Dr Matthew McGrail (left) from the Centre for Research Excellence with Professor Wei Luo and Professor Jim Wilson outside the Department of Geography building, Northern Illinois University.

Dr Matthew McGrail was awarded the 2014 APHCRI Robert Graham Center Visiting Fellowship in September for his project ‘Rural PHC access measures: Applicability to workforce planning and policies’.

Matthew’s Fellowship allowed him with to travel to the Robert Graham Centre based in Washington DC for five weeks from 20 October. He spent time meeting with staff, sharing his expertise on access measurement and its application to health services planning and policy, comparing methodologies and data availability, and exploring new research learnings. Notably, this research is exploring the wider application of Matthew’s Index of Access in other settings.

Matthew also visited the Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the Department of Geography at the Northern Illinois University, DeKalb where he presented a seminar entitled “GIS and rural health policy development: Lessons from Australia”.

He also attended the North American Primary Care Research Group Conference held in New York.

Pam Harvey recently presented part of her PhD research at The Art of Good Health and Wellbeing, the 6th Annual International Arts and Health Conference held at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

Entitled ‘Young adult fiction: giving a voice to ill adolescents” Pam’s presentation was part of the program that included presentations and workshops from researchers, artists, curators and clinicians using artistic projects in their work with patients and clients.

Radio National’s Life Matters, hosted by Natasha Mitchell, broadcast from the conference. You can download the audio of the program from the ABC website.

Fundraising fun run: Bendigo staff and family took part in the annual Run for Health fun run in November. L-R: Cathy Ward, Sonya Steve, Sarah Moon, Michelle Moon, Donna-Lee Stanes, Melissa McNicol, Gillian Fallon, Colin Fallon.

Eight Bendigo staff and family tied on their running shoes to tackle the annual Bendigo Bank Run for Health fun run at the beginning of November.

A field of 3,300 runners and walkers tackled the 5 or 10 km circuit around the centre of Bendigo and raised $133,000 for the Bendigo Health Renal Unit.

Melissa McNicol led the troops when she ran the circuit with the rest of the team following at cracking walking pace.

Bendigo's farewell to Peter Disler

We wished Peter Disler a fond adieu on Wednesday 26^th November with good food, many stories and a cake made to suit. Peter began with the Bendigo Regional Clinical School in 2005 and was Head of School after Gordon Whyte in 2006 until Geoff Solarsh took on the role. The many speeches on the night told similar stories of Peter’s enthusiasm and exuberance about teaching, music, literature and family. Particularly moving was daughter Jess’s heartfelt words about her dad.

Peter’s teaching style has been tremendously popular with students. His connection with his patients role-modelled excellent doctor-patient relations, and is sure to be remembered by students. His work in Monash’s Year 5 MBBS – as academic head (well managed by Kay Togno and then Sonya Steve) – helped to develop a clinical educator network focused on these senior students.

We will still see Peter as he continues a teaching role at Monash, but hope that he is also suitably occupied doing all those things he is yet to do!

Oral language importance: Associate Professor Pamela Snow delivers the keynote speech at the 5th Brunei English Language Teachers’ Association Conference.

Associate Professor Pamela Snow, was the keynote speaker at 5^th Brunei English Language Teachers’ Association International Conference in November.

Pam’s speech was based on her research entitled “Oral Language Supports Early Literacy: A Pilot Cluster Randomised Trial in Disadvantaged Schools”.

She outlined some of the key drivers of early language competence – parental position on the social gradient, early language experience, exposure to written text and shared book-time at home, and neurodevelopmental disorders that can compromise early language development.

Pam highlighted the need for evidence-based early literacy instruction, encompassing the use of teaching approaches that are strongly informed by research linking early language skills to emergent literacy.

The association is sponsored and supported by several embassies and agencies, including the Australian Department of Education and the Australian Trade Commission.

The conference saw 14 paper presentations and workshops, highlighting issues of literacy and was attended by more than 100 participants.

Associate Professor Snow holds a conjoint appointment with the Department of Pyschiatry and the School of Rural Health, and is based in Bendigo. Follow her on her blog The Snow Report or Twitter @PamelaSnow2.

What tools are being used in the rural simulated environment to assess interdisciplinary effectivness? This was one of the questions Cathy Driver posed when she presented an overview of her research at the SimHealth 2014 conference in Adelaide in August. The conference explored the theme “Mind the Gap”, a reflection on how simulation-based initiatives have addressed a gap in the healthcare curriculum; assisted learners to bridge the gap between theory and practice; closed the gap between professional silos; or tackled the gap between best patient care and avoidable patient harm.

A clinical skills educator at SRH Bendigo, Cathy’s research is titled, “The effect of interdisciplinary simulation approaches in breaking down ‘tribalism’ in Healthcare” and asks the question, “How do the SIMPLE and TeamSTEPPS approaches work to increase communication and teamwork skills between undergraduate medical and nursing students in a rural simulated environment?” Cathy anticipates data collection will take place over a 12 month period.

Dr Deb Russell at her graduation.

Deb Russell from the Centre for Research Excellence  at SRH Bendigo has passed her PhD without amendment. Deb’s thesis, “The patterns, determinants and measurement of rural and remote primary health care workforce turnover and retention” was supported by the Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care (CRERRPHC) and was supervised by Emeritus Professor John Humphreys and Dr Matthew McGrail.

This work has provided important new empirical evidence to guide rural health workforce retention policies. Links to the publications related to her PhD are available on the CRERRPHC website.

Deb is the first of the CRE’s four PhD students to graduate and will receive her testamur at a graduation ceremony in December at the Clayton campus.

Everyone at Bendigo congratulated Deb on a brilliant effort at a morning tea in late October.

Pam Harvey recently presented a paper about using young adult literature to teach health professionals about adolescent illness at the 12^th International Conference on Communication in Healthcare, hosted by the European Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH).

‘Faults in their stars: Literature for teaching about adolescent illness’ identified award-winning young adult novels that articulate an otherwise unheard voice: that of the adolescent patient.

The conference delegates gathered in Amsterdam were health professional educators and researchers with a special interest in the health system and professional and service communication.

Pam said she found it interesting that her paper appeared to be the only one investigating how medical humanities can inform communication teaching, although she saw some posters with similar themes. (more…)

By gum: students constructed three red gum tables for Bendigo's deck

Medical students took time out from their weekend studies to build three outdoor tables for the cafe at SRH Bendigo.

Past TAFE teacher, John Harvey, collected the redgum from his rural property. He oversaw the work which culminated in an all-day effort one Sunday in August. The finished tables are so heavy they had to be constructed on-site.

A few coats of marine varnish applied by the students between lessons over the ensuing days brought out the classic deep red colour of the timber.

The tables now host patrons of the cafe which shares the ground floot of SRH Bendigo.

Ban naked tea pots: quirky tea cosies were among many items on display at Bendigo's Off Ramp Creations exhibition.

Funds raised through an exhibition of the creative output of Bendigo-based staff will benefit a local primary school with a mult-cultural program.

The Off Ramp Creations exhibition demonstrated that staff do have a life outside work. The exhibition included photography, painting, poetry, woodwork, embroidery, patchwork and knitting. One staff member even launched a crusade to ensure no teapot goes un-cosied, contributing some delightful examples of tea-cosy art.

Curated for the second year by Dr Natalie Radomski, the exhibition ran for 10 days and was open to visitors and staff for a gold coin donation.

Creative: Bendigo-based staff revealed hidden talents.