Paying it forward

“My grandfather was in hospital, and I really admired what the social worker did for him,” says Emily Pal, one of our newest members of the Allied Health Early Graduate Program. 

In fact, she admired the social worker’s care so much that she decided to become one. Emily is now with the Social Work team at Monash Medical Centre. 

“I did psychology as my undergrad and I didn’t know if I wanted to go into clinical psych or not,” says Emily. “But I knew I wanted to do some more studies and work with people. So, I just looked and looked and I thought of social work. It’s more of a holistic approach to working with someone.” 

Emily commenced with Monash Health in January this year. Starting a new job is hard, but starting a new job in the middle of Code Brown is harder.  

“And then I started my first week [of work] in isolation,” says Emily. 

Despite the challenges, Emily soon found her feet. 

“With the graduate position I’m in now, we get the opportunity to do one year in the acute setting and then one year in subacute. And so, I think with that it will allow me to know what my interests are a bit more.” 

Going forward, Emily’s excited to explore her options and grow her career with Monash Health. 

“And from there I guess I really still want to work in the hospital setting,” Emily says. “Maybe acute, maybe subacute, but definitely with elderly people as the main demographics that I’m interested in working with.” 

This profile is part of a series spotlighting our Allied Health Early Graduate Program. We wish them all the best for their time with Monash Health.

If you would like to join the team at Monash Health, take a look at our current vacancies on the Careers page.