Dr Suraj Ghimire is a current postgrad student at the University of Newcastle, enrolled in the Master of Public Health. Upon completion of his undergraduate studies in Nepal, Suraj worked in different community level health settings.

Recently, Suraj worked as a Chief Medical Doctor in one of the local municipalities, engaging with the community and acting on the front line of defense while treating patients. He also contributed to the establishment of a temporary community hospital which undertook care of 84 moderate to severe cases of COVID-19 patients, with no mortalities.

While practising in Nepal, Suraj engaged in promotive, preventative and curative health aspects of the community. He discovered various additional aspects of disease management that have proven to be crucial while curing patients, including socio-economic status, education level amongst patients, overall condition of the family, social factors and existing political and health policies. Gaining additional insight into disease management also acted as one of the leading factors for him to pursue his postgraduate studies at the University of Newcastle.

“I used to think why not prevent the disease from happening in the first place. The importance of prevention is highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Hence, to understand more about the factors that can influence health and come up with an approach to timely address it at individual, community and country levels, I wanted to take postgraduate study in public health,” Suraj said.

Suraj commenced his postgrad studies with the University in an online capacity in 2021 and then transitioned to face-to-face learning once travel restrictions eased. Suraj chose to study in Australia, given its strong Public Health policies. He was drawn to the University’s Master of Public Health program due to the flexibility that this program offered, and the variety of course content that was being covered within just one year of full-time study.

“The [degree] covered some important areas I wanted to learn like overall public health concepts, global health, social determinants of health, epidemiology and biostatistics.”

As part of the program, Suraj was able to gain an insight into Equity Focused Health Impact Assessment (EFHIA), Community Health Need Assessment, and Healthy Public policies. With the support of Dr Tazeen Majeed, one of the Course Coordinators at the University, Suraj was able to write up an EFHIA summary report on Mental Health Policies in Nepal, which has now been submitted for publication. Suraj also had the opportunity of attending live webinars and lectures, that enabled him to develop a deeper understanding of various aspects within the Australian health space and plans to implement this understanding at the completion of his studies.

“I was able to participate in a live lecture on ageing presented by the Director of the Centre for Women’s Health Research, Professor Julie Byles. It was an exciting opportunity to hear from her. It provided insights into some of the outcomes from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health. It was inspiring to see those facts and figures as well as get our queries answered directly by her.”

Suraj is extremely passionate about the field of public health and believes it is more important than ever to focus on health outcomes both locally and globally and aims to use his studies towards the development of promotive and preventative equity focused health policies and practices.

“I think one lesson that has been taught by this COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of public health measures and the need for more public health professionals. This pandemic is not the first and won’t be the last one.

“In day-to-day scenarios, there are also many other health challenges. Taking this course helps us to be ready to meet that challenge and give our input to minimise it.”

Dr Suraj Ghimire `

Dr Suraj Ghimire

Suraj is a current postgrad student enrolled in the Master of Public Health. Suraj wanted to gain additional insight into disease management and develop promotive and preventative equity focused health policies and practices.

The [degree] covered some important areas I wanted to learn like overall public health concepts, global health, social determinants of health, epidemiology and biostatistics.

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