Always a country kid at heart who is training in emergency medicine, Dr Brittney Wicksteed is already emerging as a key leader in rural health in her home state of Western Australia. She’s now WA Rural Doctors in Training Chair, as well as the Vice President of the Rural Doctors Association of WA. It was Dr Wicksteed’s journey through medical school that really helped her to realise rural medicine was where she truly belonged. She shares how growing up in small-town Western Australia, boarding school in Perth, and early exposure to rural placements shaped her path to emergency medicine, and she discusses the unique hands-on skills, strong mentorship, and problem-solving mindset that rural training provides — offering invaluable experience that city-based trainees may miss.