The Chinese delegation at the Bendigo Regional Clinical School with staff.

A delegation of Chinese health professionals, hosted by Bendigo TAFE, visited the Bendigo Regional Clinical School recently and was particularly intrigued by our training methods and use of facilities such as simulation suites.

The group of 10 health professionals (nine medical specialists and one nurse) is from Lanzhou, Gansu Province, North West China, and is visiting Australia for a study program to improve English language skills and learn about the Australian Healthcare system and culture.

Bendigo staff had the privilege of spending time with the delegates for a morning before the delegates visited the La Trobe Rural School, also situated in the Bendigo Hospital education precinct.

The group will spend three months in Australia with members visiting health services across Bendigo and the Loddon Mallee Region for the first two months, followed by a month in Melbourne. The delegates’ medical specialties are in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychiatry, Cardiology, Respiratory medicine, Dental, Radiology/Ultrasound and Nursing.

The Chinese delegates were given a tour around the Monash building by Bendigo Regional Manager, Kerrie Thomsen and they enjoyed browsing through the Bendigo Health library.

The favored opportunity was observing students participating in a clinical simulation session run by Cathy Driver in the Monash Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre. The delegates are familiar with clinical skills and simulation suites but were particularly interested to see how they are used them in Australia. They were surprised that only a small group of three students were being taught as well as the relaxed and friendly environment.

They particularly enjoyed seeing the equipment in use during the simulation and asked many questions about the cost of the center and the cost of training a medical student.

After the presentation of a gift to each delegate and a group photo, Monash staff were invited to visit Lanzhou if ever in China. Thank you to Angela Cahill, Director, Health and Human Services at Bendigo TAFE, for inviting Bendigo to participate in a lovely morning.

The opportunities that come about through spending time at one of the School of Rural Health clinical schools are as diverse as they are interesting.  Just ask Dr Joe O’Brien, a former Year 4C and Year 5D student who has returned to Bendigo after a 12 month research stint at Oxford University in the UK.

He is back in Bendigo working as an intern at Bendigo Health.  The following is Joe’s story.

In the middle of my fourth year of medical school in 2010, I made an eleventh hour decision to do a BMedSc but narrowly missed out on securing a research position at one of the overseas institutions I had been corresponding with.

With the permission of the university to do a BMedSc post-5th year, and a very understanding Monash supervisor on board – the affable and ever so efficient Associate Professor Pamela Snow – I now had a whole year to nail down a project anywhere I like, in any field of my choosing. This is how I ended up completing a lab-based project at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolism.

Under the supervision of Professor Fredrik Karpe, an expert in the field of lipid and diabetes metabolism, I spent roughly nine months investigating the role of novel nucleic acids known as micro-RNA in the metabolic inflammation of obesity.

Roughly put, the risk of thromboembolic events in the obese is mostly driven by the rupture of atherosclerotic (fatty) plaques in the arteries. Inflammation is a big factor in what makes parts of these plaques flick off, and bigger-than-normal fat cells put out a lot of inflammatory chemicals into the bloodstream.

My project was essentially trying to make it ‘safer’ to be fat by playing about with these microRNAs, turning off the inflammatory part of their cellular pathways.

After several months of labwork, I completed my thesis. Unfortunately the result was negative, but the concept of manipulating inflammatory cellular signals with microRNA is still in its infancy and remains a promising field for future work.

My 12 months in the UK were amazing, and I was exposed to a world class centre of research. I would never have been able to complete my project without the help of the team at OCDEM and Bendigo’s own Pam Snow. I would encourage any students contemplating a BMedSc year to ensure they have a supervisor as helpful as Pam, because you never know what challenges the year will throw in your direction.

I have followed up a successful 2012 by officially starting my medical career here at Bendigo Base Hospital. The time I spent in Bendigo as a student has been invaluable towards ensuring a smooth transition from student to doctor.

This year I have the opportunity to rotate through Surgery, Medicine, Emergency and Cardiology. I look forward to completing the rest of my time here and am always happy to answer any questions students may have about career opportunities in rural medicine.

By Dr Joe O’Brien

Bendigo Zonta celebrated International Women’s Day with a dinner addressed by key note speaker Dr Louise Mahler, founder of Vocal Intelligence.  Zonta is a global service organisation of executives and professional women working together to advance the status of women through service and advocacy.

Ten staff members from the School of Rural Health enjoyed an evening of good food and laughter.  At the Bendigo dinner, the participants were taken through exercises in breathing and big gestures to achieve ‘the wisdom of voice.’ In order to understand how to make the mind, body and voice work together, there were tips for what to do with your hands and how to use your voice when speaking in public.

Dr Mahler told the group that ‘vocal Intelligence is a means of getting in touch with coherence of voice, words, emotions, relationships and context.’

Her background is in economics, business and Opera singing, and she sees the ‘voice as a much richer and more complex creative tool for effective personal and professional development.’

The School of Rural Health group agreed that Dr Mahler was one of the most entertaining and informative speakers that it had the privilege to hear, and highly recommend attending one of her sessions if anyone gets the opportunity.

The group also thanked the volunteers from Bendigo Zonta for organising the event for International Women’s Day.

Bendigo Professional staff enjoyed the dinner, as the photo shows. In the front row from left are Cheryl Sutherland, Lyndsey Brown, Sonya Steve, Cathy Wheel and Sandra Paschkow, while in the back row are Gillian Fallon, ZONTA District 23 Governor Ann Horrocks, Bendigo ZONTA President Rosalie Lake, Michelle Moon, Terri Galea and Melissa McNicol. Bendigo Regional Clinical School Regional Manager Kerrie Thomsen took the photo.

The Bendigo Jockey Club was an excellent venue for this year’s welcome dinner, with everyone enjoying the evening.

The official welcome dinner for Bendigo students was again an opportunity for Bendigo Regional Clinical School to acknowledge the importance of individual contributions and expertise in the community that forms a big part of the journey for all medical students.

The Welcome Dinner this year was held in mid-February at Silks, Bendigo Jockey Club.  Auntie Faye Carter and her son Rodney opened the evening with a smoking ceremony in their Welcome to Country.  The evening was filled with fun, good food, relaxation and cheer.

As is tradition, two students were presented with awards during the evening.  The Shaker Issa Award went to Adelene Hilbig for the most outstanding Year 4 student for 2012 and the 2012 John Gault Award went to Jennifer Tang for her outstanding academic performance in Year 3.

Three Excellence in Teaching Awards were presented by the University of Melbourne’s Director of Medical Student Education, Professor Julian Wright, to Dr Patrick Cooney, Mr Damian Cleeve and Dr John Edington.

The audience was attentive to every word delivered by Associate Professor Darryl Maybery.

Associate Professor Darryl Maybery,  Director of MUDRIH, has delivered the first of Mildura’s 2013 lecture series to a wide audience of medical and local community members.

Darryl’s topic was ’Breaking the generational cycle of mental illness’, and coincided with the launch and promotion of a new DVD titled Family Focus.

One in five children has a parent with a mental illness; the aim of the Family Focus program is to empower families to start a conversation about the problems, with the intended outcome to reduce the risk of children getting the same illness as their parent.  The chance to talk about these illnesses helps children realise that the depression and anxiety they see in their parents is not their fault.

Information about the event was circulated through flyers to health organisations and individuals, radio announcements, and advertisements in local newspapers.  Consequently 70 registrations were received from a mixture of health clinicians and public, which packed the lecture room to capacity. (more…)

All students have enjoyed their 2013 Orientation Weeks at Bendigo Regional Clinical School, although not in the rooms in which they will spend most of this year.

Year 3 students commenced on 4 February and Year 4 students the following week. As the school was undergoing significant renovations to its building, which saw nearly all class rooms out of action, a significant amount of work was put into finding alternative venues to hold the orientation programs.

The Year 3 students were based in the new La Trobe University clinical teaching building adjacent to Bendigo’s and the clinical school was very grateful that colleagues at La Trobe were able to help out.  The Year 4 students had most of their programs delivered at the previous Monash University building at Lister House.

Renovations are now almost complete and everyone is looking forward to not having to move between buildings for lectures.  A welcome dinner was held on Tuesday 12 February where all students from Year levels 3 – 5 were welcomed to the region and had the opportunity to meet some of their lecturers and staff for their year.

The Dean, Professor Christina Mitchell, speaks with staff and community partners at Bendigo Regional Clinical School.

The Bendigo Regional Clinical School was really pleased that the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Professor Christina Mitchell, was able to find a time in her very busy schedule to visit on 27 February for the first time since her appointment.

In a jammed pack day, and after being welcomed over morning tea by Head of the School of Rural Health Professor Judi Walker, Christina started with whirlwind tours of the clinical school, the Bendigo Primary Care Centre and the newly opened Latrobe University Rural Health School building in the Hospital Education Precinct of which Bendigo Regional Clinical School is part.

The School was particularly keen that as many of its community partners and staff as possible should join the Dean for lunch.  Following a most scrumptious lunch for the 50 guests, staff then gathered in the auditorium for a staff meeting where program leaders were able to share their team’s work with the Dean. (more…)

Kerrie Thomsen enjoys her work

Your name and position

Kerrie Thomsen, Regional Manager, Bendigo Regional Clinical School

Describe your job/role

As the Regional Manager for the Bendigo Regional Clinical School I am responsible for our overall budget, HR management and needs of the School, day to day operations for our building and staff as well as all of our student accommodation, partnership agreements and special projects such as the Loddon Mallee Simulated Learning Education Project.

Why is it important?

Finding and creating ways to ensure Rural Health and Education is the best it can be against metro standards and any other relevant standard. There is a very strong sense that we want to keep on contributing to improving the health of everyone in our community at BRCS and this team includes people who have been here for years and are very committed, so as the new person it is easy to be committed too.

What is the best aspect of your work with the School of Rural Health?

The team of people I work with who have supported and empowered me in my leadership role, our morning teas and projects that you can really sink your teeth into!

When you are not at work, what do you enjoy doing?

Bush-walking near my home and walking my dog Rocky, or painting birds and animals with acrylic on canvas or having coffee at Apple Annie’s in Castlemaine with a friend or two.

What was your most recent holiday destination and why did you choose it?

Mackay, Queensland for my beautiful niece’s 21^st Birthday. I had a couple of extra days with my sister to help prepare for the party at her home, which was just fun “sister time”.

If you were Emperor for a day, what is one thing you would implement?

I would allocate the money and decree the set up of “Rescue Wildlife” with funds big enough to last decades in every regional community.

Surprise us! What is something about you that most of your peers would not know?

I was the first person in my family (from both sides) to go to University. I was 17 years old and moved 380 kilometres away from my home in North Aramara (near Maryborough north of Brisbane) to the University of Queensland in Brisbane.

Lyndsey and Leigh's engagement

School of Rural Health couple, Lyndsey Brown from Bendigo Regional Clinical School and Leigh Kinsman (Research) were engaged to be married recently and are naturally very happy with the news!

Bendigo staff celebrated the announcement with the couple with a few bubbles and many admiring glances at Lyndsey’s engagement ring, a beautiful square cut Aquamarine surrounded by dozens of sparkling diamonds.

SRH 20th Anniversary Community Conversation Dinner in Bendigo

To celebrate the School of Rural Health’s 20^th Anniversary, Bendigo Regional Clinical School held its Community Conversation over dinner late in November.

The evening had been anticipated with great excitement by many of the staff, particularly amongst some of the female staff who were happy to have any excuse to buy a new outfit to celebrate the 20 year anniversary!

Invitees included Chief Executive Officers and their service staff from 10 partner organisations around the greater Bendigo area.  CEOs were invited to submit a local health related issue that affects their organisation and participants were then able to discuss the issue over dinner. The results of the many and varied conversations are to be collated and distributed early in 2013.

Robust discussions were held around topics including how behaviour could be influenced to reduce obesity in Bendigo, pressure on community placements for health trainees in regional and rural general practice, working toward a community prevention model to reduce the rate of risky alcohol consumption among Greater Bendigo residents and other interesting issues that the group embraced with enthusiasm.

While we are not convinced we managed to solve all the problems that face our community, hopefully this group of respected people has come up with some amazing suggestions for how to address some of these topics.

The evening was held in the Conservatory at the All Seasons Resort in Bendigo.  This venue, more familiar with holding weddings on the weekend, was decorated beautifully with amazing attention to detail by our Regional Manager Kerrie Thomsen.  Her organisation and flair for style ensured that the environment was perfect and Donna Cohen managed to keep our large group to time and moving around the tables seamlessly.

The evening was well received by all that attended and we hope that this may be the first of many community conversations we will hold.

Lyndsey Brown, Educational Site Manager, Bendigo