Defence Broadcast Replay - Aviation medical officer lisa maus

Hi everyone, and welcome to the live interactive medical broadcast. My name is Todd Austin. I'm a lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy and my role is a public affairs officer. With me this evening is flight lieutenant Lisa Maus, an aviation medical officer in the Royal Australian Air Force. Welcome aboard, Lisa. Thanks very much, Todd. Lisa will be answering your questions for the next hour, as well as sharing a bit about her own experiences in the Air Force and the ADF. Now, first off, Lisa, could you tell us a little bit about you your background and the current role you're doing in the Air Force? Yeah, sure. Todd, I've been in the Air Force for 10 years now, and for six of those years, I've been a full time aviation medical officer. I'm currently posted to Number 2 Expeditionary Health Squadron up at RAAF Base Williamtown in Newcastle. I'm also a qualified GP. And I'm more than happy to sit here for the next hour or so and answer any questions that you may have about the experiences that I've had both in Australia and overseas. All right. And another thing is we're actually lucky to have you here tonight, because you're only in your role for another four weeks. You're expecting an addition to the family. Yeah, that's correct, Todd. I'm currently 27 weeks pregnant, and almost ready to go on maternity leave. So I'm more than happy to answer any questions about that aspect of my employment, as well. Well, the questions are rolling in, Lisa, so we'd better get to them. Our first question is from Andrew K. How is medicine in Defence different than in the civilian world? Andrew, good question. And it really depends on what sort of job you're working as as a civilian, and what sort of role you have in the defence world. I guess the best way for me to answer that is to comment on my work as both a civilian and a Defence doctor. First of all, I've trained as a civilian GP, so I've worked in civilian general practise, where generally you work 8:30 to 5:30. You treat a huge range of people for primary care presentations, including paediatrics and geriatrics. Whereas in defence, you tend to have a more defined population, that being 18 to 55-year-olds. But you do have exposure to other types of patients if you are away on deployment or overseas. The types of environments you work in are very different, as well. I work in a base hospital on the side of an airfield in Newcastle, so we'll provide primary care. I also help provide the airfield emergency response. So if there is an aircraft an aircraft emergency, we provide the medical response for that. And also, if you're deployed overseas, you're clearly working in different environments to what you work back here. All right. Great question, Andrew. Next question from Vivian. Vivian-- what are some of the places that you've been deployed? That's her question for you. Vivian, I've been to a really wide range of places. First of all, my operational deployments have consisted mainly to the Middle East. On one of those, a couple of years ago, I spent five months in Afghanistan. And the other one was in the Middle East. I've also deployed with the Navy on their patrol boats in the northern waters of Australia as part of Operation Resolute. And I've also been involved in a few humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations, such as Op Sumatra Assist and Op Yasi Assist. And Op Yasi Assist last year, where we transferred pretty much the whole of [INAUDIBLE] Hospital down to Brisbane. So those are just the types of places and types of deployments I've been on. All right. Great question, Vivian. The next one on the list is from Tom P. Where did you complete your internship or residency? Tom, I completed my internship in 2006 at Royal Perth Hospital. And I did rotations in general medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics, and emergency medicine. And I also did my residency or PGY2 in Perth, as well, at Princess Margaret Hospital, where I did six months of paediatrics, and King Edward Memorial Hospital where I did six months of obstetrics and gynaecology. And both of those years have been extremely helpful in our learning the clinical skills to be to apply to my every day job now. Excellent. Good question, Tom. Next on the list from Matt [INAUDIBLE]. Who are the people that train and mentor you when you actually begin your career? Thanks, Matt. And I assume by that you mean when I first commenced my career in the Air Force as a medical officer. Pretty much the first year that you work in the RAAF is taken up with courses-- five specific courses. The first one is general officer training, and that's a 17-week course in the RAAF. It's down at East Sale, in Victoria. And that's with all of their employment ranges, such as pilots, air traffic controllers, nurses, radiographers. And there, you learn specific things about being an officer, such as leadership and teamwork. You learn about the capabilities of Defence. You learn about laws of armed conflict. You do a lot of PT, or physical training-- those sorts of things. And then you move into more the health specialisation courses. There's a five week aviation medical officer course that you do in Adelaide, and that's specific for medical officers. There's an Air and Medical Evacuation course done at Richmond in Sydney, and that's run by health officers. And an MST course, which is the same Early Management of Severe Trauma course, which is run for the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. So basically there's a huge range of people, both health and non-health specialisations, that do teach you in that first year. All right. Thanks for the question, [INAUDIBLE]. I noted that you trained in predefense-- and this is from Terese. Do you recommend specialist training including GP preapplication or applying during training? What's your thoughts? Sure. Terese, what I did is I commenced my GP training whilst I was full-time in Defence. It's one of the qualifications that Defence encourages you to do while you're in full time. So to be able to do that, I was given a day and a half a week whilst in full-time work to be able to work in a civilian general practise and complete the same civilian qualification that everyone else does to get their GP fellowship. So other specialisations, if you complete them prior to moving into Defence, you'll either join as a direct entry, medical officer, or say if you had a specialisation, such as anaesthetics or intensive care, then you'd probably choose to join as a specialist reservist, which is a reserve top position in Defence. But I got my fellowship qualification when I was a full-time medical officer. All right. Great question, Terese. Next on the list, Billy Ty. Can you specialise in anaesthetics through the ADF-- you just mentioned that, so a good linking. Can you? Yeah, Billy Ty. Good question. And it's something important to know it before you do join Defence. Until very recently, and that being this year, no, you couldn't train in anaesthetics as a full-time medical officer. You could, however, train in anaesthetics and join the reserves and then be a reserve anaesthetist in the specialist ADF Reserves. Just recently, they're introducing a pilot programme run in Queensland whereby they choose a few people to complete certain specialisations, such as orthopaedics, maybe aesthetics. But I guess, at this stage, you'd probably assume that, no, you couldn't train as an anaesthetist in the full-time military, but that will probably evolve over the next few years or so. All right. So if Billy Ty interested in that specialisation, he can still have a role in the ADF but it would be in a reserve position. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sorry-- Billy Ty, you'd normally work as an anaesthetist in a civilian hospital, in a civilian environment. But you'd be involved with the ADF in certain roles, such as looking after, say, incubated patients during an air and medical evacuation or looking after people in an operating theatre whilst in a deployed environment. So you'd conduct you normal anaesthetics work in a civilian hospital, but be involved with the ADF in that capacity when you're working in a reserve role. All right. Excellent. Hopefully that answered your question, Billy. Next question, from Dan K. As an aviation doctor, how does that differ from a doctor in other services, such as the Navy or the Army? Dan, there are some specific roles that an aviation medical officer does as opposed to the Navy and the Army. You do need certain qualifications to be able to treat certain employment categories, such as pilots and air traffic controllers. So that's why a specific aviation medical course is run during your first year as a full-time doctor. So you do tend to treat a lot of those employment categories. You also need to have a good appreciation of how being at altitude and how the stresses of flight affect those employment categories, and also affect yourself and your patients when you're transporting them during an air and medical evacuation. Because when your at attitude in the back of a C130 aircraft or a C17 Glidemaster aircraft, well, they're brilliant platforms to be able to transfer patients in-- they're obviously very noisy, it's hard to move around, you're space restricted, there's lower oxygen in the air. So you really need to have an appreciation of those sort of practise to apply to treating your patients. Whereas in the Navy, you tend to treat employment categories that are involved in being underwater, like our divers and submariners. And in the Army, you primarily treat a land-based force. So that's, I guess, have my role differs, in that I treat aviation-related employment categories. It doesn't affect your ability to work with those other services, especially other medical people in the Navy or-- No, absolutely not-- particularly if you are in a joint environment, as you often are in a deployed environment. It's always very helpful to have those other people on board so, well, she may have done some underwater medicine training, like I have. It's always good to have those SMAs, or subject matter experts in that area that you can refer to if need be, and just bounce your various skills off each other when you need to. Excellent Good question, Dan. On to the next one from Adam S. What is the balance of civilian and defence training that is provided? Good question, Adam. Basically, with civilian training, I guess it depends on what sort of specialty you want to go into. Mine was general practise, so I went through the standard civilian GP fellowship course, which is generally run over three years. So from that perspective, I was engaged in the same civilian training as what someone else is who is a civilian doing a GP fellowship. With regards to defence training specific to the health specialisations, being in the Air Force, you tend to do courses that are appropriate to looking after patients in the back of an aircraft, how to transfer patients, how to set up a field hospital. But one of the courses that we all do ADF medical officers is Early Management of Severe Trauma, or EMST, which is based on the civilian Royal Australian College of Surgeons course, and is actually provided to us by specialist reservists who are anaesthetists, ICU consultants. So from that perspective, there's a good balance between civilian and defence medical training that we receive. Excellent. Good question, Adam. The next question on our list Sarah T. What is involved in your officer training and how long does it go? I suppose this is specific for Air Force. Sarah, yeah, I'm speaking primarily from an Air Force perspective here, but our initial officer training is a 17-week course run down at RAAF Base East Sale, in Victoria. And you do participate in that course with all officer specialties, so, like I said, for pilots, air traffic controllers, nurses, radiographers, pharmacists, logistics officers. How long does it go for? It goes for 17 weeks. What's involved? Well, it's a huge range of activities. Initially, you learn a lot about leadership and teamwork, because that underpins a lot of the work that you do in the military. You learn things like the laws of arm conflict. You learn a lot of administration, you learn about the capabilities not only of the Air Force, but of the other services, as well. You learn about the current operations and what the ADF's involved in. You do weapons training, so a lot of it involves weapons training-- primarily the F88 Austeyr rifle, which everyone in the ADF is trained on. And also a lot of field activity, so you're out in the bush and applying your leadership skills and being able to work in a team, and things like that. As well as that, there's a heap of physical training or exercise the you do, pretty much on a daily basis. So you get pretty fit while you're there, as well. It's similar with the Navy, as well, and with the Army. And the specifics you could probably find on the Defence Jobs website-- defencejobs.gov.au. But in specific details, that's what the Air Force do. All right. Next question from Billy Ty. Are you allowed to specify a preference for a permanent basing? Billy Ty, good question. You do submit preferences as to where you want to be posted. So there's a number of Air Force bases around Australia that you could be posted to. You can nominate what your preferences are, and you can nominate which bases you specifically don't want to go to, and for what reason. And certainly that'll be taken into account when the postings are being delivered. But, I guess the reality of it is that if there is a specific need for you to post to a location, even if it is an undesired location, then you have to be willing to go along with that. But, I mean, even if it is an undesired location, there are benefits of going places that you don't want to. And I've certainly been out of my comfort zone and been in places that I don't want to, and you can always pull positives from it. And you always learn something from everything and every place that you go to. Good question, Billy. Next on the list, from Michael T. Describe a daily work routine. I suppose you do this every day, but how would an average day for a medical officer in your area proceed? Michael, my days usually run from 7:30 until 4:30 in the afternoon. Normally the first two or two and a half hours of the day are spent running what's called sick parade. So it's acute GP-type presentations, that people just walk in in the morning and you treat them on the spot, basically. The rest of the day's generally filled with booked patients, so that's GP-type consults, treating chronic diseases, doing medicals for members of the Defence Force, and on top of that, I guess throughout the week, you're also on a roster to provide the air field emergency response if there is an emergency on the airfield, which I guess happens more than we would like to see. We also have a search and rescue helicopter at Williamtown, because we do have high performance aircraft that fly out of Newcastle. And we do conduct training with the search and rescue guys out of their helicopter, which is fantastic-- so going winching with them and learning how to retrieve a patient in a difficult environment. Yeah. That's probably my general day. So it could basically probably be a splinter right up to, basically, maybe someone with an open wound that you'd be treating on a daily basis. Yeah. Absolutely. Some days can me mundane. I'm not going to lie about it. But by the same token, some days you can go home at the end of the day and think, wow, I had a pretty interesting day today. So it all balances out well. Definitely not boring, though. Definitely not boring. No. Excellent question, Michael. Stephen S.-- have you worked with services from other nations? If you have, what was it like to work with those other nations? Yes, Stephen, it's one of the fantastic opportunities that you get to participate in when you are a member of the ADF-- not only as a medical officer, but other categories as well. The most experience I've had was on deployment in Afghanistan, where I spent quite a lot of time working in a multinational NATO Role 3 Hospital over there. So I worked with the US Navy, Canadians, Brits, Kiwis, Dutch, Danish, French-- and it's fantastic to see how different countries operate, and particularly how well they all come together in a multinational environment like that. And then you can use the skills that you've learned from them back at home, and you can apply it to your own field of work. I've also worked with other nations on exercises, such as the big one that the ADF runs with the US, called Exercise Talisman Sabre, where I was primary involved with the US air and medical evacuation teams, conducting evacuations of patients out of certain environments, both using their protocols and our protocols, which are very, very similar. So it's nice to see how well-aligned we are with other nations. Good question, Steve. From Christopher, how often do you work in a deployed environment in the ADF? Good question, Christopher-- quite a lot, I'd have to say, particularly in the first few years after you join. I guess I've spend a great deal of time on deployment. In the last four or five years, I'd say I've probably been away more than I've been back home. But having said that, I greatly enjoy the work that I'm exposed to and the experiences that I get when I am away. So if you're on an operational deployment, like on Operation Slipper that we have at the moment, it tends to be a deployment anywhere between four and eight months, generally. But other exercises and courses, you tend to be away for anywhere between two and, say, six weeks at a time. And if you're involved in any air and medical evacuations, that can be anywhere from one day until a week or so. So it really differs in how long you are away for, it differs in where you are deployed to, but, yeah. I've spent quite a lot of time away from my home, and certainly out of Australia. It must be tough sometimes on family members when you are away for so long. Yeah, it certainly is tough on your family members, and you do learn to appreciate how much of a role they play in supporting the work that you do. But it's always well supported by defense in that you've given appropriate leave when you go home to be able to spend with your family, go on holidays if you want to. And you certainly are well compensated with, occasionally, tax-free pay and other allowances while you are on deployment, so yeah. Whilst there's perks of being deployed, it is certainly hard on your family. Good question, Christopher. From Belinda H., do you have a family and does your defence work put unique pressures on your family life? And I suppose specifically for yourself with the expectant addition to the family. It must put you in a very different situation. Yeah, Belinda, it does certainly put certain pressures on you and your family. I'm married. My husband's an emergency physician in Newcastle. And certainly we've spent a lot of time apart, but by the same token, we've grown stronger during the times that I have been away, and we've certainly been able to appreciate the time that we have together, which is important. I don't have kids yet, but like we've discussed before, I've got one due in about 12 weeks. And certainly Defence is very supportive in that they're not going to send you to any risky places or make you do anything that is high risk whilst you are pregnant. So from that perspective, they're really supportive. But it's important that your family do have an appreciation and do support what you do. Excellent. Good question, Belinda. Michelle J.-- what happens when you fall pregnant in the ADF, and how does this actually affect your job? You just briefly touched on that, but from your personal point of view, could you sort of explain what's occured? Yeah, sure. And Michelle, I'll say generally what happens first, and then I'll say specifically how that applies to me. So what generally happens is as soon as you find out that you're pregnant, the commanding officer of your unit is advised so that you're immediately not put in any circumstance that may put you at risk, whether that's being sent on deployment or responding to an incident where there may be fumes or toxic hazards around, not seeing patients that are very acutely unwell, so with gastro or suspected influenza or something like that. So your unit is very supportive in keeping you, I guess, confined in a safe environment and not putting you at risk during the time when you are pregnant. You're assessed by a doctor on base who does the initial assessment, and then you're referred to a private obstetrician for your care during the rest of your pregnancy. For me, specifically-- well, I've not been on any deployments since I've fallen pregnant, and I generally just treat primary care type presentations that come into the hospital on the base that I work at the moment. And, like I said, you usually work up to about 34 weeks and then take your maternity leave after that. All right. Excellent question, Michelle. Daniel. What makes joining the ADF as a medical officer a better option than, I suppose, practicing medicine as a civilian? Daniel, I can answer that personally because I've been a civilian and a Defence medical officer. Whilst the experiences you get as a civilian doctor, in whatever specially you choose, are fantastic, they can be vastly different to the experiences that you get as a Defence medical officer, which can be anywhere from treating high blood pressure of a 55-year-old male on base to treating an acute battle injury or trauma in the middle of a war zone. And being able to apply those skills that you learned in certain environments, like being deployed to Afghanistan, is something that you could never ever gain-- unless you're a specialist reservist, of course-- in a civilian world, working as a civilian doctor in a hospital in Australia. So whilst there are many similarities in the normal day-to-day job that you do, the opportunities that you get away on deployment, certainly-- I would never take any of them back. You really grow every time you get deployed. Excellent question, Daniel. From Oliver. Is there a chance to get your wings as a medical officer? Being in the Air Force, of course. Oliver, good question. And we get asked that all the time. Everyone assumes that because you're in the Air Force you're a pilot as well. I can flatly guarantee you that I'm not a pilot. I can't fly a plane. Can get you wings as a medical officer? Well, I guess you'd have to train as a pilot in the ADF to be able to get your wings. But certainly there's the opportunity to get your civilian pilots licence outside, and there are medical officers that I know in the RAAF, but probably in other services as well that do have their private pilot's licence. But generally you spend most of your time doing-- well, you spent pretty much all of your time working as a doctor, so there's no benefit to Defence, really, as having you as a pilot, as well. All right. Interesting question. Thanks, Oliver. From Alana, do Army and Navy medical officers have opportunities to complete the courses that you mentioned-- the aerial evacuation, the EMST, et cetera? Alana, that's a great question. And certainly there is opportunity-- not normally in your first year, because that's service-specific, but because most of the deployments we do are in a joint environment, with all of the services present, on most of the medical officer-specific courses that the Army and the Navy run, there are spots allocated on those courses for RAAF medical officers. So last year I went down to HMAS Penguin in Sydney, and did their underwater medical officer's course, which was fantastic. On our RAAF-specific courses, such as air and medical evacuation and operational health support, we have specific spots on our courses for other services, as well, and it's generally about two or three members from other services that come along and join our courses, as well, and see how we run things, and take those skills back to their own services. MST is a course run for all medical officers of all the different services, so we're all trained with the MST skills and the MST principles. Good question, Alana. On our list, again, Aaron. As an aviation medical officer, are you able to change to the Navy or the Army easily? Yeah. Aaron, when you do join as a full-time doctor, there is an initial minimum period of service that you're committed, really, to that service for. So I was given a Defence University sponsorship when I went through university, for four years, so my term of service is five years. And really, I'm expected to be with the Air Force for those five years. I guess after that time if you wanted to transfer to another system, for whatever reason, you could do, but in terms of the ease of changing whilst you're committed to that service, I believe it's not very easy. But keep in mind, as you mentioned previously, there are the opportunities to work with other members of the services in a medical situation. So even if you do join the Air Force, there is a high likelihood you would actually get to work with Navy and Army personnel. That's a really good point, Todd. My first deployment to Afghanistan, I was deployed with, primarily, an Army unit-- well, it was an Army-run unit. So I was one of only a couple of RAAFies, I guess, where I was in my location. So I got to work within and see how an Army unit is run. And the Army and Navy and Air Force medical officers also have a rotating roster on the patrol boats, as part of Op Resolute. So I've also deployed in a Navy or maritime environment on a patrol boat to see how the Navy runs things and how the operate. So from that perspective, there is a lot of opportunity to be able to work with other services. Excellent. Good question, Aaron. From Aaron again, in terms of rank, how does an aviation medical officer get promoted? Aaron, when you finish university, you enter in as a rank of flight lieutenant, which is the third rank up. And that's sort of reflective of the responsibility that you've got, and I guess pay rate, as well. Do you get promoted? Well, each year, your supervisor or your boss does a performance report on you, and each year, there's promotion boards that are run by [? DPIF ?], in Canberra, and now look at your reports throughout the year and see how well you've done and what skills you've obtained, and how much experience that you've got, which is highly relevant. And then they'll see whether you're suitable for promotion. Generally, you need two years, at least, of reports to be able to be eligible for promotion, but at the moment, it tends to take about four years as a full-time doctor after your PGY2 for you to get promoted. All right. Hopefully that answers that question, Aaron. Next on the list, from Tony T. Do you have to keep fit, and what are the requirements? And are they demanding? Tony, yes. Certainly you do have to keep fit. The your unit gives you time off during the week to conduct your own PT. You're expected to pass a physical fitness test each year, which is slightly different between the services, but I guess the RAAF's physical fitness test is either a 2.4 K run or a 5 K walk in various time limits, depending on your age. And a test of your upper arm strength, which is either a flexed arm hang or push ups and sit ups as well. So each year, you're required to pass a PFT. And are they demanding? Well, I guess with a baseline level of fitness, no. I'd say they're probably not demanding. If you didn't keep your fitness up, yes, certainly I think you probably would have trouble. But we work in a unique environment in that fitness is highly encouraged and promoted, so, really, you shouldn't be left in the circumstance where you'd be too unfit to pass your PFT. It comes with that teamwork thing, as well. You've got to keep an eye on your mates and everything like that to make sure that they're healthy and looking after themselves, so that tends to get you going at the same time, because you don't want to let them get ahead, and a little bit of friendly rivalry. And so that tends to keep most of the people in my area pretty fit. Yeah, absolutely. And I guess another aspect of that is you're a health professional, and you're promoting being healthy, I guess. So you want to be a role model for your patients in that you're keeping yourself fit. And that's something that's encroached in my personality, I guess. But certainly when you are a role model, in terms of health for your patients, you want to keep yourself healthy. And as Lisa mentioned, it does vary between services-- the Air Force, Navy, and Army. There are specific details on the defencejobs.gov.au website that goes into the specific fitnesses a little bit more. We've got a next question from Katrina. How do the hospitals differ between the ADF and a civilian one? Is there a difference at all? Yeah, Katrina, certainly it depends on what civilian hospital and what level hospital that is that you work at, and what sort of Defence hospital you work at. The hospital that I work at on base consists of medical officer consulting rooms, it consists of a few outpatient bays, a couple of resuscitation bays, about 10 inpatient beds, physio facilities, a pharmacy, dental, environmental health capability-- so that's all under one roof basically. So I guess it functions as a mini hospital. So we can admit people during the day. There is an emergency. We've got that resource capability on base. Is there a difference between a civilian hospital? The resuscitation equipment is generic across the board, but at a Level 3 or Level 4 civilian hospital, certainly you've got access to specialties such as orthopaedics anaesthetists and neurosurgery that certainly you wouldn't have, generally, at a base hospital in Australia. In a deployed environment, I was lucky to work in what's called a Role 3 Hospital in Afghanistan, where it was run by the US Navy, but we did have access to neurosurgery and orthopaedics and ophthalmology, if we needed to. So it depends on where you are and what capability you're providing, as well. So it depends on if you're just sort of covering a small scale exercise, you're not going to have much there, because you don't really need it. But if you're in a war zone, you need pretty much everything to treat a full scale battle casualty. Excellent question, Katrina. Billy Ty, another question. Is your role as a medical officer in the Air Force an autonomous position, or do you work in a team environment? Yeah, Billy Ty, good question. I guess this stems back to doing your officer training, where you're primarily trying to work in a team environment. And that's no different in health specialties. Generally, day-to-day, I provide primary care for people, but we work really, really closely with our pharmacists and nurses, our medics, our environmental health specialists, physios, dentists-- and we work really closely with them on a day-to-day basis. I'm lucky in that where I work I've got all of a specialties under the one roof. So if you need to go and speak to the physio about something, or if you need to speak to the pharmacist about something, they're just outside your door, so you can go and ask them about it. In terms of autonomy, yeah, you are relatively autonomous-- depending on where you are, as well. My base, where I work at the moment, has four civilian doctors and four full-time aviation medical officers. And certainly if you're unsure about something, you can just pop next door and ask one of the other doctors, particularly one of the more experienced ones. There's always someone there to help you out. And I guess I've been on the other side of that, where I've been the only doctor in a deployed location, whether it's on an operational deployment or an exercise or conducting an air and medical evacuation. So, really, Billy Ty, it does depend on where you are situated at that point in time. But, yeah, it tends to be-- In Australia, it's very, very well supported. But you are taught the skills back here in training courses to be able to cope in the situations where you may, in fact, be left alone. Good question, Billy Ty. From David-- is there a demand for medical officers in the Royal Australian Air Force at the moment? David, there certainly is. Absolutely. Well, I assume it's the same across all the services, but because the operational tempo of the ADF is ever-increasing, the role for doctors to deploy and the role for medical officers to support, basically, the personnel that we have back in Australia is growing as well. So certainly there is a demand for medical officers in the IAAF, and I'm probably right in assuming it's across board with the other services, as well. Good question, David. Fred S. has got through. Did you train with other interns, residents, or junior officers in your role? Fred, as an intern and a resident, you undertake training in a civilian hospital, or you work as a civilian and/or a resident in a civilian hospital. So you do the general training that the other interns and residents do whilst you're at those hospitals. Right now, the training that I get is-- well, I did my fellowship of GP, so I was trained by other GPs, and certainly specialists who come and give guest lectures in certain specialties. I personally provide both ad hoc and arranged education sessions to certain specialisations who I work with, primary nurses and medics-- which is an interesting part of our job. We also give a lot of health briefs to various units on base, such as those who are going, say, on an exercise in Malaysia or who were conducting a particular flying exercise. So we'll go and give them a health brief about the health exposures that they may have and the precautions that they should take. So there's a lot of teaching to non-health people, as well. I'm, personally-- well, where I work, we run a weekly education session where we each present a topic, so we're keeping on top of continuing professional development from that aspect. But there's also the opportunity, when you are on exercise and even conducting AMEs, where you have specialists reservists, who are usually [? 8(a) ?] consultants, ICU consultants, and anaesthetists who are working with you who are able to teach you some skills whilst you're working with them, as well. Excellent. So you do get exposure to a lot of different things, and you also get to pass on the knowledge and experiences you picked up. Yeah, absolutely. And I, personally, like teaching, myself, so you get a heap of opportunity to be able to pass your skills on to other people, but you're still getting that continual learning and professional development that you do need. In fact, one of things that I really do appreciate is the fact that Defence invests a lot of support in continuing professional medical development in that they highly encourage you to join various colleges, get various membership, subscriptions to certain magazines, such as Australian Family Physician or Medical Observer, purchase medical equipment. And there is, in fact, an allocated fund each year for each doctor to be able to spend on continuing professional medical development. So the scope for development as a full-time medical officer is huge. Excellent. Good question, Fred. David's got through. What type of non-medical work are you expected to do? David, that's one of the aspects of my job that I like the most, and it's the fact that you're not always doing medical work. You are an officer in the ADF, as well, so you're expected to uphold officer qualities, so you may have people or other staff that you need to manage, such as maybe nurses, junior medical officers, and so you need to provide the mentoring and the management of those staff. And I guess non-medical work-- we also need to train in all the other officer qualities, like being able to use a weapon and being able to look after yourself in a field environment, and those sorts of things. So having those exposures adds a huge variety to your work. And if you like that sort of thing, there is a huge opportunity to get involved in non-medical stuff, as well as medical stuff. Excellent. Good question, David. From Amelia J., does Defence support for the study, and if so, how do they do this? Yeah, sure. Well, in my position, there's a couple of different schemes that Defence runs. One of them is defense-assisted study scheme, and there's probably information about that on defencejobs.gov.au. I've not ever used that myself, but in terms of further study, like I touched on before, or like I said before, there's a huge support for continuing professional development within Defence. In terms of further study, there's a huge range of things that you can do, such as your GP fellowship, which you're encouraged to do. I've also got other postgraduate qualifications. I've got my Master's in Public Health through the University of Queensland, deployment of paediatrics, deployment of ONG-- so the study in those sorts of areas, the Defence will support you doing if you have a certain interest in those areas. Excellent. Good question, Amelia. From Georgie T., how does officer training help in being a doctor? Are there any skills, that are of benefit outside of Defence, from the training you do as an officer? Georgie, I guess five years ago, before I did my officer training, I wouldn't have been able to answer that. But certainly now, having done officer training about five years ago, there are so many skills that you learn and so many qualities that you build personally that you can apply to both your work as a doctor and also your everyday life. I remember being at officer training five years ago, having to give a 10-minute talk about myself, and shaking in my boots, and sweating. But the amount of confidence that you build, both in learning about leadership and actually conducting leadership exercises, and being in such a supportive environment, is huge. So appreciating how important it is to work in a team and being able to show those leadership skills-- I apply to almost every aspect of my life. And it really does give you a good sense of self-confidence, as well. Excellent. I suppose another thing-- would it give you a network of colleagues that you can sort of contact, if required, and bounce off from their experiences to help you with your own? Yeah, absolutely. Well, like I said before, officer training is done with all the different officer employment categories. So I still see my friends from officer training all the time. And it's good to keep a close network of friends that aren't within health, as well. And certainly if there's something that I need from someone who's, say, a radiographer, or maybe someone who's a logistics officer, I've got those contacts to be able to give them a call on the phone and be able to get some help whenever I need to. So you create a fantastic network of friends and work colleagues, as well. Wherever you travel across Australia, there's always someone to catch up with. Excellent question, Georgie. From James-- is it possible to maintain a work-life balance in your role? And I think because of your up and coming birth, that's something that you'd be quite cognizant of. Yeah, absolutely. James, that's a really good question. And sometimes it may feel like you're forever away and forever in a deployed environment. But the ADF is really supportive in that they do reimburse you for the time that you do spend on deployment in terms of additional leave. When you do come back from deployment, you spend quite a bit of time on leave with your family. In terms of work-life balance, it's generally, day-to-day, my work is 7:30 until 4:30 or 5:00, each day, and then my weekends, I'm left to my own devices to go out and do whatever I want, basically, catch up with friends. But I think it's really important to always have something to look forward to, whether it's an upcoming holiday or even sitting at home and watching a movie with your husband or having dinner with friends. But what I've generally found is that my unit, my boss, and the wider ADF are very supportive of you having an adequate work-life balance, because the demands of being in the ADF are sometimes quite extreme, I guess. And from a sporting side of things, if you are a sports fanatic and you've got a special interest in, say, soccer or football or tennis or bowling, the ADF does support you to be able to do those outside interests. Because most of the major sports in Australia, Defence, somewhere, has a team that does participate. Yeah, absolutely. Sport couldn't be more encouraged in the Defence Force. The ADF has teams in almost every sport that I can think of. Before work, at lunch time, after work. there's always various sporting teams competing in various places around the base, which adds to your presentation of musculoskeletal injuries, as well, which I like. But, yeah. Certainly Defence has its own teams, but it certainly supports you in participating in sort outside of Defence as well. Good question. What aircraft have you worked on in your role? This is a great question from Vivian, because there's a lot of aircraft that you can't get involved with. Yeah, absolutely. Vivian as a medical officer in the Air Force, the platforms that we primarily work on are the C130 Hercules, which are based down at RAAF Base Richmond in Sydney, and the relatively new C130 Globemaster aircraft, which are based up at Amberley in Brisbane. Both of those aircraft are phenomenal in being able to load patients on and look after them whilst you're in the air. Quite often, a lot of the patient transports I've done have the aircraft primary dedicated to an air and medical evacuation. So you basically have the back of the aircraft to yourself to be able to load the patient, set them up in a way that you want to look after them, and being able to treat them in the air. I've also worked with the Army in their Black Hawk helicopters. I've also done a course called Rotary Wing Air Medical Evacuation. And so whilst they're are a lot smaller and quite different to the aircrafts that we own, you learn how difficult it is, I guess, in a rotary wing environment to look after a patient in a confined space. They're probably the three main platforms that I've had most of my experience with. Good question, Vivian. David says do you have a typical day or is it quite varied from day to day? We had a similar question earlier. But is there one thing that stands out? You thought maybe, I'm going to work, and it's going to be an average day, and then something-- I think you mentioned earlier that you were involved with Yasi Assist? Yeah, David, that's the aspect of my work that I absolutely love. Whilst you can expect to have a typical day in that you're attending sick parade and then seeing booked patients, potentially responding to an airfield emergency. It can change in the blink of an eye. One of the situations I had last year where I rocked up to work, I was going about my daily duties, and we got a call to put together a number of medical evacuation teams to fly up to Cairns to be involved in the evacuation of Cairns Hospital down to Brisbane. So there was four or five RAAF aircraft, both Hercules and C-17 involved in that. So I rocked up to work that day expecting to do what I generally do, and then by the afternoon I was on a flight up to Cairns to participate in that operation. So that's the aspect of my job I think I like the most, in that you're always left guessing as to what you might be doing. Excellent. Good question, David. From Stacey G., is there any special training before you're actually deployed? I think this is going to be an ADF-wide situation, because I think the pre-deployment stuff is similar for Navy, Army, and Air Force. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, Stacey, there is certainly specific training that you have to do before going on deployment, whether it's a short deployment or a longer deployment over to the Middle East. First of all, from a health prospective, generally, depending on what you're going to be doing, you need to be up to day on your EMST course. Before I went to Afghanistan, I also took a little bit of extra training in trauma at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, which is certainly encouraged by the ADF, as well. And then there's general pre-deployment training, as well, which is for everyone. So you learn about the place that you're going to, you learn about the things that you might be exposed to, the cultures that you might come across. You're trained and confident on the weapons systems that you might be using, and you're not left to deploy wondering what you're going to be doing. You're well trained before you go, which is important. Excellent. Good question, Stacey. From Tara C., when you are on deployment, is it all work? Yeah, Tara-- generally on a deployment, depending on where you are, you do work sort of six or seven days a week. But, by the same token, there may not be the things over there that you generally want to do to keep yourself entertained. Normally on deployment there's a lot of sport that's encouraged, as well. There may be DVD nights and things like that. But your working hours tend to be, I guess, probably 7:00 until 5:00 or 6:00. I'll give you an example from when I was deployed in Afghanistan. Well, really, I was the only Australian doctor where I was, so I guess from that perspective, I was on call 24/7. But my general work day was from 7:00 until 6:00, and that went very, very quickly. And it involved a lot of different duties throughout the day-- not just as a medical officer, but officer-specific, as well. And I generally did work six to seven days a week. Your supervisors, when you are deployed, keep a very good eye on work-rest cycles and fatigue, and things like that. So you are monitored, and really, you're challenged, but you're not pushed beyond your limits. There is a lot of support for you while you are on deployment. I had the opportunity to go to the gym every day, I watched a heap of movies while I was there. So from my perspective, there is a good work-rest balance when you're away on deployment. Good question, Tara. From Rachel, have you had to do with confronting issues? And you've done a couple of deployments to the Middle East into a war zone. Have you sort of been involved with those situations? Yeah, absolutely, Rachel. Because the work that you're doing in Defence as a doctor is so varied-- you may be taking a splinter out back here, and you may be treating a huge battle casualty in the middle of Afghanistan-- whilst you can do as much pre-deployment training as possible. I guess nothing really prepares you for the types of presentations that you do see in that environment. I was lucky in that I had the opportunity to work in a trauma hospital in Afghanistan with coalition forces, so I did have the opportunity to put my skills into play with looking after large-scale battle casualties on an almost-daily basis. And certainly that's confronting, but the hospital that I worked at had a huge support network and a huge debriefing culture in that every critical incident that happened, there was always the opportunity to debrief and talk amongst yourselves about things that happened. So that you never really felt unsupported, and whilst you are dealing with confronting things, there are good support networks to back you up. Excellent. Good question, Rachel. Because of sponsor programmes they paid for you to study, did you find this advantageous in a way of being able to study more effectively without worrying about having to work and study simultaneously? Yeah, absolutely. I was sponsored for four years with the Defence University Sponsorship, so I went to Adelaide University in South Australia. I did the undergraduate course there, which is a 6-year course. And for the last four years of that, I was sponsored by Defence. And they pay you a wage to study, they buy your books, they pay your uni fees. So from that perspective, it's a huge advantage in that it's generally enough to get by without having to have a part-time job on top of that, as well. Whereas the majority of my friends all had part-time jobs to be able to support themselves-- to pay their rent, to buy their food-- whilst they're at uni, as well. So from that perspective, it's great. And I guess from that perspective, as well, there's more time for you to apply to studying, as well, so you're not having to work after hours. After you graduate, you reap the benefits of not having a massive HECS bill that everyone else-- well, the majority of other people have. Next question. Louise. What is the age range of medical officers-- I suppose specifically in the RAAF? Louise, really good question. As you would know, there's the undergraduate and they graduate medical programmes, and there's a huge range of ages that go through those programmes. And that's reflective in the ADF, as well, so that all the medical officers are not just the ones who have just graduated from undergraduate medicine in their mid to late 20s. There's a large age range of medical officers certainly as full-timers and also as specialist reservists as well. So we do have highly experienced specialists who come and work with us occasionally, as well. So I'd say mid-20s all the way up to late 50s. Good question, Louise. From Susan P., how much maternity leave do you usually get in the Air Force? And I'm pretty sure that's standard throughout the ADF for what is offered. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the maternity leave you get offered is fantastic. You get about three months, and you can either take that as full-time leave or you can take about six months as part-time leave, which is fantastic. And if you wish to take further leave on top of that, there is the opportunity to take unpaid leave, so you're not in a situation where you're forced to return to work earlier than you would like. I guess as a follow-on to that as well, when you do return to work, there's good opportunities to be able to undertake flexible working arrangements, where you may be working half days only, or, say, two or three days a week. And units are generally really supportive, particularly when you're coming back from maternity leave and you have young children at home, to be able to have those flexible working arrangements so you can build your life rather than your life having to revolve around work. Good question, Susan. From Vivian-- this is the last question, too. What has been some of the most memorable moments of your career, and has this boosted your interest in your job? Yeah, Vivian. I could go on all night about this. In terms of my most memorable moments, any experience that I've been given in a deployed environment-- so my operational deployments, the exercises I've been involved in, the air and medical evacuations that I've been able to undertake as a full-time doctor really, really show out in my mind. Even the courses that you're involved in, not only as a health professional, but as an officer, as well-- you have beautiful memories for the rest of your life. And has this boosted my interest? Yeah, absolutely. And I wouldn't be here promoting it if it didn't. So, yeah, from that perspective, I've absolutely loved my time so far, and look forward to further experiences. Excellent. Good question, Vivian. Well, unfortunately we've run out of time, but thank you for joining us. We've had some questions come through this evening, and I hope we've been able to provide you with the information that you've needed. if we didn't get to your question, a member of the specialist recruitment team will be in contact to help you with the further information you require, or you can visit the defencejobs.gov.au website. Better still, if you get the chance, pop into your local Defence Force Recruiting Centre. You can actually speak to Defense Force members there, and they'll probably answer your question. Or, you can call 131901. Again, I'd like to thank flight lieutenant Lisa Maus. Thank you, Lisa. It was my pleasure. Thank you for having me. And good luck with the forthcoming addition to the family, all right? Thank you very much. If you missed out in any part of tonight's broadcast or would like to watch it again, it will be available online next week. Again, thanks for your company and participation, and until next time, stay safe.