However he never quite believed that it was possible to do so, even after successfully completing his nursing degree with top marks at the University of New England.
Born in Australia’s capital Canberra, Ash grew up with ADHD and admits that he had little ability to concentrate. He also experienced bullying in the schoolyard and was told by peers and educators not to dream or hope to achieve anything with his life.
“The worst part is that, until now, I believed it,” Ash said.
Ash was fortunate as a few supportive friends and UNE teaching staff saw the potential behind the uncertainty and convinced him to have a go.
“It was the support of others that pushed me to fulfil my dream and to enrol in medicine at UNE in 2021.”
“A large university had offered me a spot in a four-year postgraduate course. It was in a pristine location with decades of accolades and enticing benefits, yet this rural lad chose a five-year program, in a smaller university with a large cohort of school leavers.
“Why? Well, I know that the support is unparalleled, I don’t need to apply to a rural program as UNE is rural and I have the chance to truly immerse myself in the medical community, university community and call my tutors by their first name!”
Ash is one of eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to enrol in the Joint Medical Program (JMP) at UNE to study medicine this year, the biggest intake since the program was first offered in partnership with the University of Newcastle in 2008.
Seven of the eight students, including Ash, entered the JMP through Miroma Bunbilla, a five-day Indigenous pathway partnership program between UNE and the University of Newcastle where students participate in problem-based and group-based learning exercises, and collaborate to complete assessment tasks via online study groups to get a taste of studying medicine.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Wilmore was especially delighted with the intake saying it highlights how education contributes positively to Close the Gap initiatives.
“Previously, our highest number of first year enrolments were three, in 2019,” Professor Wilmore said. “It is an important milestone for the University as education is an acknowledged driver of equality and change. Furthermore, not only is education, and equal access to education, deeply embedded in multiple Close the Gap strategies intended to address socio-economic targets, it is also a major focus of UNE’s new 10-year strategic plan, Future Fit.”
“Our commitment to our students are two-fold: we will support them to take up a course of study that will enable their success and we will recognise their unique life experience, knowledge and skills. These are all elements that will help shape their personalised learning journeys here at UNE.”
Ash’s new dream, now that he has achieved the first, is to work with communities and populations that have a deficit in medical care, a deficit that can have negative outcomes for their health and life expectancy.
“I have spent most of my nursing career in Emergency and mental health settings and those are skills I want to carry forward into clinical work as a medical practitioner,” Ash said.
“Rural generalism appeals to me. There is a requirement to have and in-depth knowledge of all kinds of injuries and illnesses, coupled with advanced training skills, which means I can work perhaps with companies such as the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service to provide those skills and knowledge to a remote community that has no medical service, not even a nurse. But let us get through the next five years first!”
On Close the Gap
“Did you know Aboriginal people have 30% less nephrons [structures that produces urine in the process of removing waste and excess substances from the blood] in their kidneys? I didn’t either until starting this [medical] course, but it is for reasons like this that I want the gap cemented closed and a thing of the past.
I lived a beach life and worked in an Aboriginal Medical Service. I got to be part of a culturally rich, embracing and warm Aboriginal community that welcomed me as their own kin. Albeit one of the greatest times in my life, it was also the most eye opening. Before this time, I was still ignorant to the extent in which the gap does exist. Why was I working in a place that did not provide services that are available in other places, why is there such a wait for my patients to see a specialist, why am I being a part of diagnosing and treating conditions that non-Aboriginal people rarely get diagnosed with?
Like climate change, the gap is real, and we need to do something about it, not someone in the future, not someone with more knowledge. All of us can do something and enact change. Speak up and fight, as one, we are all Australians and we are all people, all deserving of the same health and health equality.” Ashley Kirby.
