Dr Jennifer Presser considers herself fortunate to be able to perform several roles that combine her skills and interests.

Dr Presser works one day a week as a GP at Headspace, which is a youth mental health service. She is the full-time Academic Lead for the University of Tasmania’s Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) medical program.

‘I also serve as the chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ (RACGP) Tasmanian branch. This provides a link between the medical school and senior GP specialist training, and it allows us to have a political voice into our health system to support changes to improve the health of the Tasmanian community,’ says Dr Presser.

‘I was drawn to the role at Headspace as I’ve always being interested in mental health. Mental health can be a challenging area at the moment. I am keen to improve the wellbeing of Tasmanian young people, through working directly with people as their doctor, and by contributing to changes in health service delivery and helping to support the wellbeing of the talented and inspiring young people who will be the future doctors of Tasmania.

Dr Presser enjoys the team-based environment in her team at Headspace and with her academic, research and teaching team at University of Tasmania.

‘We are a smaller state, but the wonderful advantage of that is there are connections between everyone at the University, the Tasmanian health service and with the community. Our medical program extends across the whole of Tasmania and has a strong emphasis on rural health. We have an amazing group of committed teaching staff – skilled scientists, practising doctors and expert support staff – who work closely together to provide a hands-on student experience with unique Tasmanian opportunities and where students are valued members of our medical community.’

Dr Presser’s background working in rural and remote health and with Indigenous people in the Northern Territory, North Queensland and Tasmania has given her an understanding of how important it is for rural health careers to be supported and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have careers as health professionals.

‘Twenty five per cent of medical students at the University of Tasmania are from rural backgrounds, and we are part of the rural training pipeline that is supported by the new rural health training hub in Burnie. We have dedicated Aboriginal support staff, including Aboriginal doctors in our teaching team. Three per cent of the Australian population are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and they are under-represented in the medical workforce. We need to have at least 3 per cent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctors in the medical profession in Australia. We’ve achieved this with medical student numbers in the early years of our course.’

Dr Presser moved into the field of medicine after qualifying as a science researcher.

‘I decided that I wanted to continue to learn, to teach, to research and to be a doctor. My medical degree has allowed me to do all three of these things. Our medical school is distinctive as it is co-located with Menzies Research Institute Tasmania, Wicking Dementia Research Centre, Clifford Craig Medical Research Trust and our academic teaching staff are active medical researchers. It’s immensely satisfying to have day-to-day interactions with people and to help them as a GP, contribute to quality improvements in health systems, and to work with the students who will go on to be leaders in the medical profession.’