Deakin celebrates 1000 medical school graduates milestone

Head of School, Professor Karen Dwyer, said that in just over a decade Deakin has built a reputation of providing quality graduates, with exceptional patient-care skills.

"From the outset, we set out to create a medical school that enabled our students to spend a lot of time working alongside doctors, surgeons and other medical professionals to gain plenty of hands-on experience, ensuring our graduates have the confidence to deal with patients," Professor Dwyer said.

"Deakin doctors are now working in a variety of practices, across many specialties, in Australia and around the world. The overwhelming feedback is that not only are we producing highly skilled and work ready graduates - but that Deakin graduate doctors have a great bedside manner that patients - and employers - are looking for."

As of next year, Deakin's medical school students will finish their studies with a Doctor of Medicine qualification, aligning the name of the course qualification with the rest of the higher education sector.

"1000 is a great number to reach as we transition our Bachelor of Medicine program to a Doctor of Medicine course," Professor Dwyer said.

"It shows that Deakin now has a more established program, but we'll continue to adapt and enhance our course to ensure our graduates are always best prepared to work in the real world."

Professor Dwyer said that Deakin medical students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including newly minted Dr Elizabeth Rosin who - after 12 years working as a pharmacist - returned to study as a mature age student to achieve her dream career. Next year, Dr Rosin will complete her internship at University Hospital Geelong.

"It was an epic undertaking to get into medicine. As I'd been out of university study for over 10 years, I had to go back and complete another undergraduate degree to have a shot at entering postgraduate medicine, with no guarantee of making it," she said.

"I'd dreamt of being a doctor since I was 14, so when I eventually returned to study I had a toddler and was pregnant - you can imagine my excitement when I received a letter of offer to study medicine at Deakin. My husband and I packed up the kids, our dog and house, and headed for Geelong." she said.

"Deakin was my first preference when applying to medical schools, because I liked that it was a relatively new course, which was progressive. I particularly liked the emphasis on acquiring and applying public health and ethics knowledge to everyday medical practice."

Graduate Dr Jordan Walter said that, had she not been able to study so close to her home and family, she may not have pursued her dream career - now she hopes to become a paediatrician and eventually work at Geelong's proposed Women's and Children's Hospital.

"I really am Geelong born, bred and educated," she said.

"I was born at Geelong Hospital, grew up in Ocean Grove, did all of my clinical placements at Geelong Hospital  and will now complete my intern year there too. To cap it all off, for the past two years I've been working with the obstetrician who delivered me when I was born."

"A medical degree is a huge undertaking - I'm not sure whether I would have got through it without the support of my family nearby, along with the community spirit that Deakin fosters within the medical school. The first two years of the degree really focused on students and staff working together to get through."

Professor Dwyer said that Deakin's approach not to grade students in the first two years of their medical studies was key to the collaborative environment at the school of medicine, and congratulated students on finishing the course.

"I'm delighted to hear medical students feel so supported at Deakin and the genuine sense that they’re part of a learning community," she said.

"I look forward to seeing what our graduates achieve armed with their Deakin educations and wish them every success in the next phase of their medical training and careers."