HE could have been playing international cricket, but Mueed Mian found a different calling and last week joined the Northern Hospital as an intern.
Dr Mian was 18, living in Brunei and playing for the country’s international under-19 cricket team, with an offer to play for the nation’s senior team, when he faced a dilemma: pursue international sporting stardom or follow his dream to help people.
“I played with Brunei’s under-19s in Nepal in 2005 and I was called up for the national senior team to play in Malaysia in 2006, but then came an offer too good to refuse,” he said of his offer to study medicine at Melbourne University.
Dr Mian, originally from Sydney, returned from Brunei and settled in Mill Park to study medicine and undertake work as a student at Northern Hospital.
“I love the patient interaction. Because of the title of doctor I can go into so much detail of a patient’s life within minutes,” he said. “Being a doctor is an opportunity to help people in as many ways as possible.”
Dr Mian said he looked forward to his one-year internship at the Northern Hospital because of the multicultural environment.
“It is a bit of a challenge dealing with patients with different cultural backgrounds, but I hope to rise to the challenge and understand each patient’s needs,” he said.
Dr Mian also enjoyed doing medical research while he was a student doctor in the hospital, but said he would be too busy as an intern to do research this year.
He recently moved from Mill Park to Fawkner but wants to stay in the northern suburbs.
“I really enjoy the area where you can have one nationality living on one side of you and someone from another country on the other side.”
Northern Health acting CEO Robynne Cooke said the organisation had a record number of applications for this year’s intern intake, up from 660 the previous year to more than 1000 for the 47 positions.
