Vocational Director Carolyn Young recently received the following report from one of our Inbound Feros Medical Student Grant recipients.

Today is the last day of our Rotary Club elective and great experiences at Cairns Base hospital. We have attended the Rotary Club Meeting this Tuesday as the guest speakers with Dr. John Ombiga.
We made a special acknowledgement to the Rotary Club of Toowong for this special opportunity which we call it a “Blessing to Papua New Guinea”. We also made mention of Mrs Claire Mathaino that she is a committed and up to date agent of communication between the Rotary Club and the UPNG. Special Thanks also to Dr Ombiga, We are previledge to have him because he did his medical school up at UPNG and understood our system very well so he supervised us to learn and do things which are not seen and done in UPNG. His supervision is really a blessing to us. He deserves recognition and acknowledgement from us and the Rotary Club. we extend our thanks to Profesor John McBride, Gail Walker and Peter and Helen Donellan and all others who have helped us in successfully completing our Elective studies.
One of our greatest challenge and experiences was Communication. English is not the first language in PNG. To communicate precise and speak more medically as a doctor and a medical student was a challenge and a great experi-ence. We have learnt a lot in how to present a summary of a case as medical professional also also to communicate effectively with the patients and work mates.
The exposure to new things which are rarely seen in PNG was also a challenge. Some patient came with condition that is rarely found in PNG and or a condition that never been diagnosed in PNG due to unavailability of specific test. Also most of the drugs used are newer ones, second and third generation drugs with names very different to the common drugs we used and see in PNG.this has opened our minds that there is more in Medicine than what we thought.
We have read about MRI, CT scan, Radiation Therapy, Nuclear Medicine, Endoscopy (sigmoidoscopy, Gastroscopy, colonoscopy), Laparoscopy, Fibro scan of the Liver, Haemodialysis, Fluoroscopy, Angiogram and Venous gram. Ob-serving and watching patients treated by these machines is a great experience and mind opening. Also discussing through some of the machines and their functions with the specialists is very helpful our medical career.
Another biggest challenge I faced was the attitude of the people. The way people behave on the street and in public places is very good. Simple things like throwing rubbish into the bin is well practiced and people respected the public properties very well. I would say that a nations is said to be developed not because of the storey buildings and good services but because people’s attitude is good. Many good changes and developments will take happen when people attitude is good and they can respect others and the nature
.
The opportunity to come to Australia and do elective is something that most surely will have great effects on individu-als’ life and medical career. The exposure to many new latest things will make us think big and aim higher to be the best and serve our country man and women. Such exposure will make individuals to make decisions that will impact and improve our health standards in PNG. Individuals knowledge on the diagnosis and management of the patients will be improved since their medical knowledge will be bigger.
We are happy that the Rotary Club of Toowong will continue the sponsorship next and we are more than happy to encourage our friends to study hard and be competitive with doctors of the developed nations. They would stand upon our shoulders and learn from our mistakes and make their elective more successful.
If there is another door open, then we are looking forward to it. We want to learn as much as we can not for ourselves but for our nation and our people.
Thank you all from our Heart, Wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy new year God Bless
Krond MOND.