Dr Ashley Ng

What a year 2023 has been. It’s been a big week of reflections, looking back and planning for the future. Last night, as I frantically put our annual family photobook together to meet the deadline for Christmas delivery, I couldn’t help but stop and remisince. Nothing shows you how quickly time flies than looking at pictures of your kids growing up over the year. It won’t be long before they tower over me, I know it.

Behind all the happy photos, I also get flashbacks to how challenging the year has been. Juggling two young children and transitioning into a new job coming back from maternity leave has not been easy. We worked through multiple illnesses, late night emergency hospital visits, sleep regressions, developmental leaps; I was in pure survival mode. It’s only been in the last few months that I felt that I’ve been able to have a bit more headspace to think about what I want. (Apart from the December chaos…why do we put so much pressure on ourselves for Christmas??)

There are days where I still cannot believe how my stars aligned to land my new role. Every day I’m learning more around consumer and community involvement while being immersed in a supportive environment with strong leadership and mentorship. I also get to speak with amazing leaders in this space across Australia. Being almost halfway through my contract, I am starting to think about my next steps.

I left the seucrity of my ongoing university job to branch out, learn more and grow and I better work-life balance (hah!). I felt disillusioned with the rat race of academia in playing the publish or perish game. I struggled to get grant funding. So I thought I was done with research. But I also have to consider that we were dealing with a global pandemic during that time and the birth of my two kiddos. Naturally, they are going to be setbacks.

In trying to think about my next steps, I’m focusing on my why. Through my work, I want to create a positive impact on the diabetes community to make sure that every person with diabetes feels supported in their care and education. We need to shift the system to foster true patient-provider collaboration and shared decision making. I can’t do this alone and research alone isn’t going to solve our problems. So the question is, who can I work with and in what capacity to influence change? I don’t have the answers but I’m enjoying the process now of chatting about it with friends and mentors to get their guidance. All I know is that 2024 is going to be busy and big!