Albany Health Campus welcomes 2024 cohort of new medical students

Albany Health Campus has welcomed its newest cohort of medical students on Thursday, hailing from metropolitan Perth and regional WA. It was orientation day for the group who were shown around the hospital and given a demonstration on scrubbing in for the operating theatres. From Mt Barker, third-year Notre Dame University student Jeanette Gordon has returned to the Great Southern for her one-year placement in Albany. She said she’s looking forward to learning a wide range of skills in different areas of medicine. “You don’t know what’s going on when you walk in on the day, and you definitely have to rely on your colleagues as well because you don’t have all their specialties and that generalist knowledge,” Ms Gordon said. “I think it’s really great to develop a bigger scope of practice and to get more skills as well. “I’m really looking forward to working within a multidisciplinary team as well during my first ED placement — that’s a specialty I’m really interested in. “The reason I asked for a regional placement is because you get to go into the community and you get to be more involved, and you’re definitely more exposed to different opportunities, both in the hospital, but also in the community.” Program coordinator Dr Christel Smit-Kroner said evidence shows that not all students who study regionally return to metropolitan areas. “The evidence is telling us that people who come to study in a remote place are going to love being in a remote place, and then they’re going to want to work in a remote place, and that’s just a simple way of introducing the challenge of country education and becoming a country doctor,” she said. “From the 12 students we had last year, two of them stayed on for their final year, but some of the other students are doing their final year in other remote places, so not all of them went back to Perth.” Dr Smit-Kroner offered a piece of advice to the student cohort to make the most of the year. “If there is an opportunity, just embrace it and say yes — have an open mind and you will learn so many things,” she said.