2008 June 18 » Baggas’ Blog

18th June 2008

Quick Blogs for 2008-06-18

Awesome. Finally got an email back from James Cook University and I am in! Will be starting my Masters degree in a few weeks #
@obrienmb just threatened to shave Luke’s curly hair. His response : “I don’t want to be the pastor!” Sorry mate :o) #
Lunchtime - Phad Thai noodles today #
A couple of Amazon boxes always brightens the day… Got some CDs and Books… #
CDs : Israel Houghton - New Season (still not convinced I like this guy’s style all that much but I’ll give him a bit more of a chance) #
CDs : John McLaughlin - The Essential (awesome 1970s onward guitarist/composer - rock/jazz/blues/ethnic fusion - brilliant stuff!) #
CDs : Eddie Vedder - Into The Wild Soundtrack (bought this on iTunes last year and had to own the CD - fantastic acoustic style album) #
CDs : Sarah McLachlan - Mirroball - The complete concert (this one is for Jen, although I quite like Sarah too. Nice) #
Books : Bob Sorge - Exploring Worship (this was recommended at a recent music workshop we had at church) #
Books : A few on Burma, where I have volunteered to go to help out… unsure if that is going to happen or not?.. Lonely Planet Guide #
Books : Thant Myint-U - River of Lost Footsteps (Burma history); Aung San Suu Kyi - Letters from Burma (from the Nobel Peace prize winner) #

18th June 2008

It’s been over 8 years since I’ve been at Uni, and over 5 years since I’ve done any serious study ( that was for my surgical training) - I’ve done my Obstetrics and GP qualifications in the last 6 years but I wouldn’t rate them as being too strenuous.

Well today I received an email confirming that I have been accepted into Uni next semester (starting July - August). I will be studying part time towards a Masters degree in Public health & tropical medicine (MPH&TM) at James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland. For non-Aussies, Townsville is a city in the tropics up on the far north east coast of Australia. It’s diagonally opposite Perth on the map 3391 kilometres away (as a rough guide imagine the distance from LA to Washington DC in the United States). Mostly I’ll be studying at home but will probably have to go over there once or twice a semester for short stints. I guess if you have to travel anywhere for study, a tropical city on the Great Barrier Reef is not a bad choice

As for the degree itself the Master of Public Health & Tropical Medicine covers a range of units relating to medicine in the tropics and the developing world. This will help me on future medical missions like my trips to Uganda over the last couple of years to actually have a more solid knowledge base behind me (instead on just winging it!). Also it means I will be qualified to move more into the field of Travel Medicine as part of general practice here in Australia. If I ever get tired of regular GP work and my obstetrics I could go and work full time in a travel clinic. Short of that it’s definitely an area of practice that I want to build and expand as time goes on. Thirdly this degree would be a useful qualification if I was to ever move into more serious or full time international medical, relief or humanitarian type work. From what I hear it’s actually quite difficult to get jobs with the big aid organisations so if I ever went in that direction this degree would be valuable.

Also it looks like I might be able to get 12 points credit towards the course by virtue of having had over 5 years professional medical experience, which would cut a third off the degree. I wasn’t necessarily expecting that so it will be a big bonus if it works out that way.

Very exciting stuff. I can’t believe I’m so keen to get back to study again. After a 6 year medical degree and another 6 years of postgrad study in surgery, obstetrics, and general practice, I thought it would be a long time before I ventured into medical academia again. But I’m looking forward to it. The only question mark is how I’m going to fit this into my already busy life.

Tags : james cook, Missions, study, townsville, Tropical Medicine, uni

Categories : Medicine, Personal, Tropical Medicine, University | 1 Comment