My name is Jessica Storrar and I am a proud Yuin woman of the Central Coast of New South Wales. I am currently in my sixth and final year of my Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at James Cook University (JCU). Throughout my time at JCU I have been actively involved in advocating for my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peers in both an academic and healthcare setting.

Notably within the university setting I have acted as both our medical student association Indigenous representative as well as our Australian Indigenous Doctors Association representative. In a healthcare setting I have attended various rural and remote placements, in communities with a prominent Indigenous population and have worked with my patients to ensure their healthcare and cultural needs have been met.

I intend to continue this advocacy role after I graduate medical school with long-term goals of becoming a Paediatric Emergency Physician and helping address the presence of biases towards Indigenous patients in this setting.

Throughout medical school, I have learnt the importance of patient advocacy especially for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients; consequently, I am committed to improving Indigenous health outcomes through acting as an advocate for Indigenous patients – particularly children – in emergency departments.

I am drawn to an Emergency Department setting as this is where I have witnessed the strongest biases and injustices towards my Indigenous peers. During my placements, I have seen how some Emergency Departments have failed their Indigenous patients to the extent where preventable health issues and unnecessary but frequent hospital admissions have occurred; often due to practitioners neglecting to understand the biopsychosocial determinants of their patient’s presentation. These experiences motivate me to ensure that I understand the social circumstances of each patient I see and work with them to improve their health outcomes and reduces the biases they face within the healthcare system.

I am passionate about paediatrics as I believe children are some of the most vulnerable individuals who require a health advocate and recognise that Indigenous children are disproportionately affected by neglect conditions. Having studied in North Queensland I have frequently seen clinicians fail to consider conditions that are unique to the Indigenous population, in turn increasing their patients’ risk of financial, social, and healthcare burdens. These injustices motivate me to encourage those who train with me to not only consider common conditions, but the patient as a whole, to ensure they optimise patient outcomes for all Australians, not just the textbook patient.

To say my semester started off a little chaotic would likely be an understatement, being thrown in the deep end of working in the emergency department during the peak of a cyclone. However, this experience was one of the best so far in my degree. During my time in the ED, I was able to gain confidence in my clinical knowledge and refine the skills necessary to manage patients almost independently. I thoroughly enjoyed the exposure to acute medicine that I had during this term as well as the variety of cases I encountered daily. A particular highlight of my ED placement was being able to spend time in Townsville’s paediatrics emergency department where my love of paediatric emergency medicine continued to grow, and I was reassured about my future career intentions.

The next journey I encountered during semester one was my anaesthetics placement. Here, I was able to further appreciate the skills and knowledge required in intensivist careers. I was given the opportunity to manage airways including laryngeal mask airway placements, manual ventilation, and the placement of an endotracheal tube. Moreover, I gained essential knowledge regarding anaesthetic medications including the paralytic, sedative, hypnotics, analgesics, antiemetics and anaesthetising agents which are required to facilitate a successful surgery. During this time, I also gained insight into pain management and learnt the importance of non-pharmacological approaches to managing pain; this was something I had previously not been exposed to.

I then ventured onto the clinical elective aspect of my final year. This involved a quick two-week placement in Auckland where I was able to appreciate how the Australian and New Zealand healthcare systems differed. I was placed within the rheumatology department at both Auckland City Hospital as well as Greenlane Clinical Centre. Throughout this placement I was exposed to countless conditions I had previously not seen (and sometimes even heard of) including septic arthritis, adult onset stills disease and haemophyagocytic lymphohistocytosis. Consequently, this placement served as an amazing learning opportunity and equipped me with unique knowledge which will be helpful as I progress into my professional career. During this time, I also seized the opportunity to be immersed in Māori culture and was able to appreciate how well integrated their way of life is into the broader New Zealand community; this is something I would hope to one day see with my own culture in Australia.

Next, I returned to Townsville to finish the rest of my elective. Firstly, I completed 3-weeks in the paediatrics department. Here, I was able to refine my communication skills with children, especially toddlers who I previously felt I struggled to communicate with. Furthermore, I gained a clear understanding of common paediatric conditions and how each of these should be managed; this has in turn allowed me to feel confident in managing paediatric patients independently in the future. Finally, I finished the semester off with a 5-week placement in the Haematology department. During this time, I was able to appreciate the service provisions of haematology within the Townsville region; this was one of the goals I set when entering the placement. Additionally, I was able to reinforce my clinical and pathological knowledge of haematology through appreciating examination findings such as splenomegaly and lymphadenopathy as well as laboratory findings including lymphoid aggregates and Auer rods. I believe the skills and knowledge I gained from both placement experiences will be vital throughout my career.

Without the amazing support of your Rotary Club and the Australian Rotary Health Scholarship initiative none of this would have been possible, so I would like to express my sincerest gratitude for your contributions towards my success and learning so far this year.