Issue 53 – June 2015 – QUEEN MARGARET CALLING

went to Otago University and studied Health Science. The first

three years were spent in Dunedin doing the core basic science

of medicine. This included one of my favourite classes, anatomy

dissection labs. It’s pretty shocking when you first meet your cadaver

(a body donated after death to science), but you get used to it, and

the knowledge you get from the classes is invaluable.

After the three years in Dunedin, I got a bit sick of the wet, cold

winters and came back to Wellington for my clinical teaching. My

first year in the hospital, the fourth year of medicine, was my least

favourite. Everyone in fourth year feels useless. You don’t know

where to go, you know nothing of the hospital hierarchy and you

don’t know anything about medicine – you are essentially useless.

It’s not uncommon for a senior doctor to say “I’m going to the toilet

now, why don’t you wait outside” as the fourth years cling to them

like glue. It is a tough year and requires a lot of perseverance.

When you start working as a doctor you are called a house officer,

also known as ‘the dog’s body’. You see patients on the daily rounds,

write in the notes, organise blood tests and admit patients into the

hospital. You get to do some cool stuff like assist in surgery, put in

chest tubes and perform lumbar punctures. You also start working

on call or long days. Long days happen once a week and the shift is

from 0800 to 2300 – 15 hours.

For the past two and a half years, I have been a registrar. This

job gives me more responsibility and I am training towards being a

physician. A physician is a doctor who cures patients with medicine

(i.e. we don’t do surgery). Extra responsibility is a good thing but

can also be pretty scary. Sometimes I am the most senior person in

Once again the College was hosted at Premier

House by the Queen Margaret College Old

Girls’ Association for the annual Year 13 Men-

tor’s Breakfast. Mentors invited by students

included two former Head Prefects, Victoria

McGregor (nee Press) and Isabella Morri-

son. Another former Head Prefect, Dr Chani

Tromop van Dalen, was the key note speaker.

Below are some extracts from her speech:

Mentors

the hospital on a night shift with patients becoming unconscious,

dropping their blood pressure or bleeding. You have to be able to

keep calm, think, and make a sensible plan to manage your patients.

And you have to be good at asking your seniors for help – even if it

means ‘phoning a grumpy cardiologist at 3am.

Overall, I really enjoy medicine. It is a privilege to be able tomake

someone feel well again and allow them to get on with their life. It is

also a truly humbling experience to admit that we as doctors cannot

fix everyone. We are not God, and sometimes disease and frailty

wins the battle. When this happens, it is a real honour to be able

to keep people comfortable and give them a dignified and peaceful

death.

Being a doctor is obviously not for everyone, and maybe one or

two of you will follow a similar path to me, but most won’t. I was

trying to think of some pearls of wisdom for you, although I do not

think I am that wise, really:

• You must enjoy the ‘bread and butter’ of what you do.

• Don’t be afraid or too proud to ask for help

• Learning never stops.

• Have a mentor through your life.

And last, something that I learned from my mother, my most

influential mentor:

• Time will pass. No matter how hard or bad something is,

time will keep moving and you will get through. This saying

has got me through some really tough times in my life, and

I always come out the other side thinking ‘Mum was right’.

Dr Chani Tromop van Dalen, Isabella Morrison, Amy Galvin

and Victoria McGregor (nee Press)

Julie Kidd and Alex MacLeod-Watts

Brittany Eng and Libby Calder