‘I decided to take a leap of faith’: Largest ever number of GPs graduate
Dr. Hannah McCauley is among 274 new general practitioners graduating from the Irish College of GPs. She reflects on balancing her medical training with motherhood and her decision to return to rural Donegal to practice.
Why it matters
The graduation highlights efforts to address healthcare staffing shortages in Ireland, particularly in rural areas where GP services are under pressure.
W hen Dr Hannah McCauley was a child, she was used to her father Denis working all hours as a general practitioner (GP) in rural Donegal .
“People would come to the house and every third night he would be on call. I grew up knowing the hard work that was involved in medicine but I saw how much enjoyment Dad got out of it,” she says.
Despite getting the Leaving Cert points to study medicine in Trinity College Dublin, she decided to “take a leap of faith” and study abroad in Dundee, Scotland .
After graduating in 2016, she worked in Edinburgh for two years, before working in Northern Ireland for another two. But after working in hospitals and seeing “patients come and go”, she realised she wanted a different speciality.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in