Work experience program shows a pathway towards medicine for rural students
A work experience program that has been running at Monash University, Monash Rural Health in Bendigo for two years, providing over 800 hours of secondary school placements for students from schools across Bendigo, is inspiring the next generation of health professionals with the opportunity to experience a day in the life of a Monash medical student.
For Year 11 student Basil Elkomos from Girton Grammar School, participating in the work experience has provided a unique opportunity to connect with medical students, and to guide his future career direction in medicine. Basil spent three days shadowing medical students and staff involved in the medical program and observing clinical skill sessions in Monash Rural Health’s state-of-the-art clinical simulation centre.
Basil is particularly passionate about addiction medicine, after studying a course in neuroscience with the John Monash Science School and learning about how addiction works. In the future, Basil hopes to study medicine and move into psychiatry, with a focus on addiction medicine.
“I’ve seen addiction around affecting a lot of people, and it would be good to figure out a way around that, because I am sure there is.”
Basil thanked program coordinator, Kamil Chetty, for supporting him and cementing his choice to apply for medicine this year.
“It’s been an amazing experience and Kamil has been very welcoming and generous with his information and time. It’s a very full experience compared to other work experiences.”
Abbie Grose, also from Year 11 at Girton Grammar School, is interested in pursuing a career in medicine and found the work experience program very enjoyable, especially learning suturing, and recommends it to others considering work experience with Monash Rural Health.
“Even if you are not sure if you want to do medicine or not, you should give it a go. Even if you figure out you don’t want to do medicine, you will learn something.”
According to Kamil Chetty, who oversees the work experience program, this opens up new possibilities for rural students who may see studying medicine as being beyond their reach.
“For students who grow up in rural and regional areas like Bendigo, they sometimes struggle to see a pathway forward for them into studying medicine. Undertaking work experience with us, I see how their confidence grows as they can see that studying medicine could be a real possibility for them.”
There are a number of different pathways available for rural students wanting to study medicine at Monash, including direct entry from high school or graduate entry following the completion of an approved undergraduate degree, such as biomedical science. Within both pathways, Monash Rural Health offers rural cohorts, where students complete the majority of their clinical placements rurally.
The University also offers the Dean’s Rural List, which helps boost the chances of rural students gaining entry to either medicine or biomedical science.
If you are a year 10, 11 or 12 student in Bendigo and interested in participating in the Monash Rural Health Bendigo health-focused work experience program in 2025, contact: mrh-bendigo@monash.edu