With Dr Stephanie Davies
Have you always wanted to be a doctor?
Actually, no. I only decided I wanted to pursue a medical career when I was halfway through year 12, not long before cutoffs for the UMAT. Starting out in med school, I had that question in my mind, is this the right thing? And then when I started working, I knew I was in the right place.
What inspired you to pursue paediatrics as a specialty?
I did a paediatric endocrinology placement in London, and I really enjoyed observing the conversations that the endocrinologists were having with the families. After that I did my first year of internship working entirely in adult medicine, and I missed the challenge of paediatrics. Everything's a little bit of a challenge with children. It's not as straightforward as caring for adults. Children often won't trust you or give you an answer immediately. They won't trust you straight away. You’ve got to tap into your playful side; there’s a bit of an art to it – a mixture of creativity and problem solving. And then the family element, while important everywhere in medicine, is even more central to paediatrics. There’s a real privilege in that.
When did you first get involved with AMA Victoria?
I joined when I was a student when I attended as the secretary of the Medical Student Council of Victoria. It’s been a useful insight into what work is like, attending as a student translated quite well into working life and I’ve made some great connections with peers around Australia. A role like Chair of the Doctors in Training Subdivision is what you make of it. I see the role as an opportunity to protect trainees in the workplace, and to forge community.
If you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing ahead of your first rotation, what would it be?
I’d tell myself to read the Doctors in Training Enterprise Agreement, because in hindsight I was not paid for a lot of things I should have been. And I think just knowing what I was entitled to and what my protection were under the law would have made some things easier.
What do you do to wind down?
I do lots of different things. My hobbies wax and wane. I'm into running at the moment, and I've recently taken up tennis again, so I've been driving to the other side of Melbourne to play tennis with my mum. I want to run a marathon at the end of the year, but we'll see how that goes. And I also quite like knitting; this might be the year that I finally finish my first jumper!
Dr Stephanie Davies is a paediatric trainee and Chair of the Doctors in Training Subdivision at AMA Victoria.