From the military to medicine

In early 2012, when the young Michael Addis left his family home in coastal Western Australia and headed east to Brisbane to serve in the army, he experienced a kind of culture shock.

Thrust into training with his platoon at Enoggera Barracks, the recent high school graduate entered a world vastly different to the one he knew.

“The shock of arriving and seeing tons of recruits with shaved heads, all marching in sync… it was surreal, and something just hit me: ‘What have I got myself into?’ I remember backing against a wall and trying to make myself disappear.”

Those early days and weeks were nerve-wracking for the fresh recruit, but he soon found his feet. In 2015, Michael was deployed to Afghanistan to serve as a rifleman as part of Force Protection Element 4, tasked with protecting coalition trainers in Kandahar and Kabul.

Although he never fought on the frontline against Taliban forces, the bases where Michael was stationed were subjected to shelling and rocket fire. He vividly remembers the first time he walked into a hospital and noticed the remnants of a suicide bombing.

“I was working closely with a United States army captain who was mentoring the Afghan medics, and I went in and saw that the front door had been blown off and there was shrapnel all over the brick walls,” he recalls.

“From that very first image, you walk into a hospital and see this violent kind of welcome, and it reminds you that you’re in a warzone and this is a serious environment.” 

Witnessing the injuries from such incidents was similarly stirring. Many of those working in the hospital were Afghan soldiers who had lost limbs or incurred injuries that rendered them unable to serve in their combat roles. 

“I found that really horrific on the one hand, but on the other, it was inspiring,” says Michael, who served in Afghanistan for seven months of his four-year stint with the Australian Army.

“These were people who had suffered greatly as the result of war, but they were still there doing what they could to help others. It really allowed me to realise my values and decide that maybe one day I would do this sort of thing – working in the medical field and putting my energy towards helping people.”

A smooth path

In some ways, Michael Addis may have always been destined to work in healthcare.

With a mother who works as a nurse and a father and grandfather who are psychiatrists, he grew up around medical professionals.

Yet, when it came time to choose his path, the army seemed the more attractive choice.

Michael was one of some 30,000 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel who served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, and his deployment proved a formative experience.

Apart from the occasional scramble to a bunker bay at the sound of a rocket siren, he mostly felt safe.

He also valued the opportunities to engage with the local population, which included helping to rebuild a school that had been destroyed during conflict, and erecting a fence so that local girls could attend classes.

Michael Addis during his time in Afghanistan in 2015.

These interactions, and the work of coalition mentors to train their Afghan partners, strengthened his resolve to work in healthcare.

“In war, it’s the civilian population that really suffers,” he says. “But watching how much the coalition trainers made a difference in the lives of the local population gave me the desire to want to help.”

When Michael returned to Brisbane and was discharged from the army, he found work as a nurse’s assistant in an aged care home just a stone’s throw from Enoggera Barracks. Within months, he was accepted into a nursing degree at ACU, joining what was then a small cohort of veterans on the Brisbane Campus.

Not only did he thrive in his studies, but he also became an advocate for student veterans. Michael was one of the early staff members and pioneers of ACU’s ground-breaking Student Veteran Support Program – a scheme which, since its launch in 2019, has provided ex-servicemen and women with access to a range of services and resources to help ease their transition into university. 

While his own passage from service to study was relatively smooth, he’s aware that for many others, it’s a rocky journey. 

“Leaving the ADF can feel a bit like you have been thrown back down to the bottom of the food chain,” says Michael, who in 2024 was acknowledged at ACU’s Student Veteran Impact Awards for his contribution to the veteran community.

“Losing your identity can feel very disenfranchising and deflating, and that was the goal of the work we started at ACU back in 2019, to empower more veterans to enjoy success at university.”

Staying curious

Michael’s commitment to supporting veterans didn’t just shape his time at ACU – it also influenced his career trajectory.

When he first began studying nursing, he had no plans to become a doctor. Through his clinical placements and work with the veteran community, he started to become more aware of the challenges fellow veterans face in the transition to civilian life.

“I had friends who had taken their own lives, and others who had fallen into addiction, and it all built up into this feeling that I wanted to do something to help to address these issues,” he says. “It soon became clear that I wanted to be a psychiatrist specialising in veteran mental health, and that’s the path that I’ve been on ever since.” 

Michael Addis as a nursing student at ACU's Brisbane Campus.

When an offer came through to commence a medicine degree in his home state of Western Australia, he jumped at the chance.

Michael completed his Bachelor of Nursing at ACU in early 2020, and graduated from medical school in Perth in 2023. He currently works as a junior doctor at Royal Perth Hospital, where he also engages in on-the-job training alongside qualified psychiatrists.

“It’s a long road and there are a lot of hoops to jump through, but I’ll just keep following the path I’m on, always remaining curious about how I can help people in their ongoing struggles.”

Like many former soldiers, Michael has proven to be every bit as skilled, dedicated and adaptable in civilian life as he was in service. He’s a strong believer that all veterans have the potential to continue to contribute to society.

“Most veterans are young, reliable, resilient, and compassionate,” he says. “These attributes are key to being successful in all areas of life, and I think it’s important that society moves past some of the stereotypes about veterans, and starts to recognise what they have to offer.”