MEDICUS FEBRUARY 2016

O P I N I O N

Escaping the “med bubble”

Dr Jemma Hogan Intern, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital

H ave you ever had that awkward moment in a conversation? When you are talking amongst family and friends and before you know it, the conversation has turned from relatively normal topics into a series of medical anecdotes? Where your non-medical friends’ eyes glaze over or widen in horror? I know it has happened to me. I’m sure it has happened to others too. I think I was particularly struck by this on my first day of orientation at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital recently. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, the new interns were enthusiastically talking about where their rotations were, what they were looking forward to and/ or dreading on the wards and most of all – finally getting that first pay check! Hardly anyone I spoke to spent more than 10 seconds rehashing what they did over their holiday activities they had undertaken. I became more conscious of this myself when catching up with some friends from high school. One jokingly asked permission to join the “medicos’ conversation” after another friend chatted to me for most of the night about her time as an intern, seemingly leaving the rest of the conversation behind us. It is surprisingly easy to let the “med bubble” take over your break, despite some of the incredible overseas trips and

life. You go through 4-6 years of medical school with the same people, with long intensive hours of study that exhaust the time available to catch up with friends or pursue activities outside of medicine. Medicine becomes a safety net or comfort zone whenever conversation becomes stifled or awkward. You then reach the point where you can discuss intimate details of your bowel habits for the last week, over lunch with friends, without issue. Before you know it, you start to struggle relating to your non-medical friends. So how do you prevent this from happening? Well it’s pretty simple really… ensure you have hobbies (and preferably friends too) outside of medicine. Whether that means volunteering for an organisation or committee, playing sports in the community or catching up with your old friends – we can all benefit from some variety in our lives. While the working hours as a junior doctor are not always amenable to this, I encourage you all to challenge yourself by trying something new or completely outside your comfort zone this year. Learning new skills will make you interesting AND give you something to talk about other than medicine! Plus you may finally achieve that elusive goal of work- life balance. What’s not to love? ■

Off-field: Dr Jemma Hogan plays beach volleyball regularly and also pursues other activities including zip-lining, kayaking and paddle boarding.

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