Ha My Ngoc Nguyen

Medical Student (2020)

I am a third-year medical student at The University of Melbourne, undertaking a research project on Medical Education with the Department of Surgery at Western Health. My research project is about exploring medical student participation in clinical research.

Currently, I am under the guidance and supervision of A/Prof Justin Yeung. As a student with a particular interest in research and seeing amazing feedback from previous students on this site, I approached Justin during my second year to ask for an opportunity to participate. Initially, I was quite afraid to contact more senior supervisors, but to my surprise, Justin is very approachable and supportive of my interest in research. My first research experience was writing a perspective piece on surgical training courses with Justin and other doctors. I learnt a lot from doing research in a collaborative way, receiving feedback and help from members of the team has been very helpful for someone who has a lack of research experience like me. This positive learning experience thus makes me feel very motivated to take up my current research topic and hope we can provide more opportunities for medical students like myself to find a chance to take part and learn.

For this current research project, I am doing it along with the MD3 coursework. Everything is online which can be very challenging at first. But Justin has been very understanding and supporting me through this difficult time. He ensures to catch up with me either via Zoom or on email to ensure I am on track with the work or if any difficulties arise. Justin introduces me to available research teaching opportunities, suggestions on resources and literature to upskill my research knowledge. He provides me with constructive feedback on my project ideas and research progress. The team members at the Department of Surgery are also very approachable and offer me help with tricky parts such as IT or research paperwork.

It has been a pleasure to work with the fantastic team at the Department of Surgery. I cannot wait to complete my research project and letting more medical students know about this friendly, supportive learning environment at Western Health.