We farewell Loy Perryman who commenced with the SRH as a sessional in 2007 then to the Y4C Academic Coordinator for Year 4C at Sale in 2010. Loy will commence Long Service Leave on May 18th, and has tendered her resignation for the end of her leave to join her fiancé and daughter in Canberra. We would like to thank Loy for her input over the last eight years and wish her all the best for the future.

Alda Dunlop Year and 3B Academic Coordinator has tendered her resignation as at 30th June 2015 to spend more time with her family, and again we wish Alda all the best.

We welcome Karen Cox who has joined the administration team as a casual. Karen is based at the Bairnsdale site, and brings with her a wealth of administration and management skills from the finance and media industries. Karen can be contacted karen.cox@monash.edu or phone  03 5150 3613.

Students attend interprofessional women’s health workshop

Year 4C medical students from South Gippsland were joined by a number of nursing students based in the area for a full day women’s health workshop held at the South Gippsland Community Health Centre in Foster.

The topics included breast lumps, contraception and menopause management with the format featuring a range of both formal presentations and small group case studies.

Presenters included Dr Elizabeth Farrell, head of the Menopause Unit at Monash Medical Centre, and a director and consultant gynaecologist at the Jean Hailes Foundation.

The day was particularly beneficial to the students, given their exams were fast approaching and according to organisers, they all enjoyed the interprofessional nature of the day.

It was all hands on deck in the “operating theatre” at the School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland.

Staff at the Bairnsdale site were taking part in a malignant hyperthermia scenario, organised in consultation with Sian Guns, the NUM theatre, Marnie Connolly, Dr David McConville, Dr Daryl Smith, Kim Cantrill, Nurse Educators Liz Barlow and Beth Jacob, and the SLE Project Officer.

Dr John Urie worked as a member of the simulation team and coordinated the debriefing of the scenario.

The interprofessional scenario was well attended by 26 staff with SimMan 3G having his first visit to theatre for a hernia repair.

The surgical team involved were Mr Servaise DeKock, Mr Lee Van Schoor, Ally Smith and Helen Petersen. The anaesthetic team comprised Dr David Mc Conville , Dr Daryl Smith, Dr Peter Worboys Linda Malcolm , Jenny Coverdale and Ken Whateley.

Ann Maree Reggardo was elected as the team leader for the scenario and the nursing coordinator was Tanya Murray. Three staff members were allocated to mixing the dantrolene with Carmal, Donna and Kim getting the bolus dose ready for the patient.

It took team work and non-technical skills in the theatre environment to treat the medical emergency of malignant hyperthermia.

Scribe for the scenario was Jade Danby.

The feedback on the scenario, team work and the activation of the malignant hyperthermia policy was positive.

Students from the South Gippsland cluster attended a talk on paediatric infectious diseases.

Students from the South Gippsland cluster attended a talk on paediatric infectious diseases last month.

The presentation by Associate Professor Andrew Steer was the first in a series of extra activities over the weekend. Held at Sandy Point on the coast, it aimed to bring students together for the final time in preparation for the exams.

This was followed by an inspirational talk by Dr Tony Holmes on his work in paediatric plastic surgery. He outlined techniques involved working with children born with various facial abnormalities. An “amazing meal”, prepared by Narelle Iser, completed the session.

These evenings involving great speakers have been a regular feature of the South Gippsland program and plans are already underway to continue this next year. The students then attended the women’s health workshop at Foster the following day. It is envisaged this will also be expanded next year to involve local GP obstetricians.

Year 4C medical students from South Gippsland took part in a Medicine of the Mind revision workshop recently which focussed on youth mental health issues.

Key workers within their fields led the workshop. They hosted 30 minute case scenarios for discussion, aimed at increasing understanding of the complexities of the youth mental health field.

The content of each scenario was matched to each facilitator’s speciality. Scenarios were designed to ensure that key competences such as MSE (mental state examination) and risk were explored in the context of a larger more complex scenario.

Students reported they enjoyed the workshops, saying they added to their overall understanding of youth mental health situations.

Learning: primary school students recently met Sim Man who is used to train nursing and medical students based in East Gippsland.

The School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland hosted some budding young scientists recently.

The students visited the Bairnsdale site as part of a Scientists in Schools program being run by the CSIRO.

MUDRIH lecturers Eleanor Mitchell and Angelo D’Amore are delivering the program this year in partnership with Paynesville Primary School. They team with a teacher who then rolls out the program as part of extra curricula activities.

Eleanor and Angelo visited the school twice recently, initially spending time with the grades three and four students and the following week, with grade five students. The focus was on forensic science.

As a reward for undertaking the extra curricula activities, the students visited the skills laboratory at the SRH Bairnsdale. The visit included a session with Sim Man and mannequins with students treated to hands-on simulation in both cardio vascular and asthma scenarios.

Eleanor said the visit was a great success. “Not only did the teacher and students come but a number of parents too.”

A/Prof David Campbell and Dr Jane Greacen with Monash University President and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Ed Byrne, at the presentation of the Vice-Chancellor’s Social Inclusion Award. It was Professor Byrne’s last official duty for Monash University before his departure to London.

Two School of Rural Health academics have been awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Social Inclusion Award in recognition of their efforts to expand the Aboriginal health professional workforce in East Gippsland.

Associate Professor David Campbell and Dr Jane Greacen from the SRH East and South Gippsland have worked in the past few years to improve the health of the East Gippsland Aboriginal community by expanding the Aboriginal health professional workforce through the Centre of Excellence for Aboriginal Health in East Gippsland (CEAHEG).

The Vice Chancellor’s Social Inclusion awards are a unique opportunity to acknowledge contributions by staff, students or other individuals to Monash University’s commitment to an inclusive environment and culture.

The 2014 awards highlighted the depth and breadth of commitment to equity and fairness, and demonstrated the university’s connection to social justice. (more…)

Warragul-based GP registrar, Dr Ei Thu Aung presented the results of the first part of her skin cancer study at the General Practice Education and Training Convention 2014 in Brisbane in September. The presentation was entitled “Skin Cancer follow up in Rural General Practice” which she is completing as part of her academic year.

According to Dr Aung, studies on skin cancer follow-up are primarily conducted by specialists and hospital-based research. However there is limited data available on how rural GPs draw up their protocols or the factors that influence their protocols.

The aim of the research is to establish the rural clinicians’ views and practices regarding skin cancer follow-up in general practice and to look at the challenges in skin cancer follow-up.

The two-part study involves a questionnaire to assess skin cancer follow-up systems, intervals and investigations followed by semi-structured interviews of some GPs around perspectives and influencing factors on follow-up guidelines.

Dr Aung is a GP registrar in Warragul, doing her fellowship under the supervision of Associate Professor David Campbell and Dr Eleanor Mitchell. Dr Aung also teaches in the Year 4C program in South Gippsland.

The School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland has welcomed another PhD graduate.

Elisabeth Jacob recently completed her PhD thesis by partial publication titled “An Exploration of Similarities and Differences in Registered and Enrolled Nurse Pre-registration Education and Role Expectations on Graduation”.

Her thesis contributes to nursing by assisting in understanding the differences between the two levels of nurses currently practising in Australia.

Elisabeth undertook her thesis as a part-time student. She started in 2010, under the supervision of Associate Professor Tony Barnett and Dr Ken Sellick, and finished  under the supervision of Professor Lisa McKenna and Dr Angelo D’Amore.

Nine journal articles form part of the thesis, of which seven are published or in-press and two under review.

Congratulations to Beth on completion of her PhD.

All Monash nursing students who are currently completing their final year of study at Bairnsdale have received graduate nurse placements.

Students have secured positions at Bairnsdale Regional Health Service and Latrobe Regional Health Service.

The School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland congratulates all these students.