Career Navigator Profiles

Dr Jahde Dennis — Gove District Hospital and Royal Darwin Hospital

Jahde is a Senior Rural Generalist with advanced skills in anaesthesia (JCCA) who has worked in the Northern Territory for 11 years.

Originally from the south-west of WA, he migrated north following an epiphany that winter is an optional extra. Born and bred in a small coastal community, his early interactions with General Practitioners championed the concept of the Doctor as a generalist; a community member, an innovator, a mentor and a true ‘jack of all trades’.

A recipient of the Rural Australian Medical Undergraduate Scholarship and the Alfred Nailer Prize for top student in Rural Medicine, Jahde trained at UWA, including several sojourns to the Kimberley through Rural Clinical School and Internship. Migrating to Darwin in 2011, he spent time in Elcho Island as part of the Prevocational General Practice Placement Program before committing to the East Arnhem region in 2016. He has also spent time abroad working in the Solomon Islands and Tonga.

A strong believer in clinical excellence and versatility, he divides his time between anaesthetic duties as part of a FANZCA led department in a tertiary centre, rural generalist duties in a district hospital and a mentoring role guiding GP registrars through their training.

Jahde is married with a young family and is an expert in Disney Princesses and Bluey. A fishing tragic, he also loves the outdoors and endless summer.

Dr Jasmine Banner

Jasmine Banner is a young Rural Generalist working at Katherine Hospital in the Big Rivers Region of the Northern Territory, having navigated her training pathway completely in the NT.

She studied at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 2010, and was drawn to apply for Intern jobs in the Top End due to the promise of warm weather, exciting medicine, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, and tropical medicine and lifestyle – with no regrets!

She completed her ACRRM training in 2017 with Advanced Skills in both ED and O&G (terms and training completed through Royal Darwin and Alice Springs Hospitals) and is now using all these skills in a varied and enjoyable job mix of Maternity, ED, GP, Women’s health Outreach and Sexual Assault on-call. She loves the variety and scope of practice being a Rural Generalist affords, and the support of like-minded colleagues and mentors made the job decision and career trajectory an easy one – which she hopes to pay forward.

Outside of medicine Jasmine enjoys riding her horses, hiking and camping in our great outdoors and playing violin – life is certainly not boring.

Dr John Floridis

John graduated from Flinders University with honours in 2013. He proceeded to complete all his rural generalist training in the Top End of Northern Territory, including procedural training in anaesthesia. Additional areas of training included emergency medicine, medical education and retrieval medicine. He was the clinical lead for anaesthesia, emergency medicine and clinical education at Gove District Hospital, in addition to being a supervisor for junior doctors and medical students.

John is a passionate patient advocate and teacher. He thoroughly enjoys the clinical learning environment, constantly striving to engage the next wave of doctors, and to consider rural medicine as a career pathway. Evidence-based practice is maintained through regular publication, regular course attendance, and being a current instructor for Advanced Life Support (ALS), and Emergency Trauma Management (ETM) Courses.

Family and fitness keep John grounded outside of work, especially a healthy dose of backyard cricket!

Dr Anne Kleinitz

Anne is a Senior Rural Generalist in Remote Health (NT Health, Top End). She works as a Rural Generalist and has the Education and Training Portfolio for Remote Health, Top End Region. She is passionate about providing access to high standard health care in rural and remote Australia, as well as helping to grow the future rural health workforce. She has been involved with medical education throughout her training and career, including 10 years as a Senior Lecturer at the Flinders University, Northern Territory Medical Program (NTMP).

Originally she grew up on a farm in rural Victoria in a large family. She studied at Monash University, was the President of the rural students club and was the first medical student to receive a John Flynn Scholarship, doing 4 placements in the Torres Strait. On graduating she gained skills & qualifications in a wide range of areas including paediatrics and emergency medicine. She has a Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, a Masters of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Graduate certificate in Refugee Health and Disaster Management. As a GP registrar she was on the board of GP registrars Australia (GPRA), Chair of Registrars Medical Educator committee, member of the ACRRM registrar committee and a registrar ME at NTGPE. She has her Fellowship with both RACGP and ACRRM, is an examiner for RACGP and has been a medical educator for ACRRM and NTGPE. When she sat her RACGP OSCE she was awarded the Monty-Kent Hughes medal for the highest score nationally. She’s been involved with GP supervision for many years and spent 3 years as the Supervisor Liaison Officer for the NT, joining national supervisor discussions with GP Supervisors Australia (GPSA).

She’s worked all over Australia as well as humanitarian work twice with Medecins Sans Frontieres in Sudan (Darfur) and Ethiopia (Somaliland). She spent a year in the Kimberley as a “Renal GP” caring for haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients, as well as being a solo GP in the remote community of Balgo. When moving to the Territory she worked intermittently as a Senior Rural Generalist at Tennant Creek Hospital. In main stream GP before joining NTG she had a special interest in caring for doctors, aware of their stressful role and importance of sustainability.

In Remote Health she coordinates the training for GP registrars, medical students and Junior Medical Officers, as well as education for the RMPs. She describes her job as the perfect combination of her passion a for education and rural and remote health.

Outside medicine, Anne enjoys time with her family, singing in the “Cheeky Docs” GP band and catching up with friends.

Dr Nigel Gray

Nigel has been a GP Supervisor, Medical Educator and latterly Flinders Senior Lecturer in the Territory since 2001 having relocated from the UK via South Australia at the turn of the millennium.

As an International Medical Graduate he has enjoyed the benefit of working rurally and remotely throughout much of this time and professes, as a result of his various roles with Northern Territory General Practice Education, the Divisions Network and the Prevocational Medical Assurance Services to have knowledge and experience of almost all the opportunities available to medical practitioners Territory wide.

His recent experience of Health Services and cultures in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada has helped consolidate and contextualise the Northern Territory landscape’s reputation as the land of opportunity when it comes to early experience of diverse responsibility and multidisciplinary practice.

Whilst born to be a supervisor in the community primary healthcare environment, Nige has also benefited from the experience gained as the NT’s Director of Specialist General Practice Training where his portfolio has included oversight of a diverse group of skilled Medical Educators; contributions to the career development of a General Practice Registrar cohort with a huge aspirational range; and the Placement and Training planning for all of its members.

Subsequent to General Practice Training reverting to individual College lead models with a more national focus, Nige has diverted his energies upstream to offer guidance, support and experience to NT Medical Programme students across pre-clinical and clinical years. This has allowed him to better appreciate the factors involved in influencing students’ career choices from a more developmental phase and hopefully to contribute to the wider uptake of primary healthcare options.

Recognising the Northern Territory as a place where the right things matter, he is working towards full acceptance as a “local” and is very proud to have also helped to bring four children through the Central Australian and Top End educational and social systems, children whose chosen career pathways continue to allow them to develop their own unique skill sets, personalities and ambitions.

Nigel feels incredibly privileged to have been invited to become a Career Navigator for the Northern Territory’s Rural Generalist Programme and is confident he can contribute meaningfully to the progression and crystallisation of many participants’ professional ambitions as the role itself evolves.”

Dr Rael Codron

Life isn’t so dry in the Australian desert for Dr Rael Codron, thanks to the journey down the Rural Generalism path.

Rael began his medical career in rural South Africa and then transformed into a luxury cruise ship doctor. After visiting nearly 90 countries and some of the most remote places on the planet, he traded remote medicine on the oceans for the Central Australian desert.

Shortly after completing his Australian Medical Council exams and gaining Australian registration, Rael completed the Fellowship of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, with placements at Alice Springs and Tennant Creek Hospitals, including his GP Anaesthetist accreditation. He is passionate about providing holistic patient care to clients of all ages and developing relationships with staff and the community.

Rael is the Barkly Region Director of Medical Services, leading a powerful and passionate team of rotating medical students and junior doctors, with the assistance of his committed Rural Generalist Registrars and long term Rural Generalist Fellows.

Whilst still maintaining a varied clinical role at both hospitals, he is keenly active in medical education and specialist training. He is also responsible for the medical leadership, administration and service expansion of the Barkly region.

In 2023, Rael was awarded the Northern Territory and Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils (CPMEC) National Clinical Educator of the Year Award, Australian National University award for Teaching Excellence in a rural setting and NT Primary Health Network special recognition award for GP of the Year.

Dr Rhys Harding

Rhys is a rural generalist fellow from the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (FACRRM) who undertook the majority of his training in the Northern Territory (NT). He has previously completed advanced skills training in anaesthetics (JCCA) and has worked as an Antarctic Medical Practitioner for the Australian Antarctic Program. In doing so, he has worked as a ships doctor aboard icebreakers and was the sole doctor at the remote research bases of Davis station and Macquarie Island.

Rhys’s rural medicine career began in NSW with various placements including an extended stay in Broken Hill and undertook his junior years in Tamworth. Rhys arrived in the NT in 2015 and has since worked across the state in Alice Springs, Katherine, Darwin and East Arnhem.

Rhys currently works in a variety of clinical roles; as a rural Generalist in Wadeye, a DMO for the TEHS and in Emergency at Katherine Hospital.

An advocate for mentorship, Rhys is keen to share his knowledge and stories with future rural generalists and promote rural doctor wellbeing.

Outside of work Rhys enjoys the wild outdoors, camping, hiking, scuba diving, golf and tennis.

Prof Marco Briceno

Marco is a Senior Rural Generalist Surgeon, a Medical Administrator and a Medical Educator, who worked in North East Arnhem Land for 13 years and, more recently, in Darwin since 2021 where he has held many leadership roles within NT Health. These include Medical Director for the NT Rural Generalist Pathway and NT Prevocational Medical Assurance Service, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Health Officer during COVID-19 pandemic, and, most recently, the Chief Executive Officer for NT Health.

Originally from Venezuela, where he obtained his medical degree in 2001, Marco completed his pre-vocational training in Venezuela, including a stint in the Amazon, where he had the first taste of remote Indigenous health. Marco completed his surgical training between 2005 and 2008 in the UK before moving to the NT on a 6 month “adventure”. Marco rediscovered his passion for Rural Generalist Medicine, and he completed training as a Rural Generalist Surgeon with the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine in 2013.

In 2016 he was appointed Director of Medical Services of Gove District Hospital, and in 2018 this role expanded to Regional Director of Medical Services for East Arnhem.

Marco has a strong passion for Medical education. He has been actively involved in undergraduate education with the Northern Territory Medical Program, and he holds Professor academic status with Flinders University. Marco has been awarded the Postgraduate Medical Council’s NT Clinical Educator of the Year award and twice the Burns-Alpers Clinical Teaching award for his dedication and excellence in clinical medical education and training.

Outside medicine, Marco enjoys spending time with his family. They enjoy fishing, camping and playing sports. He is a keen golfer and a watch collector.