Holiday period

Medical student shares her experiences working at Sale

LAST month saw the start of the academic year, with 149 Monash medical students commencing their clinical placements across Gippsland. These include 12 fourth year medical students returning to Gippsland after completing 3B in the region, three fifth year medical students returning to Gippsland after completing 4C in the region alongside the rest of the third, fourth and fifth year medical students. This year, 103 graduate entry students will undertake their first year of medicine at Monash Rural Health’s Churchill campus. Samantha Congdon is doing her fourth year in Sale and Bairnsdale this year, having done her third year in Sale last year. She is one of 25 Monash medical students (years 3-5) who will spend this year completing placements in Sale, at Central Gippsland Health Service and local GP clinics. Before last year, Samantha had never been to Sale or Gippsland but she has fallen in love with the area and hopes to continue her studies and career there. “There were so many positives about my time in Gippsland that it's hard to just find a couple of reasons or highlights that have led me to stay,” she said. “But if I had to choose three main reasons, it would be how I was treated as a part of the medical team, how I was treated as a part of the community, and all the adventures that I've been able to have in Gippsland. “As a medical student, you always hear that rural students will get more hands-on experience in terms of doing procedural skills, but it wasn't simply that, it was how I was integrated into the team, rarely left behind, being offered opportunities by consultants that I would never imagined to have had.” Ms Congdon said another big aspect of her love affair with Gippsland and Sale was how patients embraced me with open arms, the willingness to speak to me and to let me perform skills without a single grumble or look of annoyance. “They would always say “Well you've got to learn somehow, I don't see why not.”. The community that I built for myself at the hospital also enriched my experience last year, with registrars that would go out of their way to teach me, and a consultant even inviting me over for Christmas with his family as I was alone in the region. Everyone around me, both in and out of hospital, became my family,” she said. Outside of her studies, Ms Congdon joined the local community theatre company as well as undertaking many day trips around the region visiting wineries, going to lakes and beaches. She is excited about what is on her radar in the next 12 months. “We can start exploring different specialties like Psychiatry and Paediatrics. I'm looking forward to going back on the wards and making connections with the team and patients alike. But I am also looking forward to resuming my adventures around Gippsland with a different group of peers and enjoy everything Gippsland has to offer again,” she said. As for staying in the region once she’s a qualified, Ms Congdon said. “Once you've grown roots in a community, how can you ever bear to leave it. And for me, that place and community is Sale. I have enjoyed every moment on this personal and medical journey that I have embarked here last year. Though life might take me to another community at a different point in time, for now, for me, Sale is home and where I intend on starting my professional career and continuing my personal life,” she said.

Samantha Congdon will come to Sale for her placement.

Photo: Contributed