Doctor in the making
Lots to learn: Elysia Robb is enjoying studying for a degree in medicine at Melbourne University and is in no hurry to finish.
WHILE some people may run at the thought of having to study for a decade to work in their chosen profession, Elysia Robb is happy to take her time.
The 29-year-old student, who grew up in Dumbalk and attended Leongatha Secondary College, is in her second year of a four and a half year medical degree at Melbourne University.
She has been working a few afternoons a week at the Leongatha Medical Centre during her university holidays.
Elysia wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she graduated from high school and initially studied biomedical science at Melbourne University rather than medicine.
“I guess in high school I thought about it, but didn’t really think it was a possibility so I didn’t follow it up,” she said.
“But I really liked science and maths and decided to follow that pathway. I wanted to keep my options open so went into a biomedical science course.”
After receiving her degree, Elysia went on to complete honours at the Peter McCallum Cancer Centre before working for the Mental Health Research Institute researching Alzheimer’s disease.
But after almost five years working full-time, Elysia was ready for a change.
“I enjoyed working but there wasn’t much room to move and I wanted a new challenge,” she said.
“I guess I thought about doing a PhD again and also doing medicine so I just applied for both. Thankfully I got into medicine.”
She studies between 15 and 25 hours a week whilst still working part-time at MHRI and said while it wasn’t difficult returning to study, juggling uni and work has been a challenge.
“It was difficult getting into a routine and fitting in part time work as well,” Elysia said.
“It’s the equivalent of full time work, but you can’t spend two days at work and three days at uni. It doesn’t work like that.”
But once Elysia enters the second half of her degree, she will have to give up part-time work to focus on clinical placement.
“The degree’s nice like that. It’s broken up into two years of course work and two-and-a-half years of clinical, so you get a big change half way through,” she said.
Upon completing her degree, Elysia will be a doctor with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery, however she still “won’t be able to do very much”.
“Then you do an internship which is a minimum of a year, then a couple of years of residency, then you start applying for a specialty program and that can take years to get into because they’re incredibly competitive,” she said.
“You spend between three and six years in one of those programs, but I really don’t know when you start to become independent as a doctor. I have a lot to learn.”
Elysia said although she could well be into her 40s by the time she’s a fully qualified doctor, she’s in no rush to finish.
“It’s 10 years and I started at a mature age, so I’m not in a rush because that would just be silly. I’m quite happy to just cruise through,” she said.
“Some of the people I study with stop everything else and just study, especially under-grad students. They go from high school and they’re like head down, bum up, studying like crazy. That’s fine, they do really well, but their life gets kind of tucked away.”
And living her life outside of a medical degree is very important to the seasoned traveller, who spent a year in Panama after graduating from high school, and can also tick Europe and South East Asia off her list of holiday destinations.
Elysia hopes to return to South America at the end of next year as part of her course, which requires students to do placement in a developing country.
That said, the novelty of a medical degree has certainly not worn off for Elysia.
“I like the idea of helping people, as clichéd as that sounds,” she said.
“Compared to my previous career, I like the opportunity to work with people and I like that there’s a pathway to follow. I love science; I don’t think there’s any other industry for me.”
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