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.

Pictured in East Gippsland during the recent visit are, from left and seated, Kristy Allen, Debra Johnston, Fiona Wright and David Campbell, with Jenny Timmis standing

As a follow on from the Gippsland Education Forum held in the Latrobe Valley recently, Fiona Wright, Jenny Timmis and Kristy Allen from Mildura followed the Princes Highway north-east to visit the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School’s Bairnsdale and Sale sites.

While at opposite end of the state, the Mildura and East Gippsland sites have a lot in common and it was great to discuss how each overcomes obstacles such as distance, staffing, tutors, course delivery and IT.

It was a fantastic visit with the sharing of ideas and experience across simulation, academia and administration that will be very useful for all staff and may well be something that the School of Rural Health sites do more regularly.

The visit was so successful that all agreed it should be undertaken twice a year with a reciprocal visit to be scheduled.

The Education Faculty has announced the next round of the learning and teaching travel grants, with the closing date for applications 30 May.

The scheme is designed to assist academic staff to attend and/or present papers at conferences that will develop their educational skills and teaching and learning research activity.

The grants are allocated by the Office of the Deputy Dean (Education) on a competitive basis, with approximately 20 grants scheduled for allocation in this round.

Please note, the completed applications will need to be sent to the new DDE Applications email address.

The guidelines and application form can be accessed on the faculty intranet.

Terry Houge supervising a couple of the community ambulance officers at Cann River

The Mallacoota workshop

A two-day ALS Physical Assessment workshop in Mallacoota in the far east of the state recently provided an excellent training opportunity for community ambulance officers.

Mallacoota is about 235 km east of Bairnsdale (or 520 km east of Melbourne).  Run by Terry Houge, Paramedic Community Support Coordinator with Ambulance Victoria, and assisted by Laurea Atkinson, the SLE Project coordinator, the workshop was attended by 23 Ambulance Community Officers, all volunteers.

It is an exciting development for the SLE project to reach remote parts of the state.

Laurea also visited Cann River, a little closer to home at a mere 165 kms from Bairnsdale, where participants took part in a workshop using the equipment available for off-site training.

Laurea and her mannequins are well sought after throughout East Gippsland for training opportunities and workshop participation which, until now, was very difficult given the distances required.

Highly regarded Gippsland paediatrician Dr Austen Erasmus, who is also Senior Lecturer with the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School Year 4C program, gets a real kick out of teaching junior doctors and students.

Following are his thoughts on the benefits gained by using the simulation facility at the Sale campus.

As part of the Junior Medical Resident Officer (JMRO) Paediatric rural rotation, Loy Perryman and myself have organised a simulation evening during the resident rotation to Sale.  

We specifically present a scenario where the young doctor has to prepare for, then put into action and practically demonstrate how they would go about managing an ill baby or toddler.  

This not only tests the young doctor’s theoretical knowledge but more importantly helps us, in a friendly and non-threatening environment, to constructively give them pointers to improve on their skills. It also helps them to consider very important resuscitative principles that they may not know, possibly may have forgotten or even simply not practiced in a long time.

The Monash Sale Simulation Centre and the equipment available are fantastic and state of the art.  It’s a spacious, well set out lab and conducive to excellence and learning.  

I applaud the staff who work tirelessly behind the scene and give up their own personal time, and accommodate all personnel and students.

The best ‘kick’ I get from this program is that, by teaching junior doctors and imparting knowledge that can be life-saving, they are taught good habits that will stay with them and help them to be safe, capable physicians who are more confident in their abilities.  

If inspired they have the opportunity to come back and practise more intubations, look through equipment, even practise drawing up drugs or “play” with the defibrillator – all under supervision of course!

– Dr Austen Erasmus, Paediatrician, Central Gippsland Health Service, Senior Lecturer, EGRCS Year 4C Program, Sale campus

Dr Austen Erasmus is pictured with an intern during a training session in the simulation lab at Sale.

During March the Gippsland Clinical Placement Network (CPN) provided fully funded workshops in three sites across Gippsland open to any health practitioners who wanted to develop skills as interprofessional facilitators.

The coordinator, Glenda McPherson from the CPN, said she was pleased to offer the workshops at Bairnsdale and Leongatha as well as Morwell, as it provided easier access for rural practitioners who frequently find themselves travelling long distances for any professional development activities.

The workshops were delivered in two sections on each day, starting with a basic interprofessional facilitation segment. Experienced educators were invited to stay for a second ‘train the trainer’ segment.

The workshops are the brainchild of Mollie Burley, senior lecturer at MUDRIH, whose passion is to develop practitioners’ skills to enhance the interprofessional supervision of students and to champion the benefits of collaborative practice for staff to improve patient care.

The workshops were delivered collaboratively by Jane Taylor working with other MUDRIH staff, Michelle Butler, Jenny Moloney and Fiona McCook.

Jane said, “We always walk the walk as well as talk the talk, by having two different disciplines co-presenting. It adds to the richness of the examples as well as modelling collaboration at the same time.

“As a result there are now a number of trained interprofessional facilitators across Gippsland ready and able to deliver this workshop package to more of their own staff to encourage different professions to work more collaboratively.”

For more information contact Jane Taylor: jane.taylor@monash.edu

The website for the School of Rural Health Educational Technology Inservice series has been revamped.

Resources from each of the sessions are uploaded to the school’s website .    

In March, Helen Cronin spoke about refining Google searches, plus creating your own search engines.

The next inservice is scheduled for Wednesday 17 April at 1.00pm via tele- or video-conference. The topic and presenter are to be confirmed.

For further details, or to suggest or offer to present a session, please contact Dr Julie Willems at Julie.Willems@monash.edu.

‘How fair is Medicare?’ will be the item for discussion at the next Journal Club, scheduled for Wednesday 13 March.

All education, clinical, research staff and students are invited to join the discussion on the article ‘How fair is Medicare? The income-related distribution of Medicare benefits with special focus on chronic care items.’

Participants can be assured of a lively discussion on this integral aspect of the Australian health system, particularly primary health care. The article investigates the income-related distribution of Medicare benefits for chronic disease management items.

Facilitator is Deb Russell and it will run from 12 noon to 1pm on Wednesday 13 March.

It is in the Meeting Room 3 (Level 2), School of Rural Health, 26 Mercy St Bendigo or by videoconference (IP 130.194.213.113) or teleconference (9903 5988) from other sites.

Please inform Rachel Tham if you are able to attend.

The next Ed Tech In-service will look at how to tackle the advanced search functions in Google.

When you do a basic search, Google builds on your search history to return information it thinks you want – and hides the rest.

Do you know how to get around those “helpful” search algorithms?

In this session participants will learn how to use a range of advanced web search functions, including creating your own search engine, to find exactly what you want.

When: Wednesday 20 March 2013 1.00 – 2.00 pm

How to join the session: In person at the MUDRIH videoconference room or from a videoconference endpoint:

• inside Monash dial 35929
• outside Monash dial 35929@monash.edu or 130.194.20.3 then enter conference 29
• From a telephone (audio only) dial 03 9903 5929

The following dates are for the rest of the In-service sessions – pop them in your diary now!  The schedule of topics is coming soon.

Wednesday 17 April
Wednesday 15 May
Wednesday 19 June
Wednesday 17 July
Wednesday 21 August
Wednesday 18 September
Wednesday 16 October
Wednesday 20 November

Dr Julie Willems of MUDRIH has been elected Vice President of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA).

ODLAA is a professional association of educators, instructional designers, educational researchers, education consultants and administrators from across Australia and overseas that is dedicated to advancement of research, practice, and support of education across time and space.

See the ODLAA website for more information about the organisation.

Congratulations to Julie!