Monash Physiology Careers - Jasmine Ravi-Pinto

hi everyone my name is Kimia and I'm the project manager for the mes physiology society and I'm tushi I'm the communications manager for the monach physiology society today we'll be continuing Mike Series where we interview different physiology graduates and delve a little bit deeper into the different career Pathways they ventured into today we have the pleasure of interviewing Jasmine Ravi Pinto who is in her final year of the doctor of medicine program here at monach University she graduated from her Bachelor's of science majoring in physiology in 201 in 2020 and was even on the Deans honor list from 2018 to 2022 now despite her demanding schedule working as a TA and also being a final year medical student she's very kindly accepted to come down for an interview so we're very excited to share her inspiring Journey with you all today we hope you enjoyed hi Jasmine how are you doing today good good how are you yeah good thanks so you're getting towards the end of your degree firstly congratulations thank um but let's go back to the beginning so kind of like why medicine was it something you grew up wanting to do was something that developed a bit later what was your initial attraction to studying medicine yeah um I guess the earliest point I thought I wanted to start medicine was probably when I was in high school um I had thoughts that I wanted to do it but I never really knew if it was an option or whether I would get in or you know whether I'd have the scores to do it so I kind of brushed it aside for a little bit to be honest um and then it wasn't until maybe my second or third year of my undergraduate degree that I kind of committed to trying to do medicine um I think a lot of the physiology classes actually really opened my eyes to the depth that there is to the human body and the things that happen and the things that we can do for it um and that's sort of where my interest for medicine really sparked um I picked up a couple volunteering jobs in hospitals and got a little bit more experience but yeah I honestly didn't really know fully what I was getting into when I applied but I'm glad I did it yeah oh my Go amazing so that's so inspiring to hear and I know a lot of Sci students would be interested in going into medicine going down that path what's kind of the advice you give people who are interested in medicine and specifically that transition from science to Medicine what would be advice you'd give them yeah I think there's definitely a really big step up from an undergraduate to post-graduate Medicine um I remember my first week of postgrad Med um having a class that pretty much covered an entire units worth of undergrad science so it was a lot of information to take in but I think trust that you have what it takes to be there um it's very easy especially I feel as a science student when particularly inash a lot of the medical students are by med graduates so it's very easy to feel like you don't have the knowledge or you don't have what it takes to be there but you were selected for a reason um so I think just kind of taking it as it comes and being easy on yourself especially in the early days of the postgraduate course yeah I love that um and so of course so we've kind of talked about applying for medicine your advice for that and there's kind of three main requirements when you apply for medicine one of the first ones is like having a highway and a GPA and all of that what are what are your kind of like study techniques your tips how did you kind of maintain those good grades yeah um I think it took me a while to try to figure out what my best study technique was so it was a bit of trial and error at the start um and I think that the way I studied in year 12 was definitely different to how I studied in undergrad and then it's kind of changed again now but I think that finding something that works for you so for me it was question and if there weren't questions available I would make my own questions and you know blank out the answers and try to figure out what it was so I was a very um active learner I couldn't just sit there and read my notes that wasn't going to do much for me um and I think that trying to get to all the lectures and at least watching all the lectures is really helpful I think that there's a lot of little tidbits in those that you can miss if you don't watch them um so try to be as responsive and active as possible when you while learning um I always would set a timer for myself I can't focus for more than 30 minutes so my limit was 30 minutes and then I had to take a break um so find what works for you I guess but um there's no right or wrong way to study yeah of course no I love that and I think everyone is so different so it makes sense that you know the things that work for you might not work for people but hopefully everyone can take a little bit out of this um and then so the next bit of the medicine application we talk about like the gam set and obviously it's a very extensive process um a lot of people talk about the gam set what was your experience like and what was the process for you though yeah my experience is a little bit different to what everyone else would have because I was part of the lucky 2020 Co cohort okay um so I started preparing for my Gams out um in the summer before I plan to sit it so I probably started in early December gave myself a bit of a break after the uni exams and then started with some basic preparation there are so many resources out there it's very easy to get resource fatigue um but I guess just try a few things see what works for you lots of question banks are available um so reach out to other people who are sitting it as well it's really helpful um so I kind of prepared for about 3 months um but I wouldn't say it was a super intense preparation period I was working two jobs at the time I managed to go on a couple of holidays during that period so you know kind of just working around your life you don't want to make it your whole life it is important but um I don't necessar really think you need to dedicate you know 24 hours a day to it um and then unfortunately for me a week before the gam set we received an email telling us that the gam set was postponed indefinitely so that was a bit stressful I bet oh my gosh um but um eventually we did get to sit it so um generally the gam set is in March I ended up sitting it in May because everything was a bit delayed but um I think from what it is now it's a two-day process um Rec split different kind of day like reflecting back yeah so we When I Was preparing for it it was a one day 8 and 1/ half hour test um and then because of Co um it ended up being at home um it was like online proctoring so somebody was kind of watching you the whole time um but from what I remember we did sections one and two together and then a week later we did section three okay um so it was split again um it was all online so lucky for everyone now it is all typed and all online um but the original gam that that I Was preparing for was a handwritten process so the essay section was definitely um very stressful um but yeah so I guess it's it depends how long you want to prepare for there is also a September sitting yeah um I just personally found it was going to take away from my uni study and I didn't want that to happen um so I focused mainly on the March sitting and just prepared through the summer yeah I love that and I love that you talk a lot about balance throughout all of this like your studies through sitting the gam set and everything and that's probably something that'll go through into the next thing which is interviews of course very big component what was your process like preparing for those yeah so um I sat two interviews so Monash offers an interview individually and then I received an interview through external medical schools um the Monash interview came directly to me from my Monash email all they needed from me was my scores which they were able to access themselves anyway um and that both my interviews were actually online because of Co I do think they've gone back to being in person now um but they were just like Zoom interviews um I think in terms of preparing for interviews people can get really caught up on over preparing I think the point of the interview is that they want to see who you are they don't want to know if you can memorize a script or if you can come up with like a rigid structure to responding I think not going off track too much is really important but they kind of just want to know you as a person and what kind of things you would bring to a career in medicine um so I truly didn't really do that much preparation for my interviews maybe a couple of weeks um of kind of just reviewing different Health disadvantages or different problem solving techniques because they're the kinds of questions that come up can ask like what kind of questions you were asked like just if you can think yeah so I guess just like briefly they will always ask a question about you know whether it's rural or indigenous health and I mean this is available like on all the websites so um Rural and Indigenous health is really important in interviews they want to know what you know about it and what you think needs to happen um they'll ask you problem solving skills so making you put yourself in a situation and make a decision because these are just skills that are really important for a doctor to have and they just want to know what skills you have before coming in and um I guess if they think that your thought process and your problem solving skills are where they want them to be um sometimes about like General Health disadvantages so what are some of the health problems going on in the world whether it's smoking or obesity and they want to know your opinion on them but they're very um I guess they're very broad so they leave you a lot of space to kind of discuss what you want to discuss about them and they really just care about what you have to say really yeah yeah amazing so thank you so much for that that's so inspiring to hear and I know so many students will take that for a minute and so now we're going to head over to Kimia who's going to talk about the postgrad pathway and life after medicine so we want to sort of discuss a little bit about your experience in medicine we know you're quite close to graduating so congratulations on that thank you um but I know that it can be quite stressful trying to manage it all so studying but also being in the hospitals and working with different um clinicians and Allied health professionals how do you go about that um I think it is really difficult I think that your first year in a hospital is very daunting I found it a really big step up um getting into medicine itself is a step and then going into the hospital is another big step um I think just like leaning on people who have been there for a few more years so the nurses are absolute godsend um they know so much and they're so helpful and Junior doctors are really good they've been in your position not that long ago so they're probably the best people to go to um I think kind of creating a schedule for yourself so it's kind of hard to treat it like a 9 to-5 but that's sort of what I did um I treated the hospital like my job I would come home do a bit of revision but I'd always make sure I had a cut off time studying is important but I think trying to have a life outside of the hospital especially this early on is really important as well yeah Y and you mentioned that you're um you're doing rotations at the moment in Pediatrics what's that like for you I love Pediatrics um when I first came into medicine I had no idea what I wanted to do but um having gone through a few different rotations I've definitely ruled things out and it wasn't until this rotation that I was like y this is what I can see myself doing forever um it's a big decision to make because there's so many options in medicine um but I think Pediatrics is really good like kids get better um kids are cute you can kind of just like have a joke with them all the time and it's a very unserious part of medicine to work in um you can have fun and I think that the best thing about being on a rotation is obviously you have to learn but you get the opportunity to sort of just hang out with the kids as well um which is I guess probably the best part about being on placement yeah yeah would you say it's a little bit less stressful compared to the other rotations or not really I think so I think so I think um it depends on where you do the rotation so I'm at a children's hospital so there's kids everywhere um we've kind of had the opportunity to go around different Specialties within Pediatrics which has been good um there's a lot of learning but you also I guess get to have a bit of fun with it so yeah I think so that's good that's really interesting can I ask I know you're working as a TA as well so there are a lot of students who wonder about that Finance aspect when you're working and then also trying to balance the study and the placements fulltime there's a lot that goes on so if you could delve a little bit deeper into that please um I I guess my first rule when I started medicine was that I would never study on weekens and that was a bold Choice how does how long did that last um I think it's lasted pretty well uh I guess besides exam time but throughout the semester I really try to keep that balance I think um balancing aspects of trying to keep yourself financially stable while studying is really difficult um there are supports out there there are scholarships you can apply for there's government support that you can get but it's often just not enough to keep you going um so I also find that working as a TA not only does it help with that side of it but it gives me a bit of a break from being in medicine all the time um I'm still kind of revising a lot of that preclinical knowledge which is really good but it's helping build my communication skills and my teaching skills which are really important in medicine as well um I think it kind of just comes down to the person about what kind of job you want there are ways you know you can work after placement you can get cafe or restaurant jobs you can work in retail if you want to work on weekends but for me personally I wanted my weekends as my time so although the work does kind of take away from my in week study I I guess it kind of I guess gives me a bit of balance during my week as well yeah yeah definitely can I ask how you actually got into yeah I honestly just sent an email out um towards the end of the year before I wanted to start so it's probably in December um I think Tas kind of get hired in that summer period um before the next year starts and I kind of just contacted somebody that I knew was a unit coordinator for a unit I was interested in teaching um and then and you kind of go through a bit of like an interview process and then some training days and you kind of get allocated to units that either you've done as a student or they think that you do well in um but yeah that's really interesting um because I've had my eye on that as well and I've spoken with few Tas and um there's honor students PhD students and Med students so it's good to know how you sort of get into that pathway yeah it's a really good variety and I think that's what makes being a ta so good cuz I feel like when you're in the hospital you're kind of just surrounded by Allied health professionals 24/7 so it's nice to be surrounded by people who are doing other things in health science or in science in general yeah yeah um can I ask you you're very close to finishing so what does what does it look like for you trying to find those internship positions and trying to in a way specialize is there something that you're looking for is there a way that you are going about that process yeah so it's a standardized process here in Victoria um so it's very similar to applying to un ities out of year 12 you sort of just rank the hospitals that you want to work at as an intern and every Victorian medical school graduate as long as you're an Australian citizen or permanent resident is actually guaranteed an intern job in Victoria um so you sort of just do it through a standardized process um there's a lot of CVS there's a lot of cover letters um getting references that can kind of talk to your communication skills and clinical skills um and there's also an interview process for getting an intern position um for the most part A lot of people get like one of their top three preferences so it's pretty good odds um but it kind of takes the stress off when it's a bit more of a centralized process because you know that you'll get a job at the end of the day and yes I guess there is a little bit of like where do I apply based on what kind of specialty you want to do but you're only tied in really for 12 months maybe 24 months if you get a two-year contract and then you're free to go wherever you want to train yeah that's really interesting so you mentioned having a good CV what does that look like once you're applying for those internship positions it's really tough because I think a lot of medical graduates kind of have similar experiences um and like you're all going to have kind of like a medical school degree and your undergraduate degree if you've done one um part-time work and things like that there are things that you can do that sort of boost your CV but um at the end of the day there's not too much waiting on that CV it's kind of just like applying for any job I guess but the more volunte or charity experience that you have can help um if you've been on committees that can help but it's more so just showcasing the experiences that you've had that might separate you from the other candidates yeah so once you apply and you do your internship you want to obviously have in mind the specialty that you want to go into so can I ask you what type of area and pathway and Specialty you're considering um so at the start of my year I had an Obstetrics and Gynecology rotation and after that rotation I was like wow I could really see myself doing this and then I guess as I kind of progressed on I was having second thoughts I was like do I want to do this do I not I think I love Women's Health but I think I love the newborn babies more and it wasn't until my Pediatrics rotation that I realized that Pediatrics is probably where I want to go um I still have a little bit more to experience and the good thing about medicine is you don't have to make a decision right away you can work as a junior doctor for as many years as you want before applying to a program um so I kind of have the luxury of having time on my side but in saying that you know the earlier you get onto a program the better it is for your experience and I guess progression up the chain in terms of um the level that you're working at Yeah you mentioned progression in the future um I'm interested to know what the next 5 to 10 years would look like for you do you have a certain vision in mind for yourself in terms of how you want to progress yeah um I think it's the stock standard way to do it is to do your internship to apply for training programs and to go straight through but I kind of see myself as non-traditional in the sense that I don't really want to do that um I think I definitely want to do my internship as everyone does to get your registration but I'm not opposed to moving to rural areas um to try different jobs um there's locen work available which is kind of like not on a training program but you know they might hire you for two weeks they need someone to fill in and you can kind of just go to a little town work for a couple of weeks they cover your accommodation they cover your travel costs and you get to experience so many different parts of Australia um I travel yeah you get to see so much and I think that medicine can be a very kind of structured process if you follow it in the way that it's I guess designed to be followed but um you can kind of make it what you want which is sort of what I want to do um I definitely want to do some Far North Queensland work I think it's a completely different environment to Melbourne um so it'd kind of be like working in a different country really um but yeah that's that's really interesting and it's good to see that you like what you're saying taking that non-traditional pathway I can understand that you're very passionate about what you do and there's a lot of great interest and you've obviously been very diligent to get to where you are but I'd love to know is there a different pathway that you would have taken if you didn't go into medicine would you have continued studying the gamad and um you know doing the interviews or would you have completely shifted I think by the time I had decided I wanted to do medicine I was sort of committed to that um but in saying that I think I don't know if I would have done it for more than a few years I mean I was quite fortunate to get in on my first attempt but that's just not the reality for most people with the competitiveness of the course and the way that it's outlined um I think I probably would give it maybe a handful of years and spent time in those years working and traveling and doing other things but I guess I would have put a I guess a line on myself in terms of when I would have stopped and tried to find something else that I was interested in um I love teaching hence why I went into being a ta so I wouldn't have been against you know working in education of some sort forever um I definitely think that's something that I will continue as a doctor um so yeah I think I guess that's probably my only thought but I guess if I had got into that point I would have sort out what other options there were yeah and when you look back on your journey through undergrad and postgrad and where you are now um and you reflect on that what type of message and takeaway takeaway message would you get from all of that that you'd want to share with students especially those that want to follow your footsteps we have a lot of students within science who major in physiology to continue that into medicine um anywhere in Australia or even Monash but yeah what would you say um I think I guess the position that I was in was not sure whether or not I would actually get in or whether it was worth trying and I definitely think it is worth trying I think if it's something you want to do it's worth giving at least one shot at or giving a handful of attempts at because it's very easy to get disheartened by the other people around you who are applying but you don't have to have the highest score sometimes you just have to have a really good interview score or you know maybe your gam set's got to be higher than them even if your GPA is a little bit lower um and just general life experience I think that that made such a big difference in my interview um having had a part-time job and having had traveled and volunteered and other things that I'd done made my interview I guess stand out in comparison to other people um so I think trying to get that extra life experience it's not all about how smart you are it's there's a lot more to it and if you if it's something that you're interested in definitely don't give up on it straight away yeah beautiful thank you so much Jasmine no worries we hope you all enjoyed that interview with Jasmine please stay tuned for more inspirational videos like this one we have got some really exciting things planned so keep an eye out on our socials and contact us if you want to be a part of the monach physiology Society