2025 Psychiatry Interest Forum facilitated networking activity

The PIF-facilitated networking activity is an annual event offering medical students the opportunity to network and meet local psychiatrists and trainees in an informal space.

This year’s event was held at the University of Tasmania and University of Newcastle/New England and was spread across three sessions from July to August. It delved into topics such as psychiatry subspecialties, myths and misconception in psychiatry and the College Fellowship program. Fifteen medical students from each university participated in these sessions.

We would like to thank all the members who volunteered their time to inspire the next generation of psychiatrists and make these events a success. This includes Dr Rebecca Graham, Dr Jack Kinglsey, Dr Joshua Yeoh, Dr Justin Westwater, Dr Leila Kavanagh, Dr Tanya Hall, Dr Shalini Rajan, Dr Harsimrat Sandhu, Dr Josef McDonald, Dr Tolulope Fajumi, Dr Lawrence Dadd, Dr Bipin Ravindran, Dr Claudia Buckmaster, Dr Timothy O’Brien, Dr Corey Morgan and Dr Ria Mittal. Thanks also to Dr Heather Collyer, Dr Naomi Liew and Dr Abigail Steenstra for their assistance in organising the sessions.

Students who attended the sessions share some of their thoughts below:

“I really enjoyed listening to all the psychiatrists that took time to come and speak to us, I also applaud the student hosts that led the discussions. The only area of improvement is that I would have loved more than three sessions but that’s just because I learnt so much and would love to learn more.” – Participating student from University of Newcastle

“I learned about the day-to-day life of a forensic psychiatrist, child psychiatrist and a stage 3 psychiatry trainee. Dr Kavanagh’s stories about forensic psychiatry were very interesting and eye opening. Dr Westwater’s insights into how early psychiatric intervention can have enormous impacts on young patients’ life trajectory inspired me to pursue child and adolescent psychiatry in future.” – Participating student from University of Tasmania

Livana Hamad

3rd year Medical Student from University of Newcastle

“The PIF networking sessions offered a unique opportunity to hear directly from psychiatrists and registrars at various stages of their careers. It was intriguing to hear that most peoples’ paths into psychiatry were not direct, and that there was a diverse range of fields that doctors had come from to ultimately pursue psychiatry.

It was also interesting to see how incredibly broad psychiatry is. From neuropsychiatry to forensic psychiatry, the specialty involves a wide range to choose from if you have a particular interest. I found these sessions incredibly valuable for shaping my perspective on psychiatry and visualising what the journey may look like to becoming a psychiatrist. Each speaker’s education and career journey was so interesting. These sessions were beneficial and eye-opening and have definitely motivated the attending students and myself to seek out further opportunities in psychiatry.”

“The PIF networking sessions offered a unique opportunity to hear directly from psychiatrists and registrars at various stages of their careers. It was intriguing to hear that most peoples’ paths into psychiatry were not direct, and that there was a diverse range of fields that doctors had come from to ultimately pursue psychiatry.

It was also interesting to see how incredibly broad psychiatry is. From neuropsychiatry to forensic psychiatry, the specialty involves a wide range to choose from if you have a particular interest. I found these sessions incredibly valuable for shaping my perspective on psychiatry and visualising what the journey may look like to becoming a psychiatrist. Each speaker’s education and career journey was so interesting. These sessions were beneficial and eye-opening and have definitely motivated the attending students and myself to seek out further opportunities in psychiatry.”