Doctor

American sitcoms must be big in Botswana, if this doctor is anything to go by.

Seikisi Mosenki had a lifelong ambition to become a doctor, though his dream was not inspired by the usual reasons.

“Being a doctor was something I always felt I wanted to do. It was intuitive really,” Mosenki, who grew up in Botswana, says.

“That and watching Doogie Howser M.D.”

That 1980s sitcom was about a genius boy doctor working in a busy American hospital.

Mosenki moved to Australia as a 20-year-old to study medicine. He had applied to several universities in Australia and around the world. The first one to accept him was Melbourne University, so he decided Melbourne would be his new home.

Last year he completed his first full year as a doctor at the Goulburn Valley Hospital.
He spent his first year as a doctor with Goulburn Valley Health in Shepparton, a year he describes as daunting.

“It was difficult and very scary at first, but you receive a lot of support and it makes it much easier,” Mosenki says.

“At the start you are worried. Will you do the right thing? Have I learnt enough to help another person?

“You ask yourself all these questions, and then you get into the job, you do those things, you start and then build your knowledge every day.

“All the doctors around you make your life so much easier. You then learn each day and it becomes easier. You trust your judgment.”

Many of Mosenki’s classmates could not understand why he chose Goulburn Valley Health.

“I enjoy the rural setting. Before I came here I lived in Melbourne and many of my classmates could not understand why,” he says.

“But I felt like I wanted to try a different place. I enjoy the place – I meet friends, go out and really like it.

“If you are open to things you are comfortable and will start to like them. If you are closed, it will be hard.”

Students such as Mosenki are the lifeblood of rural hospitals.

At Goulburn Valley Health about 94 per cent of the junior workforce are international medical students.

Mosenki eventually wants to move into general practice.

“I am heading more towards general practice and eventually would like to do something involving business management,” he says. “I like the idea of being a GP because I like primary health care. You have contact with people and can implement preventive medicine.

“You are the front line. You see a lot of different people and because you are the first person they often see you can implement preventative medicine from the start.

“I also like the lifestyle. It’s an easier working environment and it will give me time to study business management.”

No need to be scared

Seikisi Mosenki’s advice to first-year Hospital Medical Officers (HMOs) is to trust yourself.

“Don’t be scared or too worried. You have learnt so much already, but still have a lot to learn,” he says.

“Also, remember we all start somewhere and we gradually learn to be competent in what we do.

“You have not spent all your years in school studying to be a medical student. You have knowledge to build on to be a doctor. You have learnt so much but remember you also have so much to left to learn.”

In their first year a HMO is exposed to many specialties of medicine.

They all have to do their core rotations – 10 weeks in medicine, 10 weeks in surgery and an eight-week rotation in emergency.

That is all in the first year.

HMOs receive only three weeks of annual leave in the first year and the remainder they take when they finish.

Many of them take a year off to travel before starting second year.