Members of the local Koorie community, ambulance officers and midwives from hospitals across Gippsland (including Sale and Traralgon) attended a two-day workshop in March in obstetrics emergencies within the cultural sensitivity framework.

The Royal Women’s Hospital maternity emergency department in partnership with the Bairnsdale hospital delivered the workshop at the School of Rural Health – East Gippsland education centre in Bairnsdale. Coordinators included a Koorie liaison officer and Koorie  actress who were able to expand on, discuss and clarify the cultural sensitivity relating to maternity emergencies.

Around 40 participants took part in discussion panels on day one covering emergencies for neonates. Day two involved participants in practical skills on intubation for neonates, accessing umbilical veins in neonates and neonate resuscitation.

Library at Central Gippsland Health Service (Sale)

Librarian, Helen Reid, introduces the Sale library which encourages lots of noisy discussion, coffee and pizza.

Through the night, all weekend and of course across each weekday, the lights are on in the library at Central Gippsland Health Service (Sale).

Daytime observations reinforce after-hours access reports of a cross section of disciplines and tiers of students and staff individually and in groups sharing this research and study space.

Library staff encourage food, noise, talk. Group forays for take-away coffee are common as are after-hours deliveries of pizza to the Library door. The water cooler use is a constant. Sustenance is necessary for long day and late night research and study.

Noisy talk is group learning; or communication and teamwork. Quiet study is through ear-plugs and surround sound head-sets.

The food culture and noise enhances sharing across groups and disciplines. Knowledge sharing from group to group (pharmacist to medical student, intern to registrar, home support to nurse, business analyst to allied health practitioner) quickly evolves. Groups meet, mix and move amidst an ethos of knowledge, professional development and ad hoc tutoring. New staff and placement students rapidly become socially engaged and discover collegially the offers of regional learning and living.

Clearly the outcomes are positive. The Sale experience provides opportunity across disciplines to taste the offerings of a regional health service. Many in the mix remain and others consistently return to Sale.

The experience gives method to the full patient care recipe; albeit the occasional spilt coffee or empty pizza boxes.

The second rotation of interns at Bairnsdale Hospital begins in March and as part of their orientation they are must attend an emergency skills workshop. Year 4C and 5D medical students also take advantage of the workshop. Facilitated by local clinicians, workshop stations include asthma, management of an adult trauma, a MET (medical emergency team) call, approach to the unwell child, and basic airway management including LMA (Laryngeal Mask Airway). Interns are required to do at least one rotation in a rural area.

Visitors: left-right - Laura (SRH - East Gippsland), Kerry (Latrobe Community Health Services), Matt and Emma (Department of Health), Tracie (Latrobe Regional Hospital), Mollie (MUDRIH).

The simulation centre at Latrobe Regional hospital played host in late January to staff from the Department of Health Victoria, including two who had only started with the department the previous day.

MUDRIH, SRH – East Gippsland, Latrobe Community Health Services and Latrobe Regional Hospital are partners in the simulation learning environment extension program and met at the Traralgon simulation centre to give the department an update.

The project involves increasing the use of simulation in clinical training for both students and staff across the partner organisations and has also seen the development of equally sophisticated facilities in Bairnsdale. In Traralgon, Latrobe Community Health Services has set up consulting rooms which allow audio and video capture, and replay for participants. Simulated patients also provide cases for students to develop skills in using the interprofessional referral tool and treatment plan.

Enthusiastic: eight Year 3B students have begun their first clinical year at Sale.

Eight enthusiastic Year 3B students have begun their first clinical year at Sale under the guidance of new Year 3B academic coordinator, Alda Dunlop.

The students will spend much of their time at the Central Gippsland Health Service where local clinicians teach on the wards and in the Monash tutorial rooms.

Orientation week included a clinical skills workshop in the simulation suite, pathology tutorial and hospital orientation as ward rounds start in only their second week in Sale.

Alda Dunlop began at Sale mid-2013, taking over from Jennie Casey who is now running the year 4C program in South Gippsland. She brings a wealth of experience to the program and is excited to have her very own cohort of students to guide throughout the year.