Through my work in 2019 as a research officer with UWA working on two Aboriginal health projects related to ageing and the brain, I met many Elders from the Perth Indigenous community who have expressed the need for more Indigenous doctors with more cultural understanding/sensitivity. Many doctors from non-Indigenous backgrounds sometimes lack the knowledge of how an Indigenous family and lifestyle is structured, and do not quite understand the values and needs of an Aboriginal person or community. I would like to contribute to the community by providing safe and supportive care that is culturally appropriate and understanding, whilst also educating other health professionals on how they can be most appropriate as well. This would ensure that the whole Aboriginal community is receiving the best care from any doctor that they see, and that they do not have to rely on seeing only Indigenous doctors.

I would love the opportunity to further my involvement in Indigenous health as a doctor, especially with the ageing population. One of the projects I have been assisting on this past ear is a dementia prevention project for Aboriginals in Perth called DAMPAA (Dementia Prevention and Risk Management Program for Aboriginal Australians), which I am very passionate about especially after watching my pop develop dementia in his later years. One in 10 Aboriginal Australians over the age of 45 are said to have dementia, which is a prevalence much higher than the non-Indigenous population, and the effects are being felt widely throughout the Aboriginal community.

Not only would I want to continue my work with the older Indigenous community as a qualified health professional, but I would love to further involve myself in the Indigenous community as a whole. With many chronic lifestyle-related illnesses so commonplace in the Indigenous population I would want to contribute to reducing these and improving the overall health of communities. This could be through screening and clinics as well as education, which is a major contributing factor to the ill-health of many people, especially in remote areas.

2024 has been a full-on year so far! I’m in my final year now so the expectations are a bit higher and the pressure is building to get over the finish line of exams. I started the year doing my elective placements over summer, being able to go home to Exmouth and work in the ED there for two weeks in January. I had a great time! Got to spend a lot of time with my family, especially my mum who is a nurse in the hospital. Was strange being the ‘doctor’ for so many people I had known since I was in kindergarten, but I guess that is what happens when you live and work in a small country town.

Our placements in Perth started in February, and I was thrown into ED at Charlies first off. This was a lot of fun – very high paced compared to Esperance ED and a lot more sick/acute patients requiring more complex interventions. I felt comfortable in the ED after having done ED shifts in Esperance prior, whereas many of the other students who stayed in Perth for third year had no ED experience. I did notice quite quickly why I loved being in Esperance so much, mostly because I was more independent there and was able to do more and be more involved with the patient compared to in Perth. I did really enjoy being at Charlie’s and was encouraged to preference this first on my intern application – which we should find out our places for very soon!

I had a short two-week anaesthetics placement at SJOG in Subiaco which was pretty interesting, mostly to be able to be in private hospital that is not rushed or in a sense of urgency all the time. I had previous anaesthetic experience from my RCS year and honestly was a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to be as hands on as I’d expected, especially after already doing many of the things last year. The doctors were happy to teach when there was free time, but I mostly observed the practical things rather than being super hands on.

After this I had one week break over Easter and travelled up to Darwin for the long weekend. Visited one of my best friends I had not seen for a while and we did a lot of adventuring around the place. Was great to see the top end!!

Up next was another placement at home in Exmouth for my rural GP term. Was great to be able to go home for another 4 weeks and just relax a bit and have my parents take care of me (hahaha). Got a lot of my work based assessments signed off during this term – only have one left for the whole year now!

Returned to Perth where I dived into a lot of internal medicine, first with my selective placement in renal at RPH, and then cardiology at Hollywood. I had a great team on both rotations and am starting to feel like a useful part of the team and a ‘pre-intern’. Definitely getting more confident to head into the hospitals next year!

I have just enjoyed my mid-year break, taking two weeks off from study to relax and decompress. Went around WA – first a trip to Kalbarri with some friends from med, and then went up to Port Headland to visit a friend and got a chance to see my sister and her family that live up that way! Was a great way to reset before diving deep into study for the rest of the year as exams approach.

The plan now is to study hard, do well in my remaining rotations, pass exams, and become a doctor!!