Profiling DiT of the Month, Hayden Cain

Name: Hayden Cain

Pronouns: He/Him

State/Country: SA – Riverland 

Role in AMACDT: Co-chair of GTAC, AMA (SA) DiT Chair, former chair of PSIG

Specialty: ACRRM

What drew you to medicine?

Helping people, adventure, endless possibilities, lifelong learning 

Who is your greatest hero or inspiration?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, his entire life his views, passions and advocacy were able to evolve and change as society evolved. This allowed him to be at the forefront of many key social issues over an extended period of time.

How do you like to reset/destress (or rephrase to look after wellbeing)?

Being somewhere remote in nature without phone reception, sleeping under the stars in my swag 

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Serving remote communities and working in retrieval medicine 

What is your top advocacy priority and why?

Equity in university selection for medical schools. Currently medical schools are full of private school students from metropolitan regions who were able to afford to do preparation courses and whose parents can support them. We need our medical school populations to represent the Australia population in regards to gender, ethnicity, sexuality, regionality and socio-economic status. This is not only for the greater good of equity but would also likely help our medical schools produce more rounded medical school graduates more likely to become GP’s and work rurally. 

What do you think is the biggest challenge for DiTs at present?

Currently the biggest issue for DiTs is the training bottleneck due to a public hospital system that depends on junior doctors working in service roles that do not benefit their careers and often don’t lead to a rewarding future career. 

What advice would you give to DiTs who would like to be more involved in advocacy?

Absolutely get into it! The more you learn the more passionate you will become, we always love to hear new voices and ideas and I can’t wait to work with you!