On Saturday 19th October, we held our inaugral ELITE and NoWEM dinner, where we celebrated the wonderful women of Emergency Medicine in the Top End.
Many thanks to Dr Nadi Pandithage who grew up in Darwin and was one of the very first ED registrars at Royal Darwin Hospital, later becoming one of the original FACEMs-a true, pioneering local! As a successful FACEM, married, mother of 4, she gave her thoughts on How to Have Your Cake and Eat it too.
Yes, you can have your cake, but the size of cake you eat, or the part of cake you choose to eat, will need to be flexible depending on your season. We are sometimes victims of our own success-we can do amazing things us ED women. We have many talents (as demonstrated later in the evening by a game of guess the secret talent) But, just because you want to do something, or know you’re going to be good at something, doesn’t mean you have to do it, right then and all at once. Choosing a path today does not preclude you flipping it right around tomorrow and following a completely different path. It was a reassuring reminder from a remarkable, successful woman that not everything needs to happen now. Our privileges are not going to disappear because we don’t grasp them all now. We do have the luxury of time.
Thank you also to Dr Amanda Wallis, another FACEM and medical missionary of sorts. Amanda has spent much of her career abroad, including MSF in South Sudan. Currently, she and her husband are building medical relationships in Timor Leste in an effort to advance the quality of health provision there.
She recounted a sentinel life event, where her husband became critically unwell with encephalitis in South Sudan. Having wanted to work with MSF since she was at school, Amanda recalled having sat in a concrete courtyard and having the sensation of fullness at knowing she was exactly where she was meant to be. She then went on to speak of her anger at her husband, having to watch as a colleague intubated him in a concrete bunker as he seized. Ultimately they survived to tell the tale and he is now a Paediatrician at Royal Darwin Hospital also.
Clearly this experience lead to many moments of reflection. In the context of this and other significant life changing events, Amanda talked about her reflections on what wellness actually means. It’s a word we hear a lot, but Amanda nailed it: wellness is unique and individual to every single person. It requires prioritisation and focus on what you are passionate about and what is truely important to you - whatever that maybe.
Throughout the night, we were reminded of what a privilege it is to work in the Top End and what a fulfilling, albeit challenging environment it is. We are blessed to have a cohort of strong and intelligent women who dilligently get on with the job and who are thriving in life and in their careers.
In Davina’s words: Ladies, you are my inspiration. As an outsider in the room, who was grateful for the warm and immediate welcome, it was clear that Davina is also an inspiration and support for many of those there. She will be sorely missed when she leaves next week to head back home to Tweed Heads and expand her family.
Special thanks to all the men that held the fort at work so we could have a night out and to Blugibbon locums for picking up the bar tab.