How to build bridges to the Pasifika community by changing to medicine
She was an engineer and a top rugby player but, drawing inspiration from the doctors in her family, Miriam Karalus is retraining to be a doctor.
Aroha Awarau
AS an engineer, Miriam Karalus has been saving lives by making our roads much safer. Soon she’ll be saving lives in a medical capacity when she completes her final year as a trainee doctor.
The change of career has paid off for the 32-year-old, who this week received the Dr Leopino Foliaki University of Auckland scholarship awarded by the Pasifika Medical Association to Pacific students in their final year of study.
‘‘I always viewed medicine as a vocation, and I didn’t feel the same way about being an engineer. Being a doctor will give me the opportunity to help people and try to relieve their suffering.’’
Karalus initially avoided medical school because of the five years it took to complete the qualification. Instead, she chose aMasters in Engineering and for two years worked in a team that designed major roadwork projects, like the Huntly bypass.
But when her father, who is also a doctor, suffered a stroke, the Hamilton-raised student was inspired to ditch engineering to focus on health.
‘‘I stayed with him at Waikato Hospital. I saw the significant role that doctors played and the difference that they made in
reports.
I always viewed medicine as a vocation, and I didn’t feel the same way about being an engineer. Being a doctor will give me the opportunity to help people and try to relieve their suffering.’ MIRIAM KARALUS
their patients’ lives.
‘‘Retraining to be a doctor wasn’t about the length of the degree any more. There’s a great need for Pasifika doctors in primary health care. I found my calling and so I wanted to do whatever it took to be successful.’’
She also felt that it was the right time to leave her engineering career as it was difficult for her to survive in the industry as a proud Samoan woman.
‘‘I felt that I was undervalued in that environment. Being a minority and a female in the engineering industrymade it very difficult to be promoted and I felt that I was not given the same opportunities as my European colleagues.’’
Medicine is in Karalus’ blood. Her father, Pauli Noel, specialises in respiratory conditions and her mother, Leaupepe Elisapeta, is a nurse. Also, four of her eight siblings are qualified doctors. Sarah, 39, is a GP in Wellington; Sebastian, 34, is an anaesthetist in Australia; Luke, 30, is an orthopaedic registrar who worked in
Whaka¯tane during the White Island eruption; and Mosese, 29, is a registrar in general surgery at Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital. Karalus has one more year to finish hermedical studies at Auckland University. She says being a qualified engineer has made her journey as a doctor much easier.
‘‘Some of the physiology between the two professions are similar. If you look at the arteries, they are like a network of roads. But with the arteries you are transporting red blood cells and with roads you are transporting people and their vehicles.
‘‘There’s always been an emphasis in engineering to make our roads safe, but people don’t necessarily notice that type of work that is being done. With medicine, it’s obvious and the impact on people is more direct.’’
Karalus spent her clinical placement last year at New Plymouth’s Taranaki Base Hospital. The talented sportswoman represented the province in rugby, following in her father’s footsteps.
‘‘I was quite anxious trying to juggle being at the hospital and playing top level rugby. But in medicine, it is easy to be hyperfocused on your studies and forget about the other things that you’re good at and adds to your value as a person.’’