Our project
If you decided to move to Australia and continue your medical career here, you are one of us. Seven years ago, when I was still a medical student, I decided to start a big new adventure. My future as a doctor in Spain wasn’t as promising as I expected, the global economic crisis left the country at its worse, my parents both doctors with more than 30 years of experience became unemployed and still today their salaries are 60% less that what they used to. Looking at the prospect of my own future, I decided to start the big second journey of my life and I picked Australia. I was 22 and I couldn’t speak a single word of English I packed my bag left med school for a year and came to Sydney to study English. My parents paid for my English school and visa expenses; they spent all their savings to do so. After 15 months in Sydney I was able to communicate and I survived working as a waitress and as a cleaner, I met amazing people and my now husband help me with the accommodation expenses. I went back to Spain and finished my medical degree, always remembering the possibilities of Australia and having my goal very present. I’ve been living in Sydney for two years now, managing between work and studies. I had to work for the first year to be able to save enough money to pay my AMC exam fees and have a backup for the months I need to study for the tests. I spent the second year organising, looking for help, I joined a million groups in Facebook, sometimes I was horrified with all the negative things I read about this process: 50% failure rate, expensive, visa, not possible, you have to pay 3000 dollars for a course, without a course you won’t pass or you can do it just by yourself, study 7 hours per day, or with 3 hours is enough. All of this, for so long, facing the reality of living in a very competitive city (Sydney), with a different culture from mine, a different language and the idea of me being a doctor and having sacrifice so much for so long and still having to do so much to just start, was a bit overwhelming at times. I can’t imagine how hard this process is for other doctors out there with many years of experience, doing the same as me, same for parents with children, complicated family situations, countries in very unstable situations, they are heroes and I needed to find a way to make then see that. I felt so lonely but at the same time I saw so many people posting and being very active in different groups that I thought, why not create a community? here in Sydney, with other doctors like me, we could meet talk about our experiences and help each other. If we feel that we are not alone, if we share our experiences, if we help each other our path won’t seem so hard. There are lots of groups and pages out there to discuss recalls, exam questions, visa, AMC process… but this page and group is for us, to share our experiences, to help others, to meet, and to have fun for a few hours one day, and blow off some steam.
Cheer up my friend! We are here and we are a community!
Thank you so much!
Dr.Salado
