Member Profile: Louise Baird

Sydney Geriatrician Louise Baird is a Senior Staff Specialist Geriatrician at St. George Hospital in Kogarah and Conjoint Associate Professor at UNSW Medicine and Health convening the Aged Care and Rehabilitation Term for medical students. In between work and family commitments, she also finds time for the NSW Doctor’s Orchestra as a 1st violin. 

​I grew up in a medical family. My dad was a cardiac surgeon, my mum a paediatric nurse. Many family outings on weekends involved a detour to RPAH where Dad worked. I would often sit in the nurses station while dad reviewed patients and their angiograms for surgery the following day. I didn’t realise it at the time, but looking back now I loved the team atmosphere of a hospital ward and the obvious respect, professionalism and care everyone on those wards showed each other and the patients. 

A profound childhood memory is of my dad successfully performing CPR on an unconscious submerged swimmer while we were on a family holiday at Avoca Beach, then promptly organising the man’ s necessary CABG. He was a greengrocer and sent the family a box of mangoes every summer. As a result of these early exposures to medicine I was always the kid at school performing first aid on anyone injured. I practiced slings and bandages while my friends practiced handstands. 

 

My father died from cholangiocarcinoma aged 55, six weeks after being diagnosed, when I was 16, and I saw another side to medicine entirely. 

 

My first introduction to geriatric medicine was as the orthopaedic intern. I marveled at how the orthogeriatric team could synthesize so many complex problems. I also recognised the collective relief of the patients, the families, the nursing staff and the allied health team after their reviews, because they were compassionate, pragmatic and holistic. BPT training rotations to Aged Care at both St George and Sutherland followed, and I was in no doubt that I had found my tribe. I have wonderful Geriatrician mentors, many found through my times on various ANZSGM and RACP committees. 

 

​The complexity of managing dementia and advanced chronic disease drew me to geriatric medicine, but it’s the teamwork that will keep me here! I love that we focus on the person, not the disease, and communicate with families and carers to create individual plans for our patients. Working with experienced nursing and allied health teams in hospital, community and nursing home settings has enabled me to find solutions to every curve ball dementia has thrown at us. I also find teaching and mentoring medical students and junior doctors enormously rewarding. They graduate into the colleagues I rely on, hopefully taking some skills in aged care into varied areas of medicine.

 

​My family were all quite enthusiastic about playing various instruments, but none were terribly musical. We grew up living behind a piano teacher, who had students 7 days a week we could hear playing from our backyard. Knowing all the pieces by ear by aged 5 I would try to play them on our piano, and so I was sent off to learn. My best friend started learning the violin around the same time, and I spent 2 years nagging my mum to let me learn the violin too. I wasn’t very good at playing the violin solo, but joined the school orchestra and discovered the wonder of playing in an ensemble. I’ve been a 1^st violin ever since.

 

​Around 30 years ago Dr Miki Pohl, a passionate violinist and plastic surgeon from Hobart recognised the hidden musical talent among his medical colleagues and decided to form the Australian Doctor’s Orchestra playing concerts to raise money for medical charities. The orchestra happened to play in Sydney when I was a first year medical student in 1997 and I was able to join. The orchestra quickly grew too big, and various state based groups including ‘Musicus Medicus’, the NSW Doctor’s Orchestra soon followed. I have played in both orchestras at every opportunity amongst training, working and parenting demands.

The NSW Doctor’s Orchestra has one concert a year, with rehearsals for two weekends prior to the performance. We are sent the music a few months out, and are expected to practice ourselves so we come to the rehearsals able to play our parts. We usually perform with a professional musician soloist, and they always inspire us to play at our best. We also like to showcase emerging Australian composers in amongst the classical orchestral works the audiences love. We have performed mostly at the Conservatorium of Music and the Concourse at Chatswood. The audience is a mix of family, friends, colleagues and patients, and often a wonderful celebration for the charity.

 

​Music is always an escape. It is my version of wellbeing. I use an entirely different part of my brain when playing, and a weekend of rehearsals feels like a holiday. The music we play is challenging, you need to be present and focused. Playing music can be an emotional journey too. 

 

The patron of our The NSW Doctor’s Orchestra (and occasional 1st violinist as a professional musician prior to becoming a Psychiatrist), Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO often descried the power of music in her patients as equivalent to pharmacological therapies. For my patients with dementia I see how music can transform their mood and behaviour, especially music that had personal or cultural significance to them. It’s even better seeing dementia patients transform when they sing along and dance to familiar tunes. 

 

​We are on facebook and our website. We always welcome new players, and those who haven’t played in a while. Musical muscle memory kicks back in quickly for those concerned their musical days were behind them!

Our next concert will be held at the Concourse, Chatswood NSW
Sunday, 2nd April, 2023

“Celebration”
Tchaikovsky violin concerto- Soloist Anna da Silva Chen

Image courtesy: Louise Baird