Public and Global Health Placement - Interview

What drew you to public and global health? 

During my physiotherapy degree and placements, I really enjoyed working one-on-one with patients. And while it has been rewarding to see the impact of my work on an individual level, I was curious to see how my skills could be applied on a larger scale within the community and public health system.

I have a strong interest in health promotion in all areas of life and was keen to learn more about the public and global health systems that impact a patient’s experience and how we can effect positive changes within those systems.

What did you do while on your placement?

I helped Jacky Lipson (Disability and Inclusion Project Officer) to perform a Gender equity Disability Social Inclusion (GeDSI) analysis of available literature for Tuvalu and Kiribati.

I was tasked with focusing on the perspectives of people living with disability in those countries. The outcome of my research and analysis will help inform considerations for inclusive practices for the World Scabies Program (WSP) working in those countries. 

What have you learnt? 

My placement at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute has provided me with a much bigger picture of how public and global health systems function.

I gained an invaluable insight into how much work, planning and preparation is needed to properly implement health strategies in local and global settings.

I was pleased to discover that the skills I learnt in my physiotherapy degree were more broadly applicable to other areas. Even though I wasn’t working clinically, I was still using my clinical skills throughout this placement. In physiotherapy, we think about a problem, and then identify contributing factors and then apply strategies to try and solve that problem. I have found this framework, which is deeply ingrained in physiotherapists, to be really beneficial to the work I was doing while on placement and to many areas in life.

I thank the Global Health team for creating a very welcoming and supportive environment. In particular, I would like to express my thanks to my supervisors Jane Hawtin and Jacky Lipson for generously sharing your time and your valuable insights into working in Global Health!