good application.
Very good application, but alsothe I guess how well you did at
university and things like that.
There must have been some, youknow.

Tim Turk (16:14):
I was a solid B student.
I was never.
I was not even remotely thesmartest person in my class, by
any means.
I was sixth in my med schoolclass, so close to fifth.

Sam Miklos (16:24):
But I was sixth Top ten.

Kate Coomber (16:24):
Yeah well, fifth, but I was sick, but you know,
like yeah, well, that's what.

Sam Miklos (16:30):
I tell people I'm in top 10.
But I can't say top five, it'sreally annoying, but you know,
and that's, that's fine.

Tim Turk (16:34):
You know, and I, you know, I realized in med school
like I really actually have tostudy this stuff, like this is
really important.
Now, you know, I'm realizedbecause I had the background of
the nursing, I had thebackground of the paramedic.
I could see the you know thesedoctors that were making the
decisions that I always justrolled my eyes at and thought
they were being silly.
They actually really weremaking big, big decisions, like

(16:55):
if you make the wrong choice,really bad things can happen.
So I'm like I really shouldstudy hard for this kind of
thing.
So I studied really hard in medschool.
I did well, but no nursing andparamedic.
I was a B-ish student, you know, 80s-ish kind of student.

Sam Miklos (17:12):
Did you then go into emergency medicine, like as
soon as you graduated medicalschool?
Like there seems to have beenthat theme, but then, when I
said it earlier, you're likewhat?

Tim Turk (17:20):
No, so I like ED, don't get me wrong no-transcript

(17:48):
.
I'd done all the USMLE testing.
I had all my American stuffdone.

Kate Coomber (17:52):
Yeah.

Tim Turk (17:53):
Came over to Australia and they went you don't qualify
, yeah.
I was like, why not?
And they're like well, youhaven't mean these AMC exams
that you guys use the USMLE tolike base your questions off of.
I'm like you just realized Ifinished all of those exams.
They're like, yeah, no, theydon't count.
All right, fair enough.
When can I write those exams?
Oh, the next one's in sixmonths.

(18:13):
Okay, what am I going to do forsix months?
Well, it turned out my nursinglicense transferred and they
were.
Opera was like do you want tobe a nurse Like I?

Sam Miklos (18:24):
mean so?

Tim Turk (18:24):
this is great.
I'm like that's totally fine.

Kate Coomber (18:28):
Are there nursing jobs here?
Well, that was my next questionand I was like well, is it hard
?

Tim Turk (18:32):
Like I'm talking to Opera at this point and you know
, like I didn't know anythingabout it.
I was like whatever, I'll justask these people Is it hard to
find nursing jobs?
And I'm like was that a goodlaugh or bad?
I'm not going to ask.
Like your future is my futureis in your hands.
I'm not going to insult you.
Okay, cool, cool, great cool.
Yeah, I'll take my nurse'slicense.
That's fine.
And they're like okay, send usthese two pieces of paper.
And I sent them over and Ibecame a nurse.

(18:54):
So I was actually Dr Timothy RNon my nurse's and my medical
license at the same time,because one hadn't expired my
nurse's license hadn't expiredyet.
So people would look me up andthey're like are you a doctor or
a nurse?
I'm like well, according toOpera, I'm actually both right
now.
But I worked in Darwin, for Ibasically studied for the AMC

(19:19):
exams while I worked up inDarwin and then we moved to
Queensland and I did all theclinical exams and stuff and
then I started internship inQueensland.

Kate Coomber (19:27):
How long did that take?
So?

Tim Turk (19:28):
the AMC wasn't for six months.
Like how long does?
It actually take you to studyand prepare, so I just basically
, I took the very first time soyou actually can go on a wait
list Again, this sort of classiclast minute like what are you
doing next week, so they.
So I just, but I sort of justfinished med school so I was

(19:48):
really in a study kind of mode,so I just grabbed all the study
material for the amc um and Ijust started studying for it and
I just kept studying, basically, and kept reading and kept
doing all the work and keptkeeping up on stuff and working
um did a lot of night shifts,because that's the best time to
study um and uh became a.
So how did how did that end upmapping?
So I think I got a call middleof the week, one week that you

(20:11):
know there were two options youcould either come to adelaide
from darwin to adelaide or youcould do perth um, and the
flights from darwin to adelaidewere cheaper.
So I said, okay, sure, I'll doadelaide.
Well, when is that?
Tesla?
It's on wednesday or thursday,the week week.
No worries, I'll see you there.
So I think I had to wait aboutfour months.
And then you have to do aclinical exam too.
It's like an OSCE styleclinical exam, which is that's

(20:33):
fine, I get it.
You want to make sure people canspeak English and do clinical
work.

Kate Coomber (20:37):
And actually treat .

Sam Miklos (20:38):
Actually talk to somebody and stuff like that.

Tim Turk (20:40):
I get it and and that was the same thing.
It was like, oh, when's thenext one?
I was eight months from now.
Okay, was there a wait list forthis one too?
Absolutely great, awesome onthe way you know, and I just
kept working, kept working onthe cancellation list.

Kate Coomber (20:52):
I'll be ready tomorrow.

Tim Turk (20:52):
Pretty much, and it was, and all of them are on
weekends, they're all saturdaysand sundays, and you get a call
on a wednesday, or wednesday orthursday um, can you be in
melbourne?
Because they were at point.
They were all done in person inMelbourne, or McCann's I think,
somewhere, but Melbourne wasthe main one.
And I got a call and they'relike hey, you need to be in
Melbourne for your Sundaymorning test.

(21:13):
No problem, Hop on a plane, popover to Melbourne, grab a you
know backpackers accommodationfor two days, keep studying.
Did the test?

Kate Coomber (21:23):
You find out a month later like I mean, they
probably know, at the end of theday, that you passed or not.

Tim Turk (21:27):
But you find out a month later that you passed and
it was like cool, now I'm adoctor in this country too, so
and that was, and then I just,you know, applied for
internships and got aninternship in Queensland.
Yeah and know applied forinternships and got an
internship in Queensland, yeah,and I liked.
I mean, I liked being a doctor,but I actually really preferred
internal medicine, which iskind of like the doctor that
treats everything, that isn't aspecialty.

(21:47):
So, if you know and I've alwaysliked rural medicine, I always
liked the country and I sort ofwas like, well, how can I put
those two things together?
And that was when I found outabout Akram, which is Australian
College of Rural and RemoteMedicine.
I was like, oh okay, I'll dothat, sure, no problem, kind of
thing.
And that was the same kind ofidea.
Just, you know, duringinternship I applied for it and
they're like oh well, if youwant to join us, that's no

(22:08):
problem, but you'll have to goto Kingar.
I started just being a doctorin kingroy and I did most of my
training through kingroy yeahkingroy yeah do you?

Sam Miklos (22:27):
um, you know, now are you locuming in and out
around queensland.
Like, how does then the thelocum piece, rural and remote
work for you now?

Tim Turk (22:37):
um, so I do so three days a week.
I work for the defense.
Uh, so I've worked for aseparate company again.

Kate Coomber (22:42):
I do a lot of contracts.
I've realized I don't actuallywork for people, but um, I do so
not one for commitment.

Sam Miklos (22:49):
Hang in there, shannon.

Tim Turk (22:50):
Oh, she's very used to this by now it's kind of funny
um, but I so I do three days aweek.
I work at the base and that'sjust a lot of GP work and just
keeping them going.
And there's some emergencies.
You know they break arms andstuff like that so you treat
that.
And then the rest of the week Isort of just find interesting
contracts and do fun things anda lot of the a lot of that is
emergency rural work, becausemost hospitals in rural areas

(23:12):
only have an emergency room.
They'll have a ward but the EDdoctor is the one covering it.
So I just pop out there and goand work in emergency rooms and
I'll go I mean, I'll pretty muchgo anywhere, not a huge tropics
fan just because of thehumidity.
But you know I do SouthAustralia.
I've done New South Wales afair bit, done some stuff, and I
do Queensland Health as well.
I locum with Queensland Healthas well.

Kate Coomber (23:34):
So, yeah, Go on.
No, no.
I was going to say can youmaybe paint a picture of some of
those rural hospitals that yougo to?
Like what's this like?
Because when people think thatthey're going to go to a rural
hospital, like what is it?

Sam Miklos (23:45):
And I think that Tim had said that, like there was a
doing a stint in rural is likea form of punishment.
There's that perception thatpeople think it's punishment.
Yeah, absolutely, did I read?

Tim Turk (23:54):
that Med students usually look at the rural
placements as punishment untilabout week two, when they get
there and they realize that youhave to make it something.

Kate Coomber (24:02):
So why is that what people say?

Tim Turk (24:04):
They think they're being punished because they're
not in a city anymore.
They're being taken away fromthe city.
They're being sent to thislocation that you can't even
pronounce.

Kate Coomber (24:12):
It's like not desirable.
Yeah, it's a not desirablelocation.

Tim Turk (24:14):
Nothing to do, being at the PA is where everyone
wants to be, or being at.
You know rvwh and and you knowthe raw down in adelaide, like
that's where everyone you know.
You want to be in the bighospital, you know, and if
you're in a big hospital there'sa senior doctor, there's three
registrars, there's four juniors, there's someone who knows more
than you do well, but it's noteven that it's.

Sam Miklos (24:31):
You never see a patient I was just about to say
you never do anything.
Yeah, you know you.

Tim Turk (24:35):
You're the seventh person in the room and if you're
lucky and like me and you'retall, you can at least see
what's going on at the front.
But usually you're stuck at thewall and you can't and you can
listen you don't really get alot out of listening and a lot
of physical exam stuff.
It's like oh, I wonder whathe's doing.
I can't see it, but I'm gonnastand back here and play on
tiktok or something like that.
You know rural medicine.
You show up on day one, we kindof look at you and you're like
well, what can you do?
And they're like what do youwant me to do?

(24:56):
It's like well, there's apatient in right bed.
Three go see him.
Go like, go ask them what'swrong with them.
But I've never done that before.

Kate Coomber (25:01):
It's like well, yeah, wow, gotta do it at some
point.
So now's again.

Tim Turk (25:05):
You know and we're rural medicine rural doctors in
general are astoundinglysupportive because we know that
a lot of people that come outthere are not used to it they're
not used to this, like they'renot used to this, like just go
work, like well, what if theyhave a cardiac problem?
It's like well, I guess you getto play cardiologist today.
You know what if they have arespiratory problem?
It's like well, do you rememberwhat a pulmonary function curve

(25:26):
looks like?
I hope you do, because you'regoing to have to create one now,
like you have.
You know, and it's.
And so we teach the medstudents so much more and they
get so much more thrilling onceyou get past the initial shock,
and you know it's.
I always remember in kingroy wehad med students that stayed
with us for the entire year andin the first few months they
usually would do more than theircolleagues would do in the

(25:48):
entire year back in a majorhospital like we, because we
would teach them ivs, sutures,stuff like that within a week or
two, and that was justexpectation.
After that, like, oh, there's aguy with a laceration over
there, just can you go suture itup for me?
Yeah, okay, you know.
And the concept of a medstudent doing your sutures for a
lot of people in the ruralcommunity is like, yeah, okay,

(26:09):
fine.
In a city, oh, no, the medstudent's watching and it's a
doctor doing it.
It's like no, out here there'sonly one doctor and the med
student.

Sam Miklos (26:17):
So you're, you're getting a med student, but at
the end of that year, how didthe med students feel?

Tim Turk (26:22):
oh they, they are.
They rave about it.
I mean, usually halfway throughthe year they're already raving
about it and telling all themed students that are think
they're being punished by beingsent there the next year, like
you are not being punished, likelet me tell you all the things
that you're going to get whenyou're out here and how much
better it is, and and and, and.
Yeah, I mean, and we and we lookafter them, we, we'd take them
out, we'd make sure they had fun, we'd, you know, tell them all
the places to go and all therural like the things to go see

(26:44):
in the area and all the funstuff to do.
But junior doctors have thesame attitude.
You know they're being punishedbecause they're being sent out
to a rural location and theydon't understand that they're
going to get so much experienceand so much learning when
they're there.

Kate Coomber (26:57):
So maybe can you talk us through or share a story
where you feel you get thatexposure, or you can.
It sounds like you can reallysee that direct impact on that
community that you're working in, versus all the various people
in the room in a Metro hospital.

Tim Turk (27:10):
I mean a lot of the time in the rural.
The biggest thing is you seethe patients, you see them the
next day, you see them a weeklater.
You, you can, honestly, youknow you sometimes talk to them
in public, like I mean, shannonloves telling a story about
people.
That would stop me at bullieslike we could never just go
grocery shopping.
I had to talk to 10 peopleevery time I went to the store
because I was like oh that's thedoctor who treated me in the ed
lesson.
Oh, my kid is doing so muchbetter.

Kate Coomber (27:32):
Thank you for seeing us at two o'clock in the
morning when you know, I have mybags under my eyes were as big
as my eyes kind of thing, and Iwas like, yeah, no, well, that's
what we're here for, kind ofthing, you know.

Tim Turk (27:39):
Um, I mean you.
You always, you always knowyou're making an impact in a
rural community and then, andthey'll tell you, you know, like
they, you, you get the feedbackalmost immediately whether
you're doing a good job or not.
And you know like, I ruined awoman's wedding once.
So it was, you know it was, itwas the sort of classic.

(28:09):
I was just about to finish, soit must've been just around six
o'clock and 20 odd ish year oldwoman came into the ED, told to
come there by the gym that shewas working out at.
And she was working out at andshe was trying to get in shape
for a wedding.
It's good for her, fine, great,no worries.
And both of her arms were weaksuddenly and everyone was just
like she just worked out toohard.
I was like, well, there's a fewother reasons why your arms

(28:29):
could both suddenly becomeobjectively weak, like I'm like
lift your arm up, she can't.
I'm like that's not normal.
Like, even if you do a lot ofcurls, you can still lift your
arm up after this kind of thing,you know all right, well, I'm
gonna put a neck collar on youreal quick and then we're gonna
run you through a ct scanner.
And she had a vertebral arterydissection, um, so I, I got to,

(28:50):
I got to.
You know, this is this isprobably a wednesday, knowing my
luck, um, and her wedding wasthat weekend, um, and I was like
so ever been in a helicopterbefore, because it was actually
one of the fun ones.
We, you know, again, we had theCT locally, which is amazing,
like rural hospitals.

Sam Miklos (29:07):
I was just going to say.
Is that common to?

Kate Coomber (29:09):
be able to do a CT ride, and what would have the
plan been if you didn't?

Tim Turk (29:13):
Oh, she 100% would have gotten a helicopter ride,
no matter what.

Kate Coomber (29:15):
She needed imaging .

Tim Turk (29:22):
Like percent, would have gotten a helicopter ride,
no matter what she needed.
Imaging, like I, just thespidey senses were going off on
this one kind of thing, but itjust something wasn't right and
I, I, so we were really lucky.
Where I was working, we hadactually just got a ct.
We just, the king roy hospitalhad a massive redevelopment
while I worked there.
We got a brand new hospitalwith a ct scanner.
Um, so we went from a littleteeny hospital to this beautiful
, beautiful, brand new building,brand new ED with like double
the capacity and a CT that wehad access to 24 hours a day.

(29:44):
It was unbelievably nice.
So we could call in theradiographer who was, you know,
my friend who lived at the farmup the road and he's like hey,
remember how you were eatingdinner, I'm really sorry.
And he, you know, came in anddid it and we, you know, you,
just walk into the room Again.
It was this one-on-one medicine, or actually fun medicine,
where you could go, follow thepatient and instead of just like
whatever, order it and walkaway, kind of thing.

(30:04):
I followed her in and watchedthe scan come up on the screen
and even I'm looking at it goingthat's not right.
I'm not a radiologist by anymeans, but I could see that
something was very wrong.
And so I started making all thephone calls and everyone wanted
the official report.
Uh, they wouldn't believe me.

Kate Coomber (30:21):
um, because if they're going to organize yeah,
because they were like well, ifyou're going to organize
helicopter, we need the officialreport.

Tim Turk (30:25):
I'm like no, no, trust me on this one, like you, just
start.
Start the process like oh fine,we'll do it, but we don't
believe you kind of thing, yeahand I got the urgent phone call
from the imaging guy the readerssaying you need to put this
person in a back collar and acollar and do this, and they
need a helicopter.
I'm like yeah, I know, we'vealready organized it and they're
like oh well, who read the scan?

(30:46):
I'm like I did.
Oh, are you a radiologist?

Kate Coomber (30:50):
No.
I'm just a rural doctor, it'swhat we do.

Tim Turk (30:54):
And then I got to call everyone back and say, hey,
remember, I said I was right.
Turns out I was right, but yeah.
So she got flown out and hadvascular surgery and was in a
brace for three or four days andmissed her wedding Because I
felt really bad.

Sam Miklos (31:07):
I got a thank you card.
Did you get to go to the nextone?

Tim Turk (31:09):
No.

Kate Coomber (31:10):
I did not get an invite.

Tim Turk (31:11):
I probably was on everyone's bad list but, I did
get a thank you card afterwards,like you know.
Yes, I know you ruined mywedding, but thank you for, you
know, not letting me die wellsaving my yes, yeah, yeah,
because so that was.
That was like, yeah, it's a plusminus card.
I called them.
Yeah, um, but you know you get.
You get good outcomes a lot ofthe time in rural medicine and
because you get to treateverything, you're not just
referring everybody off, you'renot just seeing somebody going

(31:32):
oh, you have a heart problem,there's a cardiologist over
there that'll see you now.
And going back to the computerand it's like no, you have to do
everything, which is great, itkeeps your brain going and it's
so much more fun.
And you know, emergencymedicine is great and you get to
do a lot of interesting thingsin it.
But actually proper rural EDmedicine where you're just

(31:54):
treating everything and you knowand you don't refer because you
can't until it's really outsideof our scope, um, and you just
treat them so yeah, yeah I likeit.

Kate Coomber (32:05):
It's good fun and so then you also work in events
that sounds very oh sorry,you're in events I live in
queensland, medical work,medical Medical work.

Tim Turk (32:17):
Medical work that's an interesting segue Concerts.

Kate Coomber (32:20):
you know doing again that emergency response
and various things.
Is that what you do?

Tim Turk (32:26):
Yeah, kind of so.
Yeah, so I work for a companycalled Hess Paramedicine and we
do event medicine and events.
So like the first aid tents atevents and things like that.

Kate Coomber (32:37):
And did that come about just because?

Tim Turk (32:39):
you wanted tickets to a concert.

Kate Coomber (32:40):
You know again you want to go back to that more
paramedic?
No, not treating under the flureliance.

Tim Turk (32:47):
So it was.
It was a.
I think I was in PGY two orthree, I was just a junior
doctor and I called up a companythat did medical retrievals and
they were just like well, doyou want to?
Like?
Like?
I just called them and saidlike, can I, can I work for you,
can I do like road transfers orsomething Like I just needed
extra money or something likethat.
I'm like, whatever it could befun.
Like well, we don't, we don'thire juniors.
I'm like, fair enough, but what?

(33:08):
But what are you doing thisweekend?
Kind of thing.

Kate Coomber (33:10):
And it was very standard job offer for.
Well, what are you doing?
I'm like.
Well, it depends on what youwant me for.

Tim Turk (33:31):
And they're like well, queensland Raceway has a car
racing event on this weekend andthey need a doctor.
Sure, where do I go?
And they're like well, googleQueensland Raceway and just show
up there and we'll give you ashirt and we'll put you in the
response car and all that kindof stuff.
I'm like all right, great.
So I started doing that and Idid that on and off for years.

Sam Miklos (33:45):
For just Queensland Raceway.

Tim Turk (33:46):
So Queensland Raceway and Lakeside Raceway.

Sam Miklos (33:50):
Oh my God, my husband will be listening.
I was about to say he races and.

Tim Turk (33:54):
Well, so it's in the last couple of years they've
they've changed hands.
Different people own the twotracks now, so I only work at
one of them now.
But yeah, we did I would.
I never did supercars, becausesupercars has their own doctors
and medical teams and stuff likethat, but we did the Shannon's
racing weekends and we did allof the like every race weekend.

(34:15):
So it was like I would be thereSaturday and Sunday and there
would be sort of practice andqualifying on the Saturday and
then start of the racing and alot of racing on the Sunday and
every so it was very quick, youknow the races were only sort of
20 laps or 10, 15, 20 laps, youknow maybe half-hour races at
the most, and then so we'd dotwo an hour Like you'd just be
pushing people through going,going, going, going and many,

(34:37):
many different kinds of cars andeverything from like little
teeny Hyundai.
So what are they called?
Again, excels, I think.

Kate Coomber (34:43):
Yeah, excel, hyundai Excels.
I'd love to help you out there,yeah.

Sam Miklos (34:52):
It's like I'm talking about my husband drives,
but I'm like, I'm really likeit just looked like a coffin on
wheels.

Tim Turk (34:55):
And then everything up to like big, fancy,
open-wheeled race cars and stuffwould be there and and proper
teams with proper trucks,driving high-end porsches and
you know fun things like that,and you just half the time I'd
be sitting there just readingmagazines waiting for something
interesting cars, oh, the carsare amazing like, yeah, yeah, I
love it.

Sam Miklos (35:14):
I really love it to be part of that.

Tim Turk (35:16):
It was great fun for me because I got to poke around
in race cars and I learned allsorts of stuff about race cars.
So now it's really interestingbecause it's like I know how to
take off Hans devices and things.
You know things that you'dnever really know about.
But you also know all thequestions to ask too.
It's like that's probably themost interesting thing, because
people will come in from aracetrack into an emergency room
and I know all the questions toask.
It's like, okay, what kind ofcar were you in?
What kind of safety equipmentdid you have on?

(35:36):
Was it this, this, this or this?
How was it set up?
Where did you get out?
Did you crawl out?
Did this happen?
You know, and they're sort oflooking at you going like, how
does this random doctor know allof these?
You know I was like I knowthings.

Sam Miklos (35:50):
You're like I'm in this way they're like it was.

Tim Turk (35:53):
I'll walk you over there.
That's the other thing you'resupposed to do at Disney.
You don't tell someone to walkif you can take them there.
Oh yeah, but yeah, so thatturned into again.
What are you doing?
This weekend?
There was a concert.
They needed a doctor.
There's rules in Queenslandabout once you get over a
certain number of a thousand, acouple thousand people or

(36:13):
something like that, you can'tjust have paramedics, you need a
doctor there.
Um, and it's like just numbersbased and it's also it's numbers
and distance from facilitybased as well.
So if you're in downtownBrisbane, you need thousands of
people.
So, like at the showgroundshere, I did, um, oh, what was
that heavy metal concert called?
Uh, I can't remember the nameof them.
They have such funny names that.

Kate Coomber (36:34):
I just slip my mind all the time.

Tim Turk (36:37):
But they had like five or 6,000 people at that concert
so they needed a doctor.
So I, you know, I did thatconcert.
But I, you know, did my firstconcert with them and I liked it
and they were just like, well,we actually have this three
night event going on in the bushand it was all electronic dance
, music kind of stuff and I'mlike could be fun.
So popped out there and livedin a caravan for three days and

(36:58):
did all that.
But you know, you don't just domedicine at those, you're doing
public health, you're doingpublic safety, stuff You're
doing.
I kept Band-Aids in my pocketall the time because people wore
silly shoes.
And you know they get roosterson day two and you know you're
treating everything, everything.
And then you know there's somedrugs.
Drugs and alcohol, of course,are going to be a problem no

(37:20):
matter what you do.
But a lot of it was.
You know people hurtingthemselves, people slipping and
falling, people getting cold,people getting too hot.
You know if you're dancing andit's 35 and you're, you know,
like the dance floors were.
You can be anywhere from fiveto 15 degrees warmer than the
ambient air.

Kate Coomber (37:34):
Like if you pack that many people together you.

Tim Turk (37:35):
Just they heat up so it can be a cool night and I can
be wearing a jacket and peoplewill come in hyperthermic like
like in heat stroke, becausethey were dancing and they were
just stuck in this 40 degreebouncing around.
Loving them, loving their liveshaving a great time, but you
know it's now you need an IV,and our goal was to never

(37:56):
transport.
I mean, that's not saying wedidn't like we sent people to
the hospital on a regular basis,but we really tried everything
we could to keep people at theevents.
So give them IV fluids, givethem medications, put them in an
air-conditioned tent or justput fans on them, throw ice
packs on them, cool them off,treat whatever's going on and
then send them back out.
Go have fun.

Sam Miklos (38:23):
They've paid a lot of money to be there, so yeah,
do you choose the concerts thatyou go to like?
Are you like?
Oh, oasis is coming.

Tim Turk (38:25):
I mean, or is it more just like hey, tim, what are you
doing this weekend?
I'll sometimes look up, so Iusually get the offer because,
like we're, we're booking outconcerts like later in 2025.
We know 2026 stuff, not already, but you know like 2025
concerts.
They book up but we don'tnecessarily, like you, look up
who's supposed to be playing butyou don't even necessarily know
who's going to be there.
So, like CMC, when we signed upfor it, or when I was told that
I was going to be working at it, which I was like awesome.

Kate Coomber (38:46):
This is the country music, the country music
concert in Willowbank.

Tim Turk (38:48):
Actually out in Queensland Raceway they were
just like, oh, you want to go.
I'm like, yeah, they haven'tannounced it on the website.
I'm like, well, this will be aluck of the draw kind of thing.
It turned out it was likepeople I actually really like
listening to.

Kate Coomber (39:00):
So I was like, oh great, that must be a bonus.

Tim Turk (39:02):
Oh, it's going to be such a good time, is the?

Sam Miklos (39:04):
tent well positioned , so you kind of get it Not even
remotely.

Tim Turk (39:08):
I am going to requisition one of the four by
four buggies and I'm going todrive myself out.
But, you know again, it's kindof like working on the ship.
You're there to work, it'sgreat to be able to listen to it
, but I have a radio, I'mwearing a uniform, it's very
definitive that I'm not there tohave fun and, yeah, you can get
called on to do all sorts offun things anytime.

Sam Miklos (39:28):
So yeah, what about the?
You were involved in the pilltesting.
Yeah, tell us a bit about that.

Tim Turk (39:33):
So that was so.
There's a festival calledRabbits Eat Lettuce.
Like I said, funny fun names.

Sam Miklos (39:38):
I feel so old right now.
I was going to say you werethere.

Tim Turk (39:42):
Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival.
Yeah, and they had anunfortunate.
They had two deaths at one oftheir festivals.
This is years pre-COVID at thispoint now, 28.
I want to say 2018, but I don'tthink that's right.
They had two deaths and theywere completely unavoidable.

(40:03):
They were overdoses.
They were two people found intheir tent on packout day.
You know obviously had takensomething the night before and
just fallen asleep and not wokenup, which you know horrible,
you know it doesn't make itbetter, but, you know,
completely unavoidable.
But there the organizers forthe festival were obviously
devastated by this and theywanted to make a difference.
They wanted to do somethingunique and this was when Pill
Testing Australia the companywas working in Canberra and they
were trying to get pill testinglegalized across the country,

(40:25):
and we kind of went like, well,this is a good idea.
And they went well, this is agood idea.
And Pill Testing Australia waslike, yeah, we'll show up, could
be fun.
And so we were the firstfestival in Queensland to have
pill testing on site.
So it's pill and substancetesting officially, I think, is
what it's called but yeah, sopeople could come in.

Sam Miklos (40:43):
How does it work?
I was just about to say pleasetell me how this works.
Yeah, and because do?

Kate Coomber (40:48):
people you know.
I imagine there's a fearcomponent of if you're in there
doing something you know youshouldn't be Well so that was
the fun thing because the so wehad to.

Tim Turk (40:57):
getting it organized was really difficult because
Queensland Ambulance Service wassort of on side with it but
they didn't want anything to dowith it.
It was like fair, that's fine.
You know, the Queenslandgovernment was 50-50.
They couldn't decide whetherthey liked the idea.
At the time they couldn't.
The new government now hates it, but at the time the government
couldn't decide whether theyliked it or not.
They were were because theydidn't want to seem like they

(41:19):
were supporting illegal things.

Kate Coomber (41:20):
You can understand .

Tim Turk (41:21):
Oh, I get it.
But you know, we let peoplesmoke, we let people drink.
We know that they're going todo too much, we know that
they're going to do dumb things.
So we, like you, know you can.
You can either put your head inthe sand and pretend it's not
going to happen or you can help.
So we sort of tried to geteveryone on site.
Queensland police, hilariouslyenough, were 100% on board with

(41:44):
it.
They thought it was a greatidea because they hate dealing
with drugs.
They don't want to arrest people.
They don't want to deal with it.
They don't want to have a guywho's high as a kite, you know,
spitting on people walking by.
They don't want to deal withthat.

Sam Miklos (41:57):
So they were just like yeah.

Tim Turk (41:59):
And so there are police at all these festivals
they want.
They literally wander around inuniforms, you know, watching
for illegal things, with peoplesmoking cannabis right next to
them.
Sometimes it's really funny towatch.
But they just basically saidwhere are you doing?
Oh right, there, okay, we justwon't go there.
We'll avoid that area as muchas we possibly can.
Now it's hilarious.
It was right next to where allthe food was, so they kind of
walked by every so often butthey sort of actively averted

(42:22):
their gaze.
They didn't look at the peoplegoing in there.
They tried to make it ascomforting as possible and pill
testing in Australia is reallygood.
You come in, it's a zerojudgment, Like we know that you
are bringing us a substance andyou can tell us what you think
that substance is.

Kate Coomber (42:34):
And is that all doctors, that they're coming?

Tim Turk (42:36):
no, so it's all chemists, yeah, um, so it's all.
There is doctors running it, um, like there's doctors there and
and you know we had to be likewe, we met them and we were very
much on board and every very,very good communication between
us, our group and their group,um, and they had chemists and
proper spectrometry equipmentand stuff like that and they
would just test the substance.
So they didn't, they neededminute amounts.
So you took a pill in there.
They just kind of like take alittle teeny scraping of it.

(42:57):
Basically, yeah, throw it on aslide thing.
I'm not a chemist, yeah, andthe computer would tell you what
was in the pill and it wouldtell you concentrations.
And it would tell you what itwas and it would tell you what
else was in there as well.
And it was unbelievable whatthey found, like people that
thought they were getting MDMA,like ec, like Valium, people

(43:22):
that thought they were gettinglike magic mushrooms and
literally were getting ecstasyor like total drug reversals,
like pills that had cocaine inthem, that they they weren't
buying.
This Like this is not what theywanted.
They wanted ecstasy and theywere getting cocaine.

Sam Miklos (43:37):
Did they someone's come to you and gone.
I thought I was getting thisand I've got that.
Did they often go?

Tim Turk (43:43):
I don't want that Regularly, yeah, so they had a I
mean, they call it an amnestybox.
It was basically a throwout boxand that was taken back to one
of the universities and theywould like full on analyze
everything that they got inthose things to like, give a,
you know, a detailed informationsheet of like everything that's
being helpful to so many thingsapart from just the you know

(44:04):
preventative measures on the daybut the information then that
that can gather and provide tohospitals or the police, or so
much so yeah, we we used I meanso we we had two really like.
So we we went from sending, onaverage, 10 to 15 people every
festival weekend to the hospitalwith drugs to none that weekend

(44:25):
.
Um, like not a single.
We had people affected by drugsthat we were treating but none
of them were sick enough that orunknown enough that we had to
send them to the hospital.
We just kept them.

Kate Coomber (44:33):
We were able to treat them all on site, and I
guess the fact you were theremeans that they might be more
forthcoming to come and gettreatment when they needed, as
well, rather than waiting, I'llcome back to that in a second.

Tim Turk (44:43):
People taking drugs are smart.
Everyone thinks they're dumb,but they're actually very smart.
But the thing that a lot ofthese people are told is they
were handing over a pill and atypical dose of ecstasy is
somewhere between 60 to 100milligrams.
So 80 milligrams, let's say.
So your one tablet.
You think it's going to have 80milligrams in it and it could
have 360.

Kate Coomber (45:02):
Wow.

Tim Turk (45:03):
And so if you took that, not knowing this, like
again before pill testing,before the concentration
gradients were known, you couldtake it and you would be just
seriously in trouble, like Iwould be putting multiple IVs
and giving drugs and probablysending that person to the
hospital.
Pill testing Australia wouldadvise them crack it in half,
crack it in quarters.
We know you're going to takethis, so do it safely.

(45:23):
So we just stopped gettingoverdoses.
And when we did get overdoseswe would go through their stuff
because it's like nothingpersonal dude, but you're
unconscious, I need to knowwhat's going on.
And we'd find baggies.
We'd find pill remnants, we'dfind the powder in a bag.
We could take it over to pilltesting australia and say I have
an unconscious person next door.
Can you test this right now?
We?
They dump us to the front ofthe line, test it and
immediately tell us what it was.

(45:44):
So we would know instantly.
So you know what you're dealingwith, we know instantly what it
is so it's like great, I'm goingto run back door, next door now
and I'm just going to give allthe right antidotes.
Like if I can, I can fix it, orat least I know exactly what
I'm dealing with.

(46:09):
And if they're in trouble or oneof their friends is in trouble,
they will bring them to us andand we, we are very
non-judgmental about their Imean some.
I'm not going to saynon-judgmental.
We sometimes are a little bitjudgy when it's like you know,
you haven't drank, you haven'thad any water and you've been
taking ecstasy and drinkingalcohol all day.
Okay, I'm going to judge you alittle bit on that one, but
politely, and maybe someeducation After we treat you.

(46:31):
Oh, and education and all that,but after we treat you we might
talk to you a little bit aboutyour decision making, but they
want to have fun.
They're there to have fun andthey're going to do things so
that they have fun.
You know, it's like thedifference between someone who's
going out to get absolutelycompletely drunk, as drunk as
they possibly can, and someonewho's just going to have a
couple to have a nice night.

(46:51):
These people want to have fun,so they're going to go out,
they're going to take theirdrugs, which is fine.
If you want to take drugs, takedrugs.
But if something goes wrong,they always know the medical
team is there to help them ifneeded and we maintain that
nonjudgmental we are here tohelp you.
So bring your friends here,don't let them wallow in their
tent.
We'll look after them for fouror five hours if we need to, we
don't mind.
We have, you know, chairs outback and we have stretchers set

(47:13):
up and we will look after themand we'll make them feel better.
And then, you know, give them aBand-Aid and send them on their
way.

Kate Coomber (47:18):
It's an interesting initiative, isn't it
?
And I think that debate nodoubt will go on.

Tim Turk (47:22):
Yeah, I mean it's purely a public health thing,
it's risk mitigation, it's riskmanagement To know what's out
there at the moment in themarket too.

Kate Coomber (47:34):
You imagine all of the emergency departments if
they all had that knowledge ofwhat is currently actually so
Pill.

Tim Turk (47:38):
Testing Australia is on Instagram.
I have no idea what the handlething is, but it's on Instagram
and they post things every fewdays of.
We have found this and it's apicture of the pill with a
little grid behind it, so youknow how big it is and all these
things.
This is what they thought itwas and this is what it turns
out it is, and it's highlypotent, or it's.
This is a pill that was beingsold as ecstasy and it's

(47:59):
actually 100% cocaine.
Please don't take it.
You know things like that, soit's that public knowledge, the
education information is outthere and people can find that
information Like you know, ifyou're in an emergency room and
you see, oh, it turns outthey're.
You know, people are sellingcocaine on the Gold Coast.
I should keep that in mind whenI go do my shift and things
like that.

Sam Miklos (48:18):
What do you do when?

Kate Coomber (48:19):
you're downtime.

Sam Miklos (48:24):
Do you?
You're there, you're super busy.
You're at the fence face.

Tim Turk (48:25):
You're out on locum.

Sam Miklos (48:25):
Oh no, I take weekends off all the time.

Tim Turk (48:26):
Yeah Well, every other weekend-ish.
No, I just mountain biking,sometimes Just a lot of play
with my kids.
I hang out with my family, Ijust spend time with my family.
I don't see them a lot becauseI'm gone in the morning, usually
before they're awake, and Ionly see them for hours in the
afternoon.
So I'll just spend time withthem.
We'll go do stuff on theweekends with them or whatever
you know.
Just hang out, relax, take somedown time of my own and just

(48:48):
not think for a little whileyeah, yeah, do you have your
next thing that you're thinking?

Sam Miklos (48:53):
I mean, I know you just don't think, but I mean, to
be fair, you probably don't.
You're just like, oh, look atthe paper, but is there?
Or do you ever think thatyou'll do one thing?
You know?
Do you ever think that?

Kate Coomber (49:00):
you'll do one thing, you know.
Do you ever think that you'llget to a point where I'm just
going to get a permanentfull-time job?
It's going to be Monday toFriday and I'm going to be in
this location for the next threeyears.
I would be so.

Sam Miklos (49:10):
Or maybe I want to be a politician because I don't
know what's next.
God no.

Tim Turk (49:14):
No, no one would want me to be a politician because I
would be too honest and justlook at people and be just like,
yeah, no, no.
I would not do well in apolitical sphere.

Kate Coomber (49:24):
That no judgment with my patients.
It would be full judgment.

Tim Turk (49:30):
Yeah, it would just I'd take all of the judgment
that I was reserving.
I actually have my diploma ofthe Royal Australian College of
Medical Administration.
I got my rural managementdiploma through them as well.
So I've done some work withmanagement spheres and rural
hospitals and things.
But honestly, I kind of likewhat I do at this level.
I like the level of busynessI've managed to fix a good spot

(49:51):
with kind of thing.
Sometimes it's a bit too muchand sometimes it's not enough,
but I'm just I'm happy with whatI'm doing right now.
I'll probably keep doing it fora little while, but I'm always
very open to the next hospitalor the next place or the next
location to see if there'sanything interesting out there,
to see if there's something funto do.
If there's.
You know, like the populationin the area where I live is

(50:12):
exploding and the hospitals inthose areas are not are going to
have to be redeveloped in thenext sort of five years or so,
so that'll be interestingbecause, suddenly there'll be a
brand new hospital next door.
That you know.
I can give them a ring on aWednesday and see what happens.

Sam Miklos (50:25):
Yeah, something on the weekend.
Something on the weekend, yeah.
Do you go back to Kingaroy?

Tim Turk (50:30):
Oh, no, do you have a favorite location?

Sam Miklos (50:32):
that you think, gosh , I need a break.
I wouldn't mind going out to Ineed a break.

Kate Coomber (50:39):
Maybe that was me speaking.
I need a break from myfour-year-old, from my
four-year-old time.

Tim Turk (50:43):
Actually.
No, they're pretty good.
My kids are actually reallywell-behaved.
It's annoying.

Sam Miklos (50:47):
I can't say it's their fault.
Do you say they're four and two?

Tim Turk (50:50):
They're four.

Kate Coomber (50:51):
I have twin girls.
I have twins, I have twin girls, twin girls, oh well wait till
four turns into 14.

Tim Turk (50:59):
I'm just going to have a shed out back or something
that's fine or.
I'll go do like one-week locumsinstead of two-day locums and
things.
I really like McLean down in NewSouth Wales in that area.
It's just a perfect size ED atthis point for me.
It's not too big, not too small.
It's 24 hours a day.
It's staffed properly, it'smanaged well, good support, good
staff.

(51:19):
I like it there.
It's a nice town too.
There's things to do in thearea.
It's not too far away from homeso I can get there and get back
relatively easily.

Kate Coomber (51:27):
Do you ever take your family?

Tim Turk (51:29):
They don't do a lot of locums Before kids.
Shannon would come with me onsome locums so I did some
Tasmania stuff down inLaunceston and things.
She came with me and I worked13 days in a row, with one day
off in the middle to go from dayshift to night shift, and she
which isn't a day off.

Sam Miklos (51:49):
No, no, no.

Kate Coomber (51:50):
Because you stay up as late as you possibly can
you?

Tim Turk (51:51):
try to get as much sleep as you can.
And then at 7 pm you go back tothe hospital.
It's like yeah, so we had anice dinner though.

Kate Coomber (51:57):
Lucky Shannon.

Tim Turk (51:58):
Yeah, yeah, she went and did photography and she went
and was a tourist and becauseso they gave me a rental car,
which I thought was hilariousbecause the only time I used it
was actually to get from theairport to the hotel because the
hotel was maybe two blocks fromthe hospital.
So I made sure that the rentalcar was in her name as well.
Like I paid the extra money toget her name and I'm just like,
here you go, have a great twoweek vacation in Launceston,

(52:19):
completely paid for by a locumcompany.
And yeah, and I mean Iencourage all of the married
doctors that I know, especiallyif you're pre-kids like, oh man,
go do a locum, because you'regoing to get put up in a hotel,
they're going to give you a carand you're going to be in a
brand new place and you're paidto be there and they'll add on a
day here and there.
And you know, like you guysknow this, one of the things I

(52:46):
always ask for is, if I go dolocums, if there's like a week
in the middle, I'll ask them torent me a minivan and then I'll
fly the family in.
So I did over Christmas thisyear or, pardon me, christmas
last year, technically I guess Idid a whole bunch of work in
Australia up and down thepeninsula, and I took five days
off over Christmas.
But I got them to rent aminivan for me instead of just a

(53:06):
car.
So toss some kids in the backof the minivan and we had a five
day vacation, yeah, just justhave fun and it was great.
It was like let's check out thisnew location that we've never
been to before and there was awater park there, hilariously
enough, and things like that.
Yeah, it's like oh apparently Iwent to this.
What was the town called um, ohgosh, um cowell oh yeah, uh,

(53:27):
cowell in south australia andthey had just spent like
apparently just a couple yearsbefore that, they'd spent like
11 million dollars building thisamazing water park and
redeveloping the entirewaterfront and it was great.
The town it was amazing.
It had slides, it had splashpads, it had one of those big
inflatable bouncy things, likewhen you just put it on the
location guide.

Kate Coomber (53:45):
Oh yeah, Like it was like if you, Perfect for a
family oh if you're doing a weekthere.

Tim Turk (53:50):
There's so much to do Just in and around that area you
could easily fill a week upwith kids there.
That was a great littlehospital.
That was a very small hospitalactually, that was almost.
I was basically GP office.
Just happened to have ahospital attached to it.

Sam Miklos (54:02):
And a water park out the front.
Yeah.

Tim Turk (54:05):
And it was all walking distance because it's a small
town.
And then, yeah, I think fromthere I went down to Port
Lincoln after that and PortLincoln's a big, big town,
practically city size, but yeah,yeah.

Kate Coomber (54:14):
Yeah, super adventurous, I love the variety
and the things that you keepjust pushing forward with CMR
are going to make a donation toa charity of your choice with
this episode.

Tim Turk (54:26):
So there's the Rural Doctors Association of
Queensland.
Rdaq is a group that I'm withand they have a charity, the
foundation actually RDAQ.
Foundation that helps ruraldoctors' families.
So it's a support system forthe families and that's what
they're there for.
They have a big, long acronymname that I can never remember

(54:47):
and I always feel really guiltythat I can't, but it's the, you
know, the Rural FamiliesAssociation, essentially, and
they help people.
You know you're moving into asmall town.
Here's what to expect.
Here's a woman who's been inthat town before, a person who's
been in that town before, whocan talk to you and tell you
exactly what to do and, oh, youneed to order this from this
place and go to this baker andgo to this place.
And this is where you can findthat.

(55:08):
No, that don't go to that one.
Go to this one instead.
Or go to this one, not that one.

Kate Coomber (55:11):
And so we can support the families of the
doctors.

Tim Turk (55:15):
The healthcare professionals will be staying,
yeah interestingly, in canadathey just started this brand new
initiative in a lot of thesmall rural areas free childcare
, free babysitting, guaranteedspots in daycares Like this.
Is this cause they can't.
You know, governments are notallowed to change the salaries.
You know, like we, we all getthat as doctors.
We know that the governmentcan't raise the salary.
So it's the what else?

(55:36):
Like you want me to come workin your small little town that
has seemingly nothing to drawyour family there?
What are you going to give me?
Well, it's not hard to get aplace in a daycare yeah, they
all know each other.
They probably know who owns thedaycare.
They could just go over thereand say hey, if we get a doctor
who has a three-year-old, canyou just make room for them?
Sure, they'll do that you know,like if you know that you can,

(55:57):
if you know walking into a townthat your partner has a job and
your kid has date sorry, and youand you you know.
You know when you walk into asmall town that your kid has
daycare or school or whatever.
Your partner has a job and yourhouse has been sorted for at
least sort of the first sixmonths or so, where he's figured
out yourself.

Sam Miklos (56:13):
You're going to go and you're going to probably
stay.
I was going to say you'llprobably stay.
Yeah.

Tim Turk (56:17):
And you'll stay longer .

Kate Coomber (56:17):
The family is happier.

Sam Miklos (56:19):
You know you can actually do what you do and work
and not be worried you know,recruitment of doctors is
usually you talk to the doctor.

Tim Turk (56:25):
Retention of doctors is the family.
Yeah, you know, because if yougo home every night and your
partner hates their life becausethey're, they're in a place
that they don't want to be,you're not staying yeah, you're
just not, you know um, but ifthe family loves it there, then
you're gonna stay yeah, that isum that is so well said, about
recruitment and retention.

Sam Miklos (56:46):
It really is about the family, do you?

Kate Coomber (56:48):
remember we went down to Victoria once and we met
some of the doctors that weplaced and their families all
came we went and had a cup oftea with them and things and
they were so grateful for theimmersion of the families into
those communities.
It was so crucial.

Tim Turk (57:02):
And when doctors go to conferences, we're wandering
around the halls and like we'reseeing all these recruitment
companies like there's.
You know CMR is a good one andthat's why I stay with them, but
you know there's others.
They're all trying to recruityou, but the ones that we're
going to stay with are the onesthat will find out what our
spouses do.
Yeah, like right out like whatyou're a doctor, great, cool.
You know there's 15 otherswalking next to you.

(57:24):
What does your spouse do?
Can we find them a job?
What do you want to do?
What?
Where do you want to go?
What do you want to do next?
How can we make it so that youwant to stay there and that's?

Sam Miklos (57:35):
I think that there's a there's a bit of a shift
coming that way, but it's reallyhard, it's really hard to
convince management people toothat you know we can't.

Tim Turk (57:43):
we can't spend money on a break room, we have to
spend money on a daycare spot orwe can't spend money on a, you
know, new lounge.
We need to spend money onhigher cars or something like
that.
You know, or or or you know weneed to spruce up the doctor's
house.
You know like it's all well andgood that they give you a
doctor's house that has no aircon in Queensland and it's like
well, you know, I'm not going tostay, you know, or I'm not

(58:05):
going to like it here, I'm goingto have to go and spend my own
money to get air con.

Kate Coomber (58:09):
It'll be minimal and I'll do it for what needs to
be and then I'll move on, yeah.
Yeah.

Sam Miklos (58:13):
Thank you so much, Tim, for your time today.
Thanks for having me so manygreat stories and like such a
life All at the last minute too.

Tim Turk (58:22):
Sorry, all at the last minute, which I love.

Sam Miklos (58:25):
Like everything happens for a reason, and it
certainly has for you.

Tim Turk (58:27):
Yeah.

Sam Miklos (58:28):
We're just thrilled to have you as part of our CMR
community, so thank you for yourtime.
Yeah, thank you, it's beengreat.
Thanks for tuning in to itTakes Heart.

Kate Coomber (58:38):
If you love this episode, subscribe, leave a
review or share it with a friend, and if you know someone with a
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Follow us on socials for allthe behind the scenes fun, and
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