Feb 20, 2025
Professor Karen Flegg is a rural general practitioner from Australia and the current president of WONCA, the World Organization of Family Doctors.
Episode summary:
01.04 Karen tells us about her professional background and her journey into rural health.
04.20 What has she most enjoyed about living and working in a rural area and what does she find most challenging?
07.50 What has her rural leadership journey been like?
14.30 How did she go from a rural doctor in Australia to the president of WONCA?
19.15 What are some of the challenges that she has faced during this journey?
24.45 Do some of the challenges prevent rural doctors from taking up leadership roles?
26.19 What does taking up a leadership position bring to your rural practice or rural area?
28.50 Is it important for younger colleagues to develop leadership skills?
34.15 How can rural clinicians advocate for their communities and what are some lessons that she can share?
37.10 What would she like to see for the future of family medicine and rural practice?
Key Messages:
The experience of having great supervisors and mentorship in a rural environment.
Colleagues stick together, provide advice and do some communal thinking on difficult problem
Most enjoys the community, knowing neighbors, and the community spirit.
Challenges can be the social situation, the difficulty of finding friends rather than just people that are friendly.
As the new doctor was invited to join the board of the community information centre, this was her first experience as a chair of a board.
Had an opportunity to join the board of the Australian College of General Practitioners, the reality was not what she expected. Realized quickly that she needed a mentor.
She did not actively seek leadership roles, sometimes you just say yes.
Applied to be the WONCA editor and held this role for 10 years. Through this role she got to know many people from all over the world. During that time also stood for WONCA executive.
Being a rural doctor has helped as it was important to have a broad understanding of what family doctors do all around the world.
Living in a place that had easy access to an airport and good internet access was an important consideration for an international leadership role.
A challenge can be understanding governance to effectively chair a board. She actively sought to learn about governance and business skills.
Concerned about planetary health, however, as WONCA president has to travel as part of her role.
Balancing leadership with clinical roles can be difficult particularly with recurrent trips overseas. She has found a part time role that is flexible and this is not always possible for everyone.
She had a break from some of her roles due to other commitments, the location where she was living and other circumstances at the time.
There is an element of excitement in the local community when you hold a regional, national or international leadership role. The community is interested in what the local doctor is doing.
Young rural clinicians should say yes to opportunities. Getting involved in different WONCA working parties and special interest groups is one way to do this.
If you can go to a conference, present something.
In 2025 there are WONCA regional conferences in April for the South Asia region and Asia Pacific region, and the World conference in Lisbon in Portugal in September.
There are Young Doctor Movements in each world region that colleagues can get involved in.
The networking is the best thing about conferences. Networking is part of leadership, the opportunity to meet people and have a chat with someone from a completely different part of the world and learn from each other.
If you are going to advocate for your community it is important to get a team around you and networking in the community to understand different views within the community.
Someone might be better fitted to lead advocacy efforts and it might be that the family doctor works in the background.
Leading from behind - mentoring other people, delegating to others who might be better suited to the task, networking and having a team of people who are involved. It is lonely being a lone ranger.
She would like WONCA to be the go-to organization to advise on primary care and family medicine.
Rural workforce issues are most concerning. Rural communities and rural doctors are aging. She is keen to give medical students exposure to rural practice and rural training.
WONCA has a special interest group for policy advocacy. They are thinking about leadership and advocacy. There is also a young doctors leadership program that has been launched recently.
There are many opportunities to step up and get involved in leadership.
WONCA conferences: https://www.globalfamilydoctor.com/Conferences.aspx
WONCA working parties and special interest groups: https://www.globalfamilydoctor.com/groups.aspx
Young Doctor Movements: https://www.globalfamilydoctor.com/groups/YoungDoctorsMovements.aspx
Thank you for listening to the Rural Road to Health!