Parenting and Being a Doctor

Is there a “right time” to have kids, when you have a career in medicine? Perhaps that’s not the right question. Instead, in this episode, two rural doctors speak about the “right way” to think about making decisions about family and career.Guests:Dr Holly Atkinson- General Physician and Director of General Medicine at  West Gippsland Healthcare Group in Warragul. She’s a medical oncologist and palliative care specialist.Dr Alex Tai- Infectious Diseases Physician at West Gippsland Hospital and at Latrobe Regional Health in Traralgon. He also works at the Gippsland Region Public Health Unit. Both Holly and Alex discuss how they manage the busy-ness of being parents, with the demands of being a doctor. Holly is the mother of twin 7 year-old girls and she also has a 5 year old son. She recounts how she would walk the hospital wards with babies in a carrier, when she first returned to work. Holly also speaks about what having children at different stages of your career could look like from a work perspective; including the trainee years.Alex is the father of two primary-school aged boys and also cares for his wife, who has chronic fatigue syndrome. He discusses how he overcame feeling uneasy about asking for support from family and friends and how changing the type of medical work he does has given him greater flexibility.Ultimately, it is possible to have children and a great career in medicine. This episode offers some practical and philosophical advice on how to make it work.—For more information about the study and training opportunities across regional Victoria, head to the Monash Rural Health website.