MAS Here for Good scholarship - Lorna Pairman

Speaker: Lorna Pairman

Lorna Pairman: So there's a couple of organizations that I volunteer for. The first of which that I'll mention is called Achilles and Achilles is an international organization that promotes the accessibility of sport for all. Many of the athletes at the Christchurch Chapter of Achilles are blind and so they require guides to describe terrain, any hazards for them when they're running. They've got a group training session once a fortnight whereby all guides and athletes meet up and complete a 1 hour training session followed by coffee afterwards. Now most training sessions, I'm paired with someone different each week which helps me to become proficient in aiding athletes of a wide variety of abilities. But in addition to this, I run on a weekly basis with Paul who is an Achilles athlete and is completely blind. So when running with Paul, we each hold one end of a bungee cord so that we stay on the same path running in the same direction at roughly the same pace. And I described the terrain to Paul such as things like corners, bumps, any changes in gradient in the path and hazards such as dogs spikes or just other park users. I've also helped guide some athletes through races such as the Christchurch Half Marathon and the Selwyn and Half Marathon. Races can be a bit more difficult to guide in. That's because everyone's starting together can cause congestion on the path and there's therefore more hazards to avoid. In addition to this, the athlete and the guide can also be more tired near the end of the race and you really need to maintain concentration for the safety of the athletes. There's a lot of trust involved. It's very inspirational as well to see athletes from Achilles working towards their athletic goals and for many of them, their disability is just an additional challenge, but it's not a barrier to achieving success. This year I'm also the Deputy Editor for the New Zealand Medical Student Journal and this is a new role for me in 2024 and has involved quite a steep learning curve. In the role I am involved in the whole process of getting a manuscript from submission through to publication. I'm also a B-Med Sci Honours student for 2024 which again allows me to support and encourage medical students to achieve their research goals. Finally, I'll just mention that I'm also the Co-Chair for the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists Student Committee. And so in this role, it involves organizing an annual student symposium whereby students from Australia and New Zealand get together to present their research work, as well as organizing some other smaller events such as workshops and social events throughout the year.

Lorna Pairman: I'm currently taking 2 years out of medical school between my 5th and 6th year to complete a PhD in the field of medical informatics. My work involves using large quantities of prescribing data from the Christchurch Hospital electronic prescribing and administration system bed chart to evaluate prescribing behaviour and appropriate medicines use. So as part of this project, I'll be going to Boston in March to present my research work at the American Medical Informatics Association Informatics Summit and the Medical Assurance Society Here for Good scholarship will help fund me on this trip.

Lorna Pairman: So I've been involved in several different medical student associations over the past 6 years, and the Medical Assurance Society consistently provides funding for these associations and is often one of the major sponsors at student events. Without funding from MAS many of the student associations that I have been part of, wouldn't be able to complete the work that they do. And I can't think of any other insurance providers that support medical students so significantly.