Growing Pains

It’s only a matter of time that as a medical student or doctor you will be confronted with the impacts of domestic and family violence on our patients and our communities. Whether it be treating a woman for injuries inflicted by her partner during your ED term or being the first person a woman speaks to about what is happening at home during your GP placement, knowing what to say and how to best to respond can be challenging. Though there are protocols and guidelines on what to do in these situations as a health professional, a better understanding of what constitutes domestic and family violence can help us better respond and support our patients in what is considered to be Australia’s hidden epidemic. Karen Prestidge is a Program Manager from Lifeline Community Recovery & Corporate Training skilled in delivering Domestic Violence Training programs with DV-alert. Karen is here to discuss the myths and misconceptions that continue to surround domestic and family violence, the cycle of abuse, and what to watch out for as a health professional. One not to miss! If you or someone you know is affected by this episode, please call 1800 RESPECT or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

“Brevity and clarity requires skill and courage”

This month we are sitting down with Professor Peter Martin and fellow 4th year medical student Bronte Warner to talk about bearing witness to suffering as we move through our training. Dr Martin is a professor of Communication and End of Life Care at Deakin University and a Palliative Care Physician at Barwon Health and offers his career’s work on how to look after yourselves and your patients as you inevitably will have to face suffering, death and mortality in your careers. We cover:

Understanding ourselves

⚫️ What it can be like when a patient you care about dies

⚪️ Feeling out of your depth when witnessing suffering and being part of end of life discussions

⚫️ How people die matters

⚪️ How to express empathy and compassion in a way that is helpful for your patients

⚫️ How to process it: finding your way to honour the experience, engage in reflective practice, and let it go so you don’t take it home

Understanding our patients

⚪️ What matters to them when facing end of life care?

⚫️ The myriad of ways in which grief and complex grief can be expressed

⚪️ Asking patients about quality of life vs avoiding death at all costs?

⚫️ Prognostic discordance

⚪️ Using the words “death” and “dying”

⚫️ Do YOU have an Advanced Care Plan?

RESOURCES

Out with labs, lectures and PBLs, and in with ward rounds, free coffees and probably COVID. Transitioning from preclinical into your clinical years is a big jump, and those first few weeks can be painfully overwhelming. But while the transition can be bumpy, you’ll definitely make it through and will be flabbergasted at how far you have come by the end of the year. 

To get you through those first few weeks, we have two of our seasoned Deakin fourth years, Yacoub Jayogli and Gaby Carty to bestow upon us all their lessons learned, insight and tales of terror as they made the leap into the big gun years. 

Lots of commiseration, giggles and advice on how to tackle:

🏥 Navigating the hospital environment

🩺 Reading the room folks

💉 Advocating for yourself

🏃🏾‍♀️ It's a marathon, not a sprint baby!

🥇 How to be the best (and least annoying) med student on the wards and in theatre

📚 How to study for exams and OSCEs after a year of clinical placement

This month Sofiya Fateeva, an incoming third year international student sits down with two recent Deakin grads Dr Melissa Ho and Dr Geo Zhou to talk about what life has been like as an international medical student at Deakin:

🎓  Dealing with failure, burnout and homesickness

🌎  Making friends and finding your people

💵  Job opportunities, intern applications and training programs as an international student

🩺  How to get the most out of your degree and seek out helpful feedback

🐨  Cultural and language differences studying in Australia (and trying to understand the Aussie sense of humour!)

✔️  Support available from the clinical schools and Deakin for international students

💉 The impact of the pandemic on their studies

This topic was too big and too important to not cover in more than one episode! This month, we sat down with Emma and Tie, two second year medical students at Deakin University to talk about how they manage studying medicine with having a family.

We talk about:

👩🏾‍🎓  How being a parent factored into their decision to start medicine later in life

🧬  Where there could be more support for parents in the medical degree

👩🏻‍⚕️  The joys and challenges

🩺  What they attribute to making it work for them

🧠  Differences in age and life stages when going back to uni when you're older

✍🏼  What they hope their little ones will learn from their pursuit to be doctor

As always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or feedback, and don't forget to rate us on Spotify or apple podcasts!

How important is research to our clinical careers? With the Z score likely on its way out, many of us are looking to differentiate ourselves from the pack on intern applications and beyond. But where to start? How do I know research is for me? Better yet, I've somehow managed to swindle a fancy professor into being my supervisor, but now what's expected of me?! What can I expect from them in return? Do I have to do research to make it as a doctor?

Fear not - this months episode is here to break it down for you. We have two world renown, dizzyingly accomplished and wonderfully candid clinician-scientists to answer all your research questions: Professor Ingrid Scheffer, AO and Professor Jacqueline French, MD.

This month, they answer all your burning questions about life as a clinician-scientist and the world of research:

👨🏾‍🔬Why should I do research as a medical student or junior doctor?

🧑🏻‍⚕️ Do I need research for my intern, residency, registrar applications? Does it matter if I do research in a speciality I don’t end up in?

👨🏻‍🎓 I want to get into research but I have no experience and don’t know where to start!

👩🏾‍🔬 How do I talk to my supervisor about authorship?

and we couldn't NOT ask...

👻 Women in academic leadership positions - how do we get more women to the top!?? 

Welcome back to Growing Pains after an unexpected, COVID induced hiatus. Thanks for sticking with us!

In this months episode, I sit down with Edwina Fry - NOMAD president to talk confidence, finding your "why" in medicine and taking on leadership roles. We recorded this episode at the end of last year (sigh... pre-Delta days), before Eddie moved to Ararat to complete her third year RCCS placement. It's a reflection on the unique challenges of navigating the preclinical years and ways you can overcome some of the doubt that creeps in, particularly as we work through a monstrous work load, a new environment and well... COVID. Eddie is down to earth, keeps is real and has some TIPTOP advice for you all.

Hope you enjoy! As always, please feel free to reach out to us on facebook or Instagram with any questions or feedback. 

Stay safe out there!

GP

In this two part episode on parenting, I sit down with Leedie and Chris, two medical students who are managing their studies while balancing being parents. Leedie is a final year student in Melbourne and a mum of three boys, two of which have additional needs. Chris is a former pharmacist, a third year student in Geelong and a single dad of three kids who he co-parents with their mum.

We talk about:

- Is studying a degree like medicine while being a parent selfish or is it good for our kids? Is it a gendered question?

- How much does being a parent shape a person's decision to pursue medicine?

- Do people have kids in medical school?! How!?

- Are our kids watching us? What are they learning from us when they see us pursuing our dreams?

- Going it alone, seeking support and responding to the naysayers

- The essential need for tip top time management and supportive family and not needing to "know it all"

Welcome to the first episode of Growing Pains! This month, we sat down with two MD3 students to talk about the role of ambition in their lives as they undergo their medical training - including:

🏆What does being ambitious mean to us? Where does it go wrong?

🥇Feeling misunderstood for your ambition

🏥 Why do we sometimes hesitate to admit we are ambitious?

🎉 How do we talk about and celebrate our successes without alienating others?

💙 How important is ambition in our relationships?

Interviewees:

Rachel Tobin is a MD3 and is the current MEDUSA Vice President. Throughout her medical training, Rachel has raised through the ranks of our student representative body, showing exemplary leadership and initiative in each of her roles.

Jen Cleary is an MD3 and former professional rower, who trained and competed in the 2016 Olympics while applying to get into medicine and starting her physio degree. 

We had a lot of fun recording this episode and we hope you enjoy it! Any feedback - feel free to DM us on facebook or instagram:

https://www.facebook.com/growingpainsMD

https://www.instagram.com/growingpains_md