Hi my name's Rosie and I'm a medical student and i'm here with Stuart
the medical dean and we're here to answer your questions
alright Stuart i have the first question
so what are some of the coolest jobs that UQ medicine's alumni are now doing?
I'm not sure Rosie, I fully accept the premise of the question because I think
all jobs in medicine are pretty cool, um as a psychiatrist of course I'm somewhat
biased uh that those of our graduates who are
practicing in psychiatry looking after people
with mental health issues that's pretty cool but some of the other jobs that I
really admire are the work of our rural generalists
uh caring for people in regional rural and remote australia
other jobs that that some of my friends think are pretty cool uh
supporting Formula One teams or AFL teams but
there's a lot of cool stuff to do in medicine. Rosie
what's been the most unexpected thing you've been happy to discover at UQ?
I think coming to UQ medicine I was really excited and surprised to see the
diversity of students which makes us really unique and I think
adds a lot to the experience here knowing that
both academically and clinically you can travel overseas but
just having friends and colleagues and contacts all over the world
is something that as someone that wants to travel and work overseas
is just the best the best unexpected surprise
At what stage in the MD program do your students get clinical or hands-on
experience? So we seek to provide sort of early
meaningful clinical experience for our students from the first year in
the first year as you might expect it is in a simulated clinical skills type
environment but then from year two our students are on the wards
in the hospitals uh learning the practice of medicine
by years three and four it's a fully immersive clinical experience
Rosie what does a day in the life of a medical student look like?
Oh well I think the wonderful part of a medical degree is that
no two days are the same I think it changes over your degree
even when you're in the early parts of your degree and you spend a lot of time
on campus you could be in one day in the anatomy
lab with cadavers you could be in a physiology practical doing experiments
on your peers and you could be in a lecture you can be
practicing your clinical skills and in the second part of your
degree when you're in the hospitals full-time it's hands-on it's clinical
experience standing by the bedside all day in
surgery and again every every single day is
different. How do you prepare students for the future
when we don't know what the future will look like? That's a great question
Rosie and I think that's one of the benefits of being in a comprehensive
university like UQ whilst yes we have an eye on
preparing you for day one as a clinician you're quite right we
don't know what's going to happen beyond that and that's really about a thorough
foundation in the biomedical sciences in the social sciences and in public
health to prepare you for challenges which we don't yet anticipate
Rosie how does the way you learn at UQprepare
you with the skills you need to face an
unknown future? I think the way that UQ the way you
learn at UQ, the fact that it's every different kind
of learning sort of covers all of the different
potential futures that we might be going into
so in the medical program there's the sort of core learning uh around
around the history of medicine around knowing what is currently known
but then we also learn about research we learn about
technology on the wards and we're trying to
predict what could potentially be the future that we're working in to
prepare us for the workforce of the future. So what makes
a successful medical student and are they the same things that make a
successful doctor? I think there are three things that make
a successful medical student and I think they're pretty much the same things that
make uh for success uh as a doctor throughout
the rest of your career I think the first thing is around
relationships the importance of that secure base
friends and family people who can keep you grounded I think one of the other
things that makes for a successful medical student and a successful doctor
is curiosity constantly challenging asking the awkward questions don't
accept the status quo people who are really prepared to push
back the boundaries of knowledge just because my generation did it
doesn't necessarily mean it's the right thing to do and i think the third thing
i think this is something we all struggle with
and that's dealing with uncertainty that medicine is about reckoning with risk
that there are very few yes no answers in medicine
it's about balancing probabilities and i think dealing with that
can be very challenging and confronting as a medical student and it's something
we continue to struggle with throughout our professional lives. Rosie
what's the most interesting thing you've learned that
has not been part of your coursework? I think when I first sort of started
becoming interested in medicine I had this one idea of
what a doctor would be and what a medical
degree can sort of lead you it's to a clinician the GP that you
loved when you were growing up whatever it might be but I think
sort of adjacent to the program i've been
so lucky to see the vast vast diversity in careers that a medical
degree can give you what sort of the medical fields is and how
far that scope goes so looking at whether or not I want
to be doing public health and policy or if I want to
be looking at technology and the future of technology and health
there's so many different things that I was passionate about and sort of
skills that I had growing up that I didn't necessarily
think I would be able to investigate and celebrate in a medical
career but I've I've been so excited to find
out that just being a doctor or the excitement of
being a doctor is only sort of one part of it
Stuart if you could give me one piece of advice that would set me apart
as a job candidate what would it be? I think the advice I'd give you
sort of Rosie is to be yourself is to be authentic I think the people
who sort of come across really well at
interview are the individuals who sort of let their true self shine
through and of course if you're pretending to be
somebody else at an interview and they hire you because they think
you're somebody different to who you are it's going to be a pretty difficult job
you having to act uh all of the time so I think the key
piece of advice is always be true to yourself and be
authentic
So Rosie this is the last question what have you learned about
yourself since you started your studies at UQ?
Something I've learned about myself is how important it is
to really believe in yourself if you're trying something new to really
sort of foster and hold on to self-confidence
uh to to try different things and to stretch yourself because you
never know you never know what could happen you
never know um where you might go or wait where you might succeed if you never
try