Wairarapa just what doctors ordered | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Forget dabbing blood or stitching wounds, it was the Queen Elizabeth Park deer that most startled a group of doctors in training.

Helen Miller and 20 other Dunedin medical students are adjusting to rural life as part of a week learning how community medical agencies operate in the Wairarapa.

This is the first time Otago University has sent third-years to the region, which operates a rural immersion programme for fifth-years.

Ms Miller, 26, said she loved the country air and it was the "coolest thing ever" to put her learning into practice.

"It was challenging to have a doctor say 'take the blood pressure' and work with a real patient. It was a real test to see if we could do what we have been learning."

Earlier this week she listened to Masterton Medical Centre patients describe their symptoms and had to diagnose their conditions.

For Nathan van Rij, 27, it was the first time he had been allowed to perform surgery.

"In our medical training we have worked with cadavers so we know what it's like to cut into tissue but it's a bit different cutting into a live person."

His highlight was assisting a doctor on a minor operation. "I got to dab the blood away and cut the stitches. He did the stitches but I was like 'yeah, part of the team'."

Mr van Rij said he had options where he specialised but was open to returning to Wairarapa as a rural doctor.

"I would need to be committed to it because you need to be fairly committed to be a rural GP."

Otago University senior lecturer Lesley Gray has been overseeing the Wairarapa placements and 59 other students spread across Porirua, Kapiti, Wanganui and Hastings.

Ms Gray said the week was about showing students how health care worked outside the hospital.

It was also a chance for students to get a feel for working in places they might not have considered before graduating.

"Before these students came here they didn't know what they were going to find," she said.