Alexander and Nicki were both medical students when they had their son Christopher (now almost three years old). Alexander was starting 5th year at medical school and Nicki was starting 3rd year. Nicki is now in her final year of med school as a TI and Alexander is starting his second year as a house officer. They live in Dunedin.
- How does working as an SHO, and being a TI fit in with your family?
N: With Alexander working full time, and being in full time study at the hospital myself, it is very challenging. We support each other as much as we can and we really value the family time that we get because it is not as much as we would like! - How have you fitted in training?
A: We both went through medical school without taking any leave to not delay finishing. We were both graduates before starting medicine so were keen to start a family sooner rather than later. - Do you have any advice for doctors-in-training who are thinking about balancing a career and kids?
It has been said that “there is never an easy time to have children” so start a family when it feels right and try to work everything else around a career. You don’t have to give up one for the other, but you will need support. You will find that a lot of things you will just have to work out as you go along! - How has a medical career affected your family?
We are lucky to both understand the challenges of the job and the training, so can provide a lot of support to each other. There are a lot of times when one of us is on a long day or studying so only one parent is with our son, but we really make the time we have together as a family count. Being in the medical field is what we both want, and we don’t feel that we are better or worse parents because of this. - What support do you get from your family?
N: We don’t have any other family in Dunedin so our son goes to full time daycare and we just manage between ourselves. Christopher has a supportive grandma that can fly down to help with any situations when needed, such as the chickenpox! - How have you managed your training while bringing up a family?
A: We have learnt to become very organised and efficient. We have also learnt to make the most out of any learning opportunities because it is harder to come back and look something up later on. - What, if any, problems did you encounter when returning to training?
N: Expressing breast milk, sleep deprivation and caring for a newborn can be exhausting! We felt that our level of functioning during the day was not as good, and we were less efficient with our studies at the time. But it gets easier! - If you were just graduating from medical school again, what would you do differently?
We still question if not taking any maternity/paternity leave was the right thing to do, but now that we are almost both through medical school and have our adorable son we wouldn’t change anything. For future children, we would both like to take some leave to spend more time enjoying it, but what we did for our first ended up being right for us at the time.