Rate My Professor Rachel Lynskey

Rachel Lynskey serves as Senior Professional Practice Fellow and Regional Co-ordinator for Alexandra at the University of Otago's Centre for Rural Health, Faculty of Medicine, Health Sciences Division. In this capacity, she contributes to the Rural Medical Immersion Programme (RMIP), sharing the challenges and rewards of rural generalist environments with medical students. Clinically, Lynskey works as a Rural Hospital Generalist at Dunstan Hospital, serving a population of around 25,000 across Central Otago. The hospital features a 24-bed ward, a 3-bed high dependency unit, visiting specialist outpatient clinics, mental health services, district nursing, and a Mobile Surgical Bus. Students under her coordination experience emergency and acute presentations, procedures, and inpatient care, with teaching emphasized by rural hospital specialists who promote generalism. She also supports placements at Health Central general practice in Alexandra, which includes a large extended healthcare team of GPs, nurse practitioners, physiotherapists, nurses, and healthcare assistants, as well as an Urgent Care Centre opened in July 2024 and GP-led clinics in Roxburgh. Alexandra, a town of 6,000 renowned for its vineyards, orchards, mountain biking, and walking tracks, provides an ideal setting for immersive rural medical training.

Lynskey's commitment to rural medicine originated during the 2007 pilot RMIP in Greymouth, where as a fifth-year medical student and Trainee Intern at Christchurch School of Medicine, University of Otago, she was mentored by the late Dr Pat Farry. Following preparation in Christchurch and Dunedin—including tutorials, personality assessments, and simulated scenarios—she engaged in hands-on patient care, memorable cases, and rural lifestyle activities like whitewater kayaking on rivers such as Murchison, Taipo, and Arnold. This transformative experience inspired her career path, leading her to document her perspective in the article 'A rural guinea pig: my perspective on the 2007 rural medical immersion programme,' published in the New Zealand Medical Student Journal (Number 8, July 2008), for which she received the Features prize. Initially planning a career in emergency medicine with rural focus and an elective in trauma in Cape Town and rural South Africa, Lynskey now embodies rural hospital medicine, fostering the next generation of practitioners equipped for Aotearoa's diverse healthcare needs through real-world immersion outside tertiary centres.