I had a discussion with a friend the other day about my first year of medicine here in Newcastle and her first year of law at a fairly prestigious law school. It came down to a teaching philosophy of sink or swim – somewhat ironic considering I work as a learn-to-swim teacher. She felt that she had, in her standard style degree, barely kept afloat all year and was in no way a better swimmer (ie a better law student) than 12 months ago. At this point I became acutely aware of my gratitude to the Newcastle way, to PBL, to UPs, to MedSoc and to the whole experience that is BMed.

As to the metaphorical validity of sink or swim, yes there is a point when teaching a child to swim when you take off their floaties and simply let go of them in the water, and they must swim to you. It isn’t as horrible as it sounds believe me – there is a whole process leading up in gradual steps to this moment and you would never do it if you didn’t know the child was entirely capable of swimming. But even though you know it, the child doesn’t know it. Letting go and allowing the child’s by now instinctual dog paddle to kick in is the only way for the child to realise, “hey, I can do this – all by myself!”

I strongly believe that your degree here at Newcastle will not simply turn you into a doctor. It will also teach how to become a doctor, and how to be a doctor. By the end of the first 12 months you will not only have kept afloat, you will have become a better medical student. You will be better able to become a doctor and will understand what you are doing, why Newcastle does things the way it does, and how to learn even more, even better, the next year. You’ll learn how to swim.

Of course, in the mean time, you will become frustrated with PBLs, with the fact that no one gives you the answers and that sometimes there are no answers, with never knowing if what you are doing is enough, with the whole self directed learning thing in its entirety. Stick with it. Everything will be okay. I cannot stress that enough. PBL at Newcastle has been going on for 31 years now and not only is it producing passable graduates, I’ve been told (by an old school Sydney graduate no less) that in a hospital “you can always pick a Newcastle graduate – they’re better.”

No, you won’t know what you’re doing at first. But no one else will either. When I am in the pool and I let go of a child, I can see in the first moment the panic in their eyes. I can remember throughout my first year discovering/realising/figuring things out, and thinking “if only someone had told me that at the beginning”. Looking back, I know why no one did. There are some things you have to work out for yourself. As George Bernard Shaw said, if you teach a man anything, he will never learn.

In short, yes this degree is at times terrifically scary and yes you will struggle in your first year. But it all comes amazingly good in the end. The smile on the child’s face as they realise they have reached my arms again, all by their self, is worth it every time.

– Rosanna Olsen