Learning: Dr Roshan Dhanapalaratnam and other Westmead Hospital interns took part in intensive orientation lessons last week before stepping into the wards yesterday. Picture: Mike Sea
ROSHAN Dhanapalaratnam's desire to help people led him into the medical field.
He is one of a record 925 medical interns who started work across the state's hospitals last week.
The Bella Vista resident, who completed a bachelor of medicine and surgery at the University of NSW, said he loved the sciences and understanding how the body worked.
"Medicine is something that is relevant to everybody — everyone will get old and sick," Dr Dhanapalaratnam said.
"Being able to help people in their day-to-day life and trying to fix medical problems is why I wanted to pursue medicine."
The interns will spend a week of intensive training at the hospital before stepping into the wards this week.
Westmead Hospital's director of pre-vocational education and training Andrew Baker said the training was essential as there was a profound difference between learning to be a medical student and learning to be an intern.
"The advice we give is that the internship is less about what you know and more about how effectively you can communicate and work with the team around you," Dr Baker said.
"We try to tell them not to stress about whether they know enough — because that will come — but to work on communication techniques and building up their network of people they can learn from."
The interns will complete five rotations with compulsory terms in medicine, surgery and emergency.