East Gippsland’s Eleanor Mitchell and Angelo D’Amore are taking part in the Scientists in School program and have recently begun a partnership with Tambo Upper Primary School in East Gippsland.

Scientists in Schools is a national program run under the auspices of the CSIRO that creates and supports long-term partnerships between teachers and scientists.

Eleanor and Angelo had their first session with the Year 5/6 composite class in May, looking at Acids and Bases.  The students were taught the basics about pH and how to go about doing an experiment.  They were able to test the pH of different substances using litmus paper and red cabbage juice and also the pH of lemon juice, detergent, river water and the soil in the school’s vegetable garden. (more…)

Onscreen: the new Advanced ALS Simulator can simulate real life scenarios in a safe, lab environment

Five East Gippsland Regional Clinical School staff recently had a hands-on, one day course on operation of the newly installed Advanced ALS Simulator. The day covered instruction on the use of the simulator’s software, in addition to planning and programing scenarios.

The Advanced ALS Simulator will allow the clinical school to perform preprogramed specific scenarios and enables the educator to run a scenario in real time while controlling the ALS mannequin’s reactions. It will also allow the instructor to manipulate the responses according to the desired learning outcomes and include the ability to record events (both positive and negative), track trends and record for debriefing purposes.

The program and equipment will help simulate real life scenarios in a safe environment for all medical students and other health professionals who use the East Gippsland simulation suite. It is hoped that this equipment will help teach students such skills as recognising the deteriorating patient and be used as a tool for real time debriefing and feedback.

– Loy Perryman
Academic coordinator/Clinical Educator, EGRCS Sale campus

East Gippsland Regional Clinical School, in partnership with Bairnsdale Regional Health Service (BRHS) and Gippsland Region Rural Maternity Support Program, recently held an Obstetric Emergency Workshop for medical students and midwifery staff at the School’s Bairnsdale Campus.

Obstetric emergencies are topics/procedures that are embedded into the Year 4C medical curriculum, while midwifery staff are required to practice clinical knowledge and skills annually to maintain competencies.

The workshop participants included 10 Year 4C medical students and seven midwifery staff from BRHS. Tutors were BRHS midwifery educator Ms Lynne Hammond, Midwife Ms Angela Kellock, Clinical Midwife Consultant, Ms Kylie Osborne and General Practitioner Dr Elizabeth Boyd. (more…)

Year 3 Monash medical student, William Goss, with support from his peers, has taken up the challenge of establishing a program that encourages a better relationship between medical students and the health service in their home town or region. The idea is to create a relationship that encourages students to return to their home area once they have graduated.

William, who is from Sale in East Gippsland, explains in the following item how the Local Rural Medical Students (LRMS) concept works.

Year 3 student, William Goss, has set up a support network to link rural students with health services in their home regions.

The aim of the LRMS project is to develop a relationship between local medical students and their hometown health service and medical staff. We hope that by forging such relationships, there may be an increased incentive for the students to return at completion of their degree.

The LRMS program should give the students access to local medical library, postgraduate educational activities, and local clinical placements throughout their time at university. It fosters a collegiate relationship between local medical students at various year levels who may act as mentors and provide peer support. (more…)

A group of people with intellectual disabilities played a big role in educating Gippsland-based medical students at a special forum in April.

Students, education leaders and clinical educators travelled to Monash University’s Gippsland Campus for the group workshop. Medical students from East Gippsland Regional Clinical School sites in Sale and Bairnsdale, along with Gippsland Regional Clinical School students from the Latrobe Valley, South Gippsland and West Gippsland took part in the joint education session with eight people from Cooinda Hill Adult Training Support Service, a day service for adults with a disability.

The group of people from the Cooinda Hill Adult Training Support Service who helped out at a Gippsland-wide education day.

The Cooinda Hill participants became the ‘tutors’ for the day in an exercise that helped the medical students learn about communication.  (more…)

Staff and students at the Bairnsdale campus of the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School have moved into new accommodation.

The $1.5 million extension was funded by the Victorian Department of Health and includes a student common room, two more tutorial rooms, eight new offices, reception area, hot desks and office space and reception room for the East Gippsland School for Aboriginal Health Professionals.

The building will be opened officially in August.

The entrance to Bairnsdale campus's new home.

The East Gippsland Regional Clinical School is expanding its accommodation and its programs it reports in its summer 2011/2102 newsletter. Extensions to the Bairnsdale campus, expected to be completed in April 2012, will provide facilities for a larger cohort of nursing degree students. Years 2 and 3 of the Division 1 nursing program will be delivered from East Gippsland RCS. The clinical school also hosts medical  students from both Gippsland Medical School and Monash’s central program in Clayton.  The East Gippsland summer 2011/2012 newsletter also reports on the research and educational programs, and Ruth Briggs remembers the challenges and excitement of her Year 4C rural placement.

MBBS and nursing students who spent 2011 with the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School