The Auricle 2023 - Edition 2

THE AURICLE

EDITOR'S LETTER

Dear valued readers,

Welcome to The Auricle’s April-June Edition, our second instalment for 2023. We are absolutely delighted to share this publication with you and the creativity of the contributors featured in these pages. As mentioned previously, the MUMUS Publications team is publishing quarterly, so if you've missed our first publication (January-March) please do check it out!

To introduce myself again, I'm Yash, currently a 4C student completing my Psychiatry rotation. I've absolutely loved my time so far as editor of MUMUS' Publications arm, especially our work in producing 'The Ossicle' our very own Spotify Podcast series This edition, we had the pleasure of chatting to Katya Gvozdenko, who is a truly remarkable 'Human of Medicine'! In addition, we're delighted to announce that the annual Creative Writing and Visual Art Competition for 2023 has opened to submissions, find more information here: https://fb me/e/1hkaNgBFP

As always, we love student contributions, so if you want to contribute, please get in touch with us! Details about the kind of submission we are looking for can be found at https://theauricle.org/contributing/ or if you have any questions, email us at publications@mumus.org or ypat0008@student.monash.edu. We hope you enjoy reading this second edition of 2023 There’s a whole lot to get stuck into!

Happy reading :)

Yash

Patwardhan, MUMUS Publications

Yash Patwardhan is currently a 4C Student completing his Psychiatry rotation

HUMANS OF MEDICINE

Each edition of The Auricle, we interview a member of the Monash medical cohort who has been up to something interesting that they are willing to tell to readers of The Auricle. If you think you or someone you know would have an interesting story to share, please contact us!

Name: Katya Gvozdenko

KATYA, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF?

For me, medicine was not a straightforward choice, but it was also the only choice I knew I could make at that point in time. During high school, I had many different interests. I mooted, did debating, and law interested me for a while too. But ultimately, it was biology and science which captivated my interests. And knowing that I wanted to keep interaction with people, medicine felt like the right path.

As I stay in medicine longer and longer, I’m becoming more and more passionate about helping people through difficult times, as well as become more and more interested in systems. I’m also particularly interested in medical systems, and trying to figure out ways to make health systems better and smoother, as that’s something that affects every single Australian and person in the world

OUTIDE OF MEDICINE, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WOULD BE YOUR INTERESTS?

In terms of interests, I like to keep it diverse. I think the more busy I am outside of med, the more motivated I am to actually study med, which gives me a great balance. I'm currently on the Monash volleyball team, and we're headed down to uni games for Gold Coast in September.

I also like a bit of MedTech I've done some work with the Faculty of Engineering in an entrepreneurship with one of their programs I'm also the co-founder of an aptly named Flu squad which vaccinates Australians. So this year we've had 1600 Australians vaccinated for free against influenza.

My friend and I founded it together, which has been an extremely exciting experience. They're particularly hoping that there'll be a young medical students next year who's excited to take on the reins as I kind of head off into internship.

I’m also working with the Australian government throughout the course of this year. During the summer, I did an internship with the department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, working with the Prime Minister's team on health policy. Currently, I'm in the mental health advisory, looking at how to improve the mental health system due to the issues that are present in that area.

HOW DO YOU GET INVOLVED IN PUBLIC POLICY FROM A FEDERAL GOVENRMENT LEVEL AND NOT JUST POLICY FROM MAYBE AN AMSA LEVEL?

You can do the whole state MP thing, you can do through the AMSA route, which I did some of it last year, but this one was a straight internship with the Prime Minister and Cabinet team, and that's honestly the easiest way to do it

During my time, we would draft bills, send it to politicians and they would really quickly respond to it. One of the bills I was personally charged of was the vaping laws that came into effect this year And that was slightly easier to push through cause it's about young people. So as long as you attach it to something that's like “popular”, it's a lot easier.

HAS THERE BEEN ANY PARTICULAR LESSONS OR REVELATIONS THAT YOU'VE LEARNED OR COME TO THROUGH ALL OF YOUR EXPERIENCES?

The first thing that I think I knew in the background, but it came as a surprise to me when I consciously realised it is that great people in, in whatever sphere they're in usually come at the intersection of multiple fields.

Hiking with Prime Minister and Cabinet Interns

For me, I'm trying to figure out what the intersection is Like I want my basis to be medicine. And then the question is, do I like medicine policy, or medicine technology. I'm trying to figure out the balance between where my intersection is.

I’ve found that the most kind of interesting, most innovating, most fascinating kind of people and ideas come from these intersections.

I’ve also realised that in your life you have a long time. But you also have designated years and decades for specific things. For example, in your 20s to 25, you might still be figuring out what going on. Like what do you like, what do you don't like? Maybe 25 to 30, you're trying to concentrate more on your career development So there are times when you have to work harder on specific things and times where you don't

And so times right now where we're quite lucky, where we don't really have too many ties, for example, a family that's relying on me right now, which I understand that for some students, is a factor that changes your equation.

For me, I’m thinking in my thirties, I intend to fully dedicate this time to things like family, as that's will be, that'll be something I'll value most, like at that point in time.

So I consider myself quite fortunate, as I’ve still got eight more years to do fun, cool, exciting stuff. And I wanna do that. Because when you think about eight years, it’s not that awfully that long. So if I'm doing something, I might as well like kind of go all in

I’ve been involved in several med tech related projects and I do think a lot of the future inherently stems from that I think that's why I strive to keep up with it as much.

Because if that's where the future's headed I want to be there. The main one I’ve been involved in is the Healthcare Innovation Summer Scholars, which is being run by MYMI (Monash Young MedTech Innovators), which is also run by the faculty of engineering and the faculty of entrepreneurship. You can apply as a Monash student from any faculty, and you get paired with a clinician who has a medical technical problem, and then your goal is to help them solve it.

Our very basic prototype is currently being trialled at the Alfred. So hopefully this increases the diagnosis rate for people who come into the hospital complaining of dizziness.

Katya Gvodzenko

"GREAT PEOPLE IN WHATEVER SPHERE, THEY USUALLY COME AT THE INTERSECTION OF MULITPLE FIELDS"

Keen to hear the whole interview in full? The full interview is available on our Spotify 'The Ossicle' podcast

The Ossicle Episode 2Katya Gvodenzko

Cookies with the Prime Minister and Cabinet Team

Falling out of love

In medicine, there are many moments of beauty. Many moments of pain.

I used to wake up every morning, excited and ready for another refreshing day of learning, Another day of physiology to soothe my yearning. A moment of curiosity, grasping a different part of the body, learning a new system, Coursing all the vessels of the body, burying my head in anatomy books, waiting to absorb the wisdom.

A paradigm shift, I don’t understand, Like nothing that has happened beforehand. It feels unfamiliar, foreign and frightening, The same texts seem sickening. Am I falling out of love?

Anatomy seems pointless, I can finally feel the dullness. It’s heavy, dragging me down, This content seems like a knockdown. I need help, I cry, A break is the only thing I fail to justify. I’m falling out of love Help me, I’m drowning, Put a stop To this lunacy, I’ve fallen out of love.

Aadhya Vyas is the current Year 3B Social Representative, this piece was a previous submission to The Auricle Creative Writing and Visual Art

how

'wholesome dindinswith jessica'

On the 9th of December 2021, I started this series called ‘wholesome din dins with jessica’.

It resulted in me becoming addicted to making Instagramreels(followme@ jess sgxx)

Therulesweresimple

1.Pickacuisine

2.InviteagroupoffriendsonaFriday night

3.Geteveryonetobring/cookadish

4.Feast

ItwasasimpleandcuteideabutIthoughtbythis time, I would run out of countries to pick from. Or that I would run out of friends. But to this date, I’ve done 57 dinners in total. And my friends have still decidedtohangaround

SowhydidIstarthavingthesedinners?

WasitjustsoIcanhearteaandgossip?

Was it just so I can hear updates on my friends’ lovelives?

Was it just so I force people to taste the food I cookandpotentiallypoisonthem?

Yes

Toalloftheabove.

Buttherewasadeeperreasonwhyitallstarted

In 2020, the cursed year Like many of my peers, I didn’t cope well with the lockdowns I struggled withthelackofcontrol Ifeltlikemylifewasfalling out of my hands So what did I think was the most logicalthingtodo?Toholdontighter

ToholdsotightontothethingsIhadleft Tocontrol the very few things I could control during a time whenIwasdrowninginuncertainty Butinreality,I waslosingcontrolofwhoIreallywas

obviouslywrittenbyjessicasatyagraha

Long story short I developed an eating disorder I pushed myself to the limits and aimed for perfection.

I thought perfection was synonymous with excellence. That if I could exercise for longer, I would be closer to being ‘healthy’. That if I could decreasemydailyintakebyXXcalories,itwouldall be worthwhile. I told myself that pushing myself to the limit and aiming for perfection… mirrors certainty.Buttheonlycertainthingthatcomesout ofperfectionisthefalloutofanxietyandburnout.

I love planning, scheduling and organising everything to the T. Despite our efforts to compartmentalise and organise everything into neat little categories, life doesn't operate that way. Life is messy, with strings that are tangled, intertwined, and sometimes impossible to untangle. Aiming for perfection only raises our expectations to unrealistic standards with the inability to accept the shortcomings of others and mostimportantly…ourselves.

The path to recovery was difficult. It’s a long one that isn’t linear and consists of multiple relapses. It’s interesting how doctors can make the worst patients. We spout medical advice with no hesitation but find it impossible to follow our advice.

Why?

Becausewebelievetherulesdon’tapplytous. Becausewebelieveweare‘builtdifferent’. Becausewebelievethatwearetheexception.

Butsorrytobreakittomanyofyouhigh-achieving people out there you’re not that special And I meanthatinthenicestwaypossible

Youareahumanbeingthatstillneedstoeat. Youareahumanbeingthatstillgetssick. Youareahumanbeingthatstillneedstosleep.

Unfortunately, it was hard for me to digest that concept

Or digest anything really (Can you tell I cope with humour)

Myeatingdisorderpreventedmefromdoingmany things in life Many things I didn’t want to speak to my friends I didn’t want to eat out at restaurants I didn’t want people to cook for me I didn’t want peopletobeinthekitchenwithmewhenIcooked, let alone at my house I didn’t want people to eat with me I struggled to even look at a plate of food withoutdoingthementalcalculationsofhowmuch Ineededtorunto‘earn’thismeal

There were several relapses along the way to recovery Buteachrelapsegetsshorterandshorter With every relapse, you learn strategies to come back stronger You learn to not listen to the little voice in your head saying that pain is necessary You learn not to hold onto the leash so tightly, because,inreality,youwereneverholdingontothe leash.Theleashwasaroundyou.

So what did I decide to do? I decided to do the complete opposite of what that voice in my head told me to do. I let people back into my life. I concluded that ‘ye maybe… the doctors are right’. SoIdecidedtoputmyselfthroughmyownversion ofexposuretherapy.

I held dinners e Where people bo AndIateit

Disclosure, I didn straight away started hosting these dinners I think if I was forced to do something like this in 2020, I would have punched someone in the face while simultaneously have a mental breakdown It took time

Sohereweare 57dinnersdoneandmanymoreto come Approximately 50 cuisines were tried and tested (with some countries repeated) With over 85people(Icouldn’tcountthemall)

Itwasn’teasy Butitwasworthit

As we get older, it’s harder to maintain the friendships that we have In high school, or even pre-clinicalyearsinmedicine,weareforcedtosee people every single day (or most days at least) It was less effort to see people and check up on our friends But now I’m in my final year of medicine, less than 6 months until I become a doctor and it will be my life-long goal to continue having these dinners so I can keep the friendships that I so deeplytreasure

Very few people knew the reason for how these dinners started Because not all who attended the dinners knew I had an eating disorder But I’m so thankful for every single person who attended I’m so grateful for all who decided to put to bring food andaspecialshoutouttoallthosewhodecidedto cookandcameclosetoburningdowntheirkitchen. Aslongasitisn’tmykitchenxx

I wouldn’t say I’m fully recovered. But at least I’m onedinnerclosertorecovery.

To all who came to ‘wholesome din dins with jessica’… thank you for being part of my recovery journey.

#56korea

#51switzerland

#50papuanewguinea #32belgium

#39burma #25netherlands

MUMUS Halfway Update

Can you quite believe we ’ re halfway through 2023? It’s been an action-packed semester on MUMUS’s end, and I hope this article provides a glimpse of all that’s been going on behind the scenes over the last 6 months. After all, we ’ re a society that exists to serve its members, and I want to ensure that you have a detailed understanding for what we ’ ve gotten up to!

Academic

The MUMUS 4C working group, composed of Jack, Isobella, Caroline and myself, received close to 200 responses across two year levels with feedback on Year 4C attendance requirements this year. We identified 22 key findings and 16 recommendations which were analysed in a 33 page report and presented to faculty in April. We have seen immediate improvements in standardising attendance requirements across sites (particularly for O&G) and early notification for students with borderline attendance, and have received overall positive feedback from the faculty about long-term roll-out of the other recommendations made in the report.

The placement allocation timeline has been brought forward with the view to provide earlier certainty to students on where they will likely be placed for the year. We will be further advocating for the release of a timeline overview at the start of the year to provide a heads-up on when placement decisions need to be made for 2025.

Social

We ran two smooth-sailing medcamps to welcome our Year 1s and Year As into medicine, led respectively by the Year 1 Medcamp and O-week convenors, Julie and Xiang, and our Graduate VP, Faris We ran the inaugural Year A subcommittee stalls during Year A orientation this year to better connect our commencing students with the opportunities available within Monash medicine

Under the leadership of our Social VP, Meghna, we ’ ve run an abundance of social events, ranging from our yearly Welcome Back Clinical Drinks, Preclinical Medcruise, to our many first year oriented social events

Wellbeing

The Community and Wellbeing team led by Caroline has worked to create graphics illustrating the available escalation pathways for students on clinical placement These have been rolled out across the clinical sites to help clarify the options available for students needing to escalate issues, or needing additional support

In conjunction with the other Victorian medical schools, we have officially launched the Victoria-wide medical student mental health study - aimed to examine the protective and risk factors contributing towards medical student mental health in Victoria We hope this will inform what needs to be done to improve medical student mental health in future years

Other

On the financial side of things, we ’ ve secured a scrubs sponsorship with AIRMed, thanks to our 2022 and 2023 sponsorship officers, Yash, Eric, Zoe and Jasmine After many years of looking into financial divestment, we are excited to announce that we have made the move on opening an account with Bendigo Bank (fossil-fuel free), and will have all our assets transferred by the end of 2023.

We recognise the tangible benefits that can come from empowering students to give back to the medical student community As such, we introduced a student grants program this year, aimed at providing funding towards student-led initiatives 3 projects have been funded so far this year, and we hope you enjoy the events and initiatives they put on for you

As a student union, you deserve to know what our processes look like We’ve aimed to maintain transparency with all of you through our monthly graphics with our minutes, committee member reports, and updates on what we have actioned based on the anonymous feedback form.

Thank you!

This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list of all that has been accomplished this year, and is instead a brief foray into the work of our team of 75 passionate MUMUS committee members. Stay tuned on our socials every month to read up on what each of your representatives gets up to in their roles

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any feedback, questions, ideas for a new event or initiative, or points of advocacy. I would love to hear from you!

By Jessica Yu - MUMUS President 2023

the stress contagion

Britney Pham, Gaia Charan (C&W Committee 2023)

Only last week I was studying for an exam in my local cafe. With my laptop open, hosting an abundance of annotated pathology slides, it was not a surprise when the waiter who came around with my cappuccino asked, “Looks complicated, what do you study?” There was a sliver of silence Usually I offer a vague, “I’m in the Sciences,” to avoid the commotion that Medicine tends to arouse, but he had already seen my notes and it wasn’t worth blurring over. His response was expected. “You must be so stressed out everyday, I can imagine you have no spare time.” I never know how to react truthfully Yes, sometimes (like this week), I am inundated with exam preparation and looming OCE assessments, but at other times, I am more focused on working to pay my rent, finding time to cook with my friends, and going to the beach with my brother. It’s interactions like these that leave me wondering: Am I stressed enough? Am I taking Medicine seriously? Should I be more intimidated?

If this sounds at all familiar, then have no fear, because you are certainly not alone This anecdote doesn’t suggest that stress is nonexistent in Medicine; we all know that it very well does, and when it does, it exists in a most overwhelming form. But it is undeniable that sometimes this stress is induced by others. This phenomenon is known as the stress contagion effect.

We are all likely to experience second hand stress on a daily basis, as a result of basic empathy. Observing another person ’ s stress has been shown to have a direct impact on our own stress levels, as measured by cardiac activity (Dimitroff, S J 2017), and can be differentiated depending on the demonstration of emotional cues, shown as hand gestures, tone, volume and posture. This empathy is likely to extend further for individuals with whom we spend more time, share more experiences, and are emotionally closer to.

However, the stress contagion effect also exists in a more superficial form, through choice of language and social pressure. Holding a role with set norms and responsibilities, such as that of a medical student, can result in stress being used as a measure of dedication and commitment to one ’ s work (Bolger, N. 1989). It is not at all uncommon to be told, “You should be more worried about your studies,” “You don’t look stressed enough about our upcoming exams, ” or “If you have spare time then you are not making the most of your degree.” Using stress as evidence for conscientiousness can be unproductive but is regrettably prevalent, and while there are external factors and ideals that can be difficult for as individuals to change, there are definitely aspects of this that we perpetuate with our own behaviours.

As early as in first year, most of us will have been told that fourth year is the most stressful year to be a medical student at Monash. The placement hours are longer, the matrix is more extensive, and everything in your universe will inevitably pile up until it is all too much to handle. We can absolutely appreciate that these warnings to people in year levels below are said out of care and camaraderie. However, there are aspects of it that can be detrimental to our experience and enjoyment of our course that are worth considering. Constantly being told that this year of our lives is supposed to be stressful and anxiety-inducing can be affirming at times, but can also make us overly interrogative and sceptical of experiences that do not fit thismould,whichcanbedestructivetoourownenjoyment.

When someone asks how we are finding a certain rotation, the answer they are expecting is often obvious. And if our true feelings stray from that, we won’t always admit it. The more we feel compelled to mask our true sentiments for the sake of conformity, the more we become estranged from our actual thoughts, which can be a very unfortunate occurrence during placement, where the entire point is finding the specialities that appeal to us as individuals. Some might scoff at the idea that it is an issue that people have to downplay the good experiences they are having (at least it has been a good experience!), but this projection of a strict ideal of what people will and will not like continues to perpetuate a culture where we are not comfortable sharing how we really feel, and the worst manifestation of this will be peoplenotwantingtospeakupwhentheydogenuinelystartstruggling

If the stress contagion effect is so widespread and familiar to us all, it begs the question of whether or not there is room for improvement. While there are no be-all end-all solutions to this phenomenon, there are steps we can take as a community to try and facilitate more positive,openexperiencesforthosearoundus:

Having open conversations about our challenges and struggles, and those of the people around us, while also holding space for gratitude and an ability to genuinely celebrate sources ofjoy.

Looking out for opportunities to induce the structural change needed to confront systemic issuesinmedicine,butalsotakingthenecessarytimeawayfromfightingthesefightsinorder to care for our own wellbeing. Striking the balance between being a realistic and supportive mentor or peer: Recognising that our experiences are not universal, and encouraging independent and open-minded decision-making Tailoring our presences and support to the experiencesofthepeoplewearewith,ratherthanimposingourownontoothers.

Like many aspects of life, these are acts that require careful balance, and it is completely acceptable (and expected) for it to take a while to find that equilibrium. At the end of the day, we want to be surrounded by friends who are comforts in times of stress, not sources of it, andthebestwaytoenablethisistobethatkindoffriendourselves. Citations(APA)

h t t p s : / / f b . m e / e / 1 h k a N g B F P