AMEN Australia 2020 Conference: Centres of Influence

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network Australia

Daryl Cheng

Ice-breaker Interview with Dr. Daryl Cheng

That's where I'd rather be at the moment, but no, I'm just kidding.

So if you don't mind, we could have a little chat and I guess for the purposes of others who don't know you before you present tonight.

If we could go through a short interview over the next 5 minutes.

Do you think you could start by telling us about your main role in your current workplace?

Sure, so I'm Darrell, I'm from Melbourne.

I'm a pediatrician and I also work in the health informatics space.

So I split my time between clinical practice at the Children's Hospital of Melbourne and also in outpatient clinics and also do a bit of stuff in digital technology.

So those are my 2 main areas of work at the moment.

So if we don't get any digital discharge summaries, it's here we come to to sort it out.

Could you tell us about your most rewarding and perhaps either a most rewarding or most challenging moment in your career that you would find memorable to share?

Sure, 1 of the things about paediatrics is that most of the encounters are actually memorable, the children especially, but parents more so.

And yet at the same time, they can be very challenging.

And for those of you who have your own kids or work with children, you understand what I'm talking about there.

I think 1 of the stories that stands out, And I'm able to tell the story with some freedom because it actually got published in the newspaper as a feature of the story.

And that was the first baby I resuscitated when I was doing my neonatal training when I was a resident.

And it was really a life-changing experience to be able to see and experience for myself the fragility of life and to thankfully see that the child made a full recovery eventually.

But that was a real turning point that convinced me that pediatrics was really where I wanted to be and the impact that you can have on a child and the family as a whole was really brought home in that moment during that resuscitation time.

So it's a really scary, but a very formative and memorable experience that has stayed with me ever since.

It's amazing what 1 event can change the whole course of your life, isn't it?

And I mean, there's so many different stories and I'm sure all of us online tonight have different encounters with people.

And 1 of the things that I'll share tonight is really talking about the encounters that Jesus had with certain people that really left a very memorable experience in their life.

And I can only imagine from a, even from a patient's perspective, how that, that experience must have been, how scary that must have been for the family and the impact that it would have had and will continue to have on the way they view healthcare and the way they view the hospital and the way they view the type of care they received.

And hopefully that impact we can have by God's grace makes a change equally in the lives of some others that we interact with.

I know this is sometimes a challenging 1 but could you perhaps talk a little bit about any ways you've been able to combine your faith and your work in a practical way in a secular setting?

Sure, many of you will know that 1 of the burdens of my heart is actually for my colleagues and for the people I work with and often we talk about sharing our faith with patients or their families or loved ones and that while that's very admirable it can be very tricky in the pediatric space and that's not an excuse but also just a realization that it really requires the leading of the Holy Spirit.

And I felt that that burden that the Holy Spirit's place on my heart is really to reach the people that I work with.

And so being able to share and to influence those around me, my co-colleagues, the allied health and nursing team that I work with, even the administrative staff that I encounter on a regular basis in my practice.

That has really been a passion of mine and a burden on my heart as I continue to pray for them.

This year I've had the chance to be able to share God with 6 new colleagues that I haven't shared with before.

And it's been a very interesting year because of COVID.

A lot of that sharing and discussion has come over corridor conversation on Zoom, rather than actual corridor conversation in the office and that's been a real blessing in some ways and blessing in disguise because they've been much more open to hearing about different ideas and concepts and uncertainty or about uncertainty and why there's uncertainty in the world.

So that's been a real blessing to be able to share with them that God has given, opened that door, even in the midst of a pandemic.

And that gives you inspiration to keep going.

1 further question, and I think I wanted to include a student focus in this because sometimes I think the mentorship that happens incidentally as far as juniors and students coming up, they need people to look forward, look up to.

You've been through the training program before.

What advice would you give to a younger you as a student and or a junior clinician in your field that you could share with the students who are on our program tonight?

Yeah, 1 of the things that I still continue to look for and still continue to espouse, even though I've finished my clinical training, is really the concept, as you mentioned, Antoine, of mentorship.

I think a lot of the journey that I went on was really shaped by people that I respected and advice that I received from people who were ahead of me, not necessarily doing the same thing or in the same specialty area, but really those who had the same shared common burden of and vision for mission.

And I think that as students or as in your training, you can really get caught in the rat race of trying to finish training or to get into a particular program or to go to the best rotation, or to complete your exams in a timely fashion.

And sometimes you lose track of the bigger picture.

And I think having 2 or 3 mentors that you can talk to, and those may be people that you are familiar with and who you work closely with perhaps, or even people who are a little bit further apart, but you can tap into their insights and their perspectives.

I must say that as a medical student or even as a trainee doctor, I didn't always follow all the advice that was given by the mentors or people that I went to look for and talk to.

There were pieces of advice that in hindsight I should have followed And there were pieces of advice that in hindsight was glad I didn't follow.

And so really what I'm saying here is that there's no 1 size fits all model for this and being able to have the opportunity to interact with or talk to or just to bounce ideas of different people in the field or people that may be doing something that you may or may not even be interested in, but just to see how they think and process through their journey is incredibly valuable.

And I know that a man has a network to be able to facilitate that.

I'm very happy to chat to any students or people who are going through their training in the medical field who feel that they just want to be a sounding board for some ideas.

And even now, again, even though I finished my training, I still have mentors, both who are Adventists and who are not to ask about certain things and send questions.

And I would consider and pray fully think about the advice that they give.

And I think that's something that I would have loved going through my time.

A lot of us would have loved it going through, but we can make it happen now.

And if any of you on tonight would like to become a mentor to those who are looking for mentorship or would like to look for a mentor, please get in touch with Danny on the AMEN email address and we'd be happy to put you in touch with someone.

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Ice-breaker Interview with Dr. Daryl Cheng

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