My name is Bianca Knight I am a proud Biripi woman and a second year Doctor of Medicine student at the University of Sydney. I completed my Undergraduate studies in Nursing at the University of Wollongong, and worked as an Indigenous Nursing Cadetship with the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network. I adored paediatric medicine and went on to work as a Registered Nurse in specialty areas including paediatric cardiology, neurology, and neonatology.

It was my time in neonatology that I really found my love for women’s and children’s health. I was able to work in collaboration with mothers, their families and their newborn babies.

I have a passion for Indigenous women’s and children’s health. I hope to specialise in General Practice with sub-specialist training in in these areas. I plan to open my own clinics one day, providing women’s antenatal and perinatal care, and hope to establish a model of care which integrates Indigenous birthing culture (birthing on country) with up-to-date, evidence-based practice.

Semester one was quite an interesting block (GEL1) consisting of cardiology, respiratory, endocrine, musculoskeletal and surgery. The block was longer than those in the first year and built upon core content we established throughout the preceding year. There were two major  examinations at the end of the GEL1 block including a Knowledge Application Test (KAT) which involves multiple-choice questions, and a Multi-Modal Clinical Assessment (MMCA) Clinical Skills Examination, which involves four practical clinical stations.

I achieved quite a good score in my multiple-choice examination and did particularly well in areas including respiratory medicine, musculoskeletal and surgery. In the MMCA examination, I met 13 out of 13 domains and excelled in my communication and professionalism. I was able to correctly interpret an electrocardiogram (ECG), and arterial blood gas (ABG), and correctly diagnose a patient.

The upcoming blocks for semester two include Oncology and Haematology, and GEL 2 which consists of gastroenterology, renal, and neurological medicine. It is quite intensive and unfortunately, due to some health problems, it has been quite challenging thus far. I will continue to engage with the content and hope that over the coming months, I am able to achieve the same level of excellence as reflected by my scores throughout semester one.