Thanks goodness for East Gippsland training! An intern’s tale.
What happens once our students graduate and go out into the big wide world? One of them, Paul Marosszeky, tells us what it is like.
Dr Paul Marosszeky
As I write this it is half way through intern year and with the first foray into professional life have come new challenges. The learning curve has been intense, despite this being a year ostensibly offering a brief reprieve from exams on the roller coaster that is medical training.
I have often heard junior doctors exclaim how that in their intern year they learnt more than in all of their years at medical school combined.
I always thought there were epic mountains of hyperbole in this sentiment, but this year I can kind of see what they’re on about. One has to consolidate a great deal of knowledge compiled over the preceding years for practical day to day use, and this requires constant diligent attention – especially at the beginning – and with each new rotation as you try to absorb the wisdom of your seniors and hone your clinical acumen in a way that will be applicable to the job at hand.
You finally start to have to remember doses for drugs and you realise that the two-hour tute in back-to-base week at the end of final year probably wasn’t enough to convey the more subtle complexities of writing drug charts (but don’t worry, you learn this one quickly!) You loathe brand names and drug names some more.
You actually have to do all those things that they get you to do in OSCEs for real and you need to be switched on because occasionally it will be one of those scenarios that you practised with Antony or Marnie. You get mighty good at smashing paperwork and of course your handwriting becomes progressively less legible. ECGs have not been a problem, thanks Caroline!
But the most dramatic difference that I have noticed between final year medical school and intern year, and the thing that underlies all the above and many more lessons, is responsibility.
The responsibility, even in the sheltered and protected role of intern, is certainly something that took a bit to get used to. It is why you should strive to be meticulous and methodical in your work, because whatever other motivations you have, all of a sudden you have an intense new degree of accountability.
No doubt this is the next step of journey for us, and every further step after Intern year is going to bring new challenges and responsibilities, and I guess that is part of why we do it.
For any students out in Gippsland reading this, know that amongst my former classmates, I can’t think of any major anecdote (to date) about an instance where they found their clinical skills lacking such that they weren’t able to recognise and act on dire clinical circumstances.
I have certainly been grateful many times over for the amount of clinical exposure and instruction I got on rural placements. The benefits may be as simple as being able to confidently undertake any of the small procedures or tasks that one has to perform on the ward and this makes life a whole lot easier, because your working day will be chock full of these myriad jobs.
I think I can say that this stands for many of my former classmates, who have been cast into a wide variety of settings: many of us in Melbourne, some in country Victoria, and Atkinson, no doubt suffering from some hideous jungle rot in Cairns.
I don’t know whether I have or not, but it is not my intention to make things sound too daunting for any students reading this (if they are still reading this rather than enjoying their freedom). Intern year has been challenging, but it feels good when you know you have met a challenge and overcome it – and it is great when you feel confident in a job that you are doing. Then again, I’m only half way through the year, so I hope my writing isn’t too thick with hubris.
It was an absolute pleasure for me to start my career as a doctor in Traralgon at the start of this year. It felt very fitting given that it was so close to where my medical school journey began and in a region which has played such a large role in the last few years of my life. It was great also having classmates from both Gippsland Medical School and more specifically East Gippsland classmates along to share that rotation and I can’t recommend enough pursuing further country and rural rotations as your careers progress.
Dr Paul Marosszeky
Year 3B Sale 2009
Year 4C Bairnsdale 2010
Year 5D rotations Sale
Graduate of Gippsland Medical School 2011