Congratulations to Professor Debra Nestel, who has been elected to the Board of Simulation Australia.

The School of Rural Health participated in the Gippsland Campus Open Day on Sunday 25 August, which coincided with the University of Ballarat’s Open Day.

From next year the general Gippsland campus will operate as the new Federation University Australia, although the SRH graduate entry program will remain under the Monash University banner.

The Open Day was a success with an estimated 4000 plus people visiting the campus.

Staff from the graduate entry program and the Gippsland Regional Clinical School, as well as a number of Year A students, attended the event.

The number of enquiries about the MBBS course was much smaller than at the Clayton Open Day earlier this month and the Graduate-entry Information Day held in May.

Visitors were keen to ask questions about the arrangements for Year A at the Federation University’s campus and the changing entry requirements into the course.

The Monash University Ultimate Frisbee team, with Martin Chan fourth from right in the back row

One of Gippsland Medical School’s Year A students, Martin Chan, qualified to compete in Monash University’s Ultimate Frisbee team at the recent Southern Uni Games– and came home with a bronze medal.

Ten universities competed at Ballarat and the Monash team, with Martin in the key position of ‘handler,’ managed to beat the University of Tasmania for the bronze.

This was Martin’s first full campaign, having played Ultimate Frisbee sporadically for two years prior to 2013. His role as the ‘handler’ is similar to a quarterback in American football. Handlers are responsible for maintaining possession of the disc, making smart, decisive and accurate passes to find receivers to move the disc and score goals. Games are 80 minutes long and with overtime can run for more than 100 minutes.

The tournament spanned four days and after winning five out of the six pool games, the Monash team came up against University of Melbourne team in the semi-final with Melbourne winning 9-5. Martin’s team beat the University of Tasmania team for the bronze medal.

Martin found the experience amazing and is now trying out for selection in the Monash team for the Australian University Games. He would love to make the squad to play with Australian representatives and the best university players in Australia, and to be on team that takes the ‘Gold’ back to Monash University from the current champions, the University of Melbourne.

Students at the Gippsland Medical School had an opportunity to hear an address by Dr Tim Ross, the AMA Victoria Board Representative.

The Medical School hosted the AMA’s visit recently while the AMA provided lunch for the attendees, something always appreciated by the students.

Dr Ross has worked in general practice for 15 years including outer-urban, urban, rural, and international settings. His clinical work has been supplemented by work at University of Melbourne, AMA and RACGP representation and teaching as a GP supervisor.

Dr Ross has a keen interest in the emerging trends of work-life balance which tied in nicely with the recent Year A theme, seminars on Health Enhancement.

Dr Tim Ross addresses the audience at Gippsland Medical School.

The Gippsland Medical School has now donated 44 laptops to various community agencies throughout Gippsland, including specialist schools Cooinda Hill, Headway, Baringa School and Moe Life Skills.

The laptops were on loan to the 2008 and 2009 cohort of Year A medical students who have since graduated as junior doctors. When the laptops were returned to the school, a decision was made to donate the restored laptops to interested community agencies.

These agencies form an integral part of the Community Based Practice Program where students spend time working with clients and learn about many of the social issues, policies and health interventions occurring in the rural area.

Students work interprofessionally with agency staff, who work hard to ensure that the placements are a beneficial learning experience for them. The school was therefore delighted to be able to assist them with these donations.

The laptops have been greatly appreciated by the agencies and by the clients themselves. Alyson Walsh from Cooinda Hill said: “We are really thrilled with the laptops, they just open up so many doors for the people we support to access information.  We also get a lot out of having the medical students here.”

A personal thank you note was also received from a client at Headway who received a laptop. These laptops have had an interesting journey!

Dr. Marg Simmons presents a laptop to Alyson Walsh of Cooinda Hill

Professor Debra Nestel at a recent international conference

Professor Debra Nestel has been in high demand at international conferences to share her knowledge, especially in use of simulation, in medical training.

In March she was invited to Riyadh by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialities where she gave a key note on Global Perspectives On Postgraduate Medical Education. She also ran a workshop on acquiring clinical competence and was invited to offer ideas in a closing session, Prism into the Future. Simulation was a central theme in each presentation.

In April, Debra delivered a key note at the Evidenz in der Vermittlung praktischer Fertigkeiten XII SkillsLab Symposium in Goettingen. She was invited to speak on realism in healthcare simulation with a focus on theory and also gave a workshop on simulated patient methodology.

Debra will soon deliver a key note address in New York at an international paediatric simulation meeting where she will be sharing lessons learned from the national training programs for simulation educators, The AusSETT and NHET-Sim programs.

Dr Ann Dettrick, author of A History of Medicine in Gippsland

While driving back and forth across Gippsland for the past year or so, Dr Ann Dettrick has found inspiration time and again in the stories of hospitals and of the doctors and nurses who treated the sick in often very difficult conditions.

That inspiration has been given solid form in the publication A History of Medicine in Gippsland. The large and handsome volume is the result not only of the passion of Dr Dettrick, senior research fellow at Gippsland Medical School, but of the assistance of so many former and present doctors and nurses across the region.

From Wonthaggi in Gippsland’s west to Gelantipy in the east they have responded to the call to re-tell their experiences, and the historical societies in 16 towns have played their part in finding a wealth of stories as well as a wonderful fund of photographs.

There are magical stories from the distant and recent past, ranging from 1839 to the modern day.

For example, there is the anaesthetist who remembered Foster’s Dr Fleming continuing to operate on a patient through his own heart attack.

In Buchan in East Gippsland there was a psychiatric case involving guns, with the police who answered the distress call asking the doctor to go in first to sedate the patient. Fortunately for all concerned, nobody was hurt apart from the psyche of the doctor.

Forming a cohesive narrative from an array of historic records, anecdotes and archives and the collective memories of so many doctors and nurses has been the aim of the book.

An attempt has been made to record the mythological elements of the past; doctors and nurses practising alone who became legends in distant geographies, travelling long distances along bush tracks to reach the sick and injured.

Legendary feats were not only to be found in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2007 the bushfires that surrounded Ensay created conditions that also required special feats of courage and trust of legendary proportions.  These collective experiences from every corner of Gippsland will live on in these pages.

The publication preserves the past and brings to life the many people who have served the rural and regional communities of Gippsland with such dedication and skill.

If anyone wishes to purchase this book it is available on line.

Gippsland Medical School has now graduated two cohorts of medical students who have begun their careers as junior doctors. The students were issued a laptop for the duration of their course which they have since returned. So Gippsland Medical School found itself with many surplus laptops.

We decided to donate them to various local community agencies. These agencies also form part of the teaching program known as our Community-Based Practice Program. The program enables students to work with and across rural community agencies to learn more about their local communities and the kinds of services offered and needed in a rural environment. Many of the agencies have expressed an interest in receiving some laptops and we are in the process of organising their distribution on an equitable basis to those agencies.

Trace Morrison crosses the line to finish in under 10 hours.

Saturday  24 March was a big day for two staff based at Gippsland Medical School as they took on one of the toughest athletic events on the calendar.

Professor Debra Nestel and Trace Morrison participated in the longest triathlon event in the world – the Ironman (IM) held in Melbourne.

They work closely so were also pleased to line up together to take on the IM challenge, which includes a 3.8 km swim, 180 km ride and a 42.2 km marathon-length run.

It was Debra’s first and Trace’s second IM. Both felt excited but also anxious. Trace wanted to see if the hours of training would pay off to deliver a faster time than last year while for Debra the challenge was to get through an enormously difficult event.

With strong winds and a big swell on the race morning and with competitor safety in mind, officials shortened the swim to 1.5 km. The ride and run distances remained the same.

Debra and Trace took on the rough waters and completed the swim leg. The strong cross winds for the 180 km bike were tough, physically and mentally, and they were relieved to start their favourite leg, the run.

A race as long as an IM has many high and low points but the achievement of crossing the finish line is unforgettable. Trace improved her time to 9 hours, 45 minutes and 18 seconds. Debra finished hours later but achieved her goal and was greeted with great excitement by family and friends.

The three local students, now doctors, who attended Kurnai College just down the road from Gippsland Medical School, are pictured at the graduation with Mr Geoff Booth (Co-Principal, Kurnai College). They are Dr Danielle Winkelman, Dr Andrew Thomas and Dr Carly Jennings.

The Gippsland Medical School welcomed 82 Year A students last week, the School’s sixth intake.  The first week included a number of highlights as part of the introductory activities.

The new cohort was addressed by Professor Robin Pollard, Vice Chancellor and President, Gippsland Campus; Professor Judi Walker, Head of School of Rural Health; Professor Ben Canny, Deputy Dean, MBBS & Head of Program, Central MBBS; and Professor Shane Bullock, Acting Director Gippsland Medical School.

The winner of the Academic Excellence for he Highest Achiever in Year A 2012 is Jamie Croft.

The presentation was followed by a musical interlude by Associate Professor Brian Chapman.

On the following day, the students attended a team building day run by the Clinical Skills Team involving many hands-on activities, including a simulated bus creash.

Dr David Iser, a well-respected general practitioner from Foster, gave the ‘Inspirational Speakers’ address on Friday, 1 February.