Things you can submit:

• Articles: related to the newy med course or the culture in any way
• (for inspiration; in the past students have compared med students to bacteria and discussed the different ways to enjoy med-cest)
• Med-Art: scribbles you did in class? Let’s have them!!
• Quotable quotes: awkward things lecturers have said? Funny things said in class?

Also: I am looking into getting some local doctors writing for DUCTUS. Happy to hear about what kind of things you guys would like to be reading about

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

So it was no surprise that when I was told the Wildebeest Analogy by an older and wiser third year medical student, as I expressed my deep and unfamiliar fear of failure, that it stuck. Some may have heard this story already, and I make no claim to have thought of it myself. However as you head into life in med and series upon series of those terrifying med exams, I thought it was fitting to share this short but reassuring bit of wisdom with all.

“Being a Med Student is like being a Wildebeest, in a great herd of Wildebeests. We are all moving in a massive herd in the great migration, heading for a great goal. There are the young, the old, the weak, the strong.

There’s those who are at the front of the pack, setting the pace, working much harder than the rest. Many of these will tire and fall back. Some are just amazing achievers who can maintain the pace the whole way. But it’s a dangerous place to be – you have to jump first into the great rivers –you could plunge into deep water and be swept away or even eaten by crocodiles!

Then there are sick, weedy ones at the back. They really have no chance and are easily picked off by lions, hyenas and a rare species of wildcat known as the Faculty Professor. Back here with the sick wildebeests are the lazy ones. They just can’t be bothered keeping up. Sadly, these too are doomed.

Sometimes, a herd will have a rogue wildebeest, who follows the migration, but in a valley all of their own. They keep up with the herd, and are heading vaguely in the right direction, but are literally off in their own little world. Of course, being so exposed they may also be prone to predation, however due to the absurdity of their path, they often manage to slip by predators unnoticed.

The key to surviving the great migration is to be tucked nicely in the middle of the herd. Here it is warm, there is no risk from predators, and as long as you keep on top of the pace, the herd will just whisk you along and the migration will be over before you know it.“

So when you fear failure, or you feel you are doomed, just look around the lecture hall and think – what sort of wildebeest are you? Just tuck yourself nicely in the middle of the herd, you’ll be fine.

Andrew Williams