Medicine

In 2022, I’m a second year medical student at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Here are my complete journal entries and notes on the course, as well as observations on the Australian health system in general, as someone who works at a GP clinic and a Pharmacy.

• Obstetrics and Gynaecology Rotation in Fourth Year Medicine

  I found obstetrics and gynaecology quite interesting. Box Hill Hospital was a good hospital to do Obstetrics and Gynaecology placements – we had birth suite, theatres for gynaecology and C-sections, clinics for antenatal care, postnatal care, gynaecology and miscarriage, and inpatient foetal assessment as well. I learnt a lot across the diverse offerings – and was able to get all the tasks on my logbook ticked off relatively early.

• GP Rotation in Fourth Year Medicine

  In my fourth year of medicine, I had GP as my third rotation, from June to August. The schedule worked as follows: Monday / Wednesday, we had teaching at the Alfred Hospital, while on Tuesday and Thursday, I had placement at two GP practices. One was a bulk-billing GP clinic where I spend 6 hours, and the other was a mixed billing practice where I spent 7 hours.

• Psychiatry Rotation in Fourth Year Medicine

  For the last 9 weeks, I have had the pleasure of doing my psychiatry rotation at Eastern Health, which I found to be an amazing experience. Within the commmunity, the mere mention of the term ‘psychiatry’ often brings a sense of bewilderment or disdain. The stigma surrounding psychiatry is real - we had to do an assignment around it, and at first, I was surprised at the idea that we had to write 1000 words about the very concept of how a field of medicine is perceived socially. However, I realise it to be true - upon revealing to my friends and peers that I am doing psychiatry, I have received more often than not funny looks and condescending comments.

• Paediatrics Rotation in Fourth Year Medicine

  I am now well and truly almost 2/3rds of the way through medicine. In my fourth year of medicine this year, I had the pleasure of experiencing the rotation of Paediatrics for my first 9 week block. We had one week of orientation lectures, followed by 4 weeks at the Angliss Hospital and 4 weeks at Maroondah Hospital.

• Tricks and Tips to parking at the Alfred

  I am placed at the Alfred Hospital for Year 3B medicine, and so have had to consider my transport options to the facility where I am undertaking placement and lectures.

• One week of placement at the Alfred

  It’s been one week of placement at The Alfred. Here are some of my thoughts and observations from my first experience in a hospital.

• Year 2 Medicine at Monash University - an academic recap

  And so we have arrived at the end of the pre-clinical course at Monash University. A very short two years ago, we were babies in an adult worlds. Today, Christmas Day 2022, I am still but a child, still oblivious to the complexities of life, to the best ways to learn medicine and to what growing up is really about.

• 'Rural' placement in Bendigo

  Y’know in primary school when we go on school camps. Every time we finished one of those, have some sort of sad sort of longing - for the memories we had but would never experience again, and also a sense of happiness about returning home to our families. That’s what I’m experiencing right now as I take the V-Line train home from Bendigo with a friend, after a week of ‘rural’ placement in Bendigo. I’m tired (4.5 hours of sleep last night) and doing an assignment on malaria (mosquitoes are the animal kingdom’s biggest killer of humans), but reflecting on the trip will give me some closure on what has been the longest time away from home that I’ve been.