Guests at the NAIDOC celebrations

The team at MUDRIH celebrated this year’s National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) with a tasty luncheon, inviting guests from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, staff, industry colleagues, partners and friends.

The group also included representatives from the Gippsland Medicare Local, Latrobe Regional Hospital, Department of Human Services and Latrobe Community Health Service.

Tanisha Smitherson from the Gippsland Medicare Local gave the Acknowledgement and everyone enjoyed the luncheon and company. The group reflected on the state of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing and the individual and combined efforts to create positive outcomes for the local and national Australian Indigenous communities.

East Gippsland Regional Clinical School has hosted an information night for Koori students interested in a career in the health sector.

The evening in early August included a discussion forum on pathways and support for careers in Medicine, Nursing and other Health Professions.

The forum at the School’s Bairnsdale campus was highly successful, with 19 attendees, including community members and representatives from many key organisations. The event opened with a welcome by Uncle Albert Mullett, followed by a presentation by Doris Paton and Debra Blaber. They highlighted findings from their research into identifying ways in which more local Aboriginal people could work in the health sector.

The steering committee and instigators for this research were the East Gippsland School for Aboriginal Health Professionals (EGSAHP), with support from the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School, local secondary colleges, especially the local Koori Engagement Support Officers (KESOs), students and parents. This project evolved from community members recognising a need in the community.

The research was undertaken in East Gippsland, with surveys conducted at Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance Secondary Colleges. Parents and families also contributed by participating in focus groups or interviews, with a total of 98 people taking part.

The research highlighted the need to raise awareness of careers in the health profession, to identify role models for students in the community, to offer work experience at local health services, as well as providing useful and timely information about health courses and university entry requirements.

While it was said that there should be no barriers to Koori students completing school and pursuing further studies, the research showed that lack of transport, peer pressure, teacher attitudes, financial issues, as well as family support and stability, were all issues for students.

This research and the forum provided an opportunity for EGSAHP, the health services, schools, agencies, parents and community to work collaboratively to improve outcomes. The findings will now provide a direction and way forward for EGSAHP.

–       By Eleanor Mitchell, Lecturer, East Gippsland Regional Clinical School and Department of Rural and Indigenous Health, Monash University

Laura Bidstrup is enjoying the upgrades at Yarram made possible through Commonwealth funding.

One of the clinics which supports East Gippsland medical students has had a face lift, thanks to Commonwealth Government Rural Education Infrastructure Development (REID) funding.

The funding has started to make an impact at the Yarram Medical Centre with the recent acquisition of two beds, a high low, desks, computers and some medical equipment.

Laura Bidstrup, who has been placed at the Yarram clinic for the 2013 academic year as part of the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School integrated Year 4C program, is happy to now have a realistic ‘doctor’s office’ in which to hone her skills.

The group of 2013 Mental Health vacation school students and MUDRIH staff.

Eighteen students from four universities took part in the 2013 Gippsland Mental Health Vacation School program.­

Hosted by MUDRIH, the five day program provided students with an insight into living and working in the mental health and alcohol and drug service sectors in Gippsland.

The program topics on Monday and Friday provided students with an overview of the mental health and alcohol and drug service system, an insight into current trends in treatment and support in the two fields and the opportunity to ask a panel of workers from the region about living and working in Gippsland.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were spent traveling and visiting a variety of mental health and alcohol and drug services across the region.

The busy schedule was broken up by some social activities, with the highlight this year a ‘Christmas in July’ dinner at Gippsland TAFE’s Waratah Restaurant.

Coordinated by MUDRIH, the program would not be possible without the support of the mental health and alcohol and drug services providers across the region. This year, 15 organisations from across Gippsland supported the program by providing guest speakers and/or hosting student visits.

As a further innovation, the project team is currently trialling the use of social media to allow students to maintain links to the region following the vacation school.

Facilitated by MUDRIH, students and service providers are invited to a closed group environment in which students are provided with information about placement and employment opportunities in the region, information regarding professional development opportunities and are encouraged to share their achievements.

The team also hopes to trial an ‘on-line’ version of the vacation school in late 2013. For further information contact Keith Sutton.

The Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) was well represented at the 2013 Primary Health Care Research Conference held mid-July in Sydney, with one of the CRE Fellows rewarded for her presentation.

There were eight presentations made by members of the CRE, including School of Rural Health staff members Matthew McGrail, Bernadette Ward, Deb Russell, and Lisa Lavey.  Links to the PHCRIS presentations, webcast and abstracts are now available.

Dr Susan Thomas, a CRE Postdoctoral Fellow from the Alice Springs node was awarded the AJPH Prize for Best Paper/Symposium at the PHC Research Conference, based on the CRE work on ‘Access to core primary health care services in rural and remote Australia.’ Other CRE authors on this paper included Professor John Wakerman and Emeritus Professor John Humphreys.

John and Matthew McGrail have been invited by Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek to join a newly established Rural Classification Technical Working Group to progress one of the key recommendations from the Review of Australian Government Health Workforce Programs (the Mason Review).

The group’s task is to examine a modified rural classification that would overcome anomalies, and to consider the modified Monash University School of Rural Health model as one way forward. The full report can be accessed online.

In other CRE news, a week-long research writing workshop was held in Broken Hill.  Five early care researchers and two CIs from the CRE (John Humphreys and David Lyle) provided one-on-one supervision and mentorship and participated in the important research activity being undertaken by Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health researchers.

The CRE continues to use social media as a means of increasing its profile and has an active twitter page. If you would like to keep up-to-date, please follow the CRE on twitter: @crerrphc

To link it so that it goes to the CRE page, you should link by using: http://twitter.com/CRERRPHC.

Monash Medical students Denise Bullen, left and Amita Roy, right, presented the work books to Latrobe Special Developmental School students Chelsie, Jack in the chair, and Mahalia, along with School Principal Barb Walsh (pictured behind Jack).

A series of specialist work books have expressed a special thank you for the Latrobe Special Developmental School in Traralgon.

The School takes Gippsland Regional Medical School students on community placements, which help the medical students gain a better understanding of the needs of a wide variety of people.

A number of medical students spent a day at the Special Developmental School, including Denise Bullen and Amita Roy. Both were delighted to present the work books to the School and its students to say thanks for their placement opportunity.

“It was just wonderful,” Denise said. “We were able to spend the whole day at the school and get a different perspective on working with many different people. It was an excellent experience.”

Each year there is an opportunity for two Year 4C students from the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School, to undertake an exchange with two students from the University of Otago Rural Medical Immersion Program (RMIP).

Students spend the two weeks alongside the RMIP students and are involved in all aspects of the program, also managing to fit in some sightseeing.

Mary McWatters and Rebecca Craw were the two students from the RMIP program to spend time in East Gippsland as part of the exchange. Their reports are included below.

Medical training in Bairnsdale

Having not been out of New Zealand since I was 12, I was excited about the adventure as one of four lucky RMIP students selected to travel to rural Australia for a two-week exchange.

My first day there was a bit of an intro. The Bairnsdale hospital has four main wards (medical, surgical, rehabilitation and paeds/midwifery) and a bustling ED. The hospital is a GP-run hospital where every patient is under the care of their GP. The GP’s visit the patients daily to organise the plan with the other medical staff.

Junior doctors and senior physicians/surgeons on the wards then carry out the agreed plan and manage anything else that may arise during the day. There is a lot of multidisciplinary support including numerous community-based organisations. Ambulance and air transfers are made for any cases that require ICU-level care to Sale, Traralgon or Melbourne.

There were similarities and differences between their (Australian) course and ours. The main focus of their teaching is clinically based, with whole group tutorials with specialists via video conference once or twice a week.

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Greymouth pier

Greymouth is a town on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, with a population of approximately 13, 300.

Grey Hospital is a 100 bed hospital that provides services such as General Medicine, General Surgery, Orthopaedics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Psychiatry, Paediatrics, Geriatrics and Anaesthetics.

During the two weeks at Grey I was able to attend clinics such as Orthopaedics, Cardiology, General Medicine, Endocrinology and Paediatrics. I spent time on the Medical ward and was able to assist the House Surgeons in many tasks and gain great experience seeing both common and rare conditions.

Although Grey hospital is of comparable size to Central Gippsland Health Service (in Sale, Gippsland), it services a much larger geographic area with a diverse patient demographic.

The exchange program enabled me to appreciate the unique challenges that can affect health care, both from the perspective of comparing the differences in procedures and policies from an international viewpoint, as well as from a rural/metropolitan stance.

Although the hospital has a few resident Consultants, the majority of specialist health care is provided by Liaison Consultants who travel from Christchurch on a regular basis.

Greymouth is a rural town that can be quite isolated when access roads to Christchurch are closed due to snow as they frequently are during winter.

This imposes some interesting challenges regarding transporting critically ill patients to a tertiary care hospital. It was not uncommon for patients to be flown in one of the helicopters or in the fixed wing aircraft, even for semi-urgent investigations such as an MRI.

While on exchange I was fortunate enough to experience some of New Zealand’s breath taking sights. From the Canterbury Snow Fields to the spectacular train ride across the coast-traversing plains, high-country, alpine ranges and rain forests to the Glaciers and beaches of the West Coast.

The experience provided a fantastic and unforgettable learning experience that has greatly added to my professional development and interest in both global and rural health.

–          By  Cassie Coetzee

Mt Hutt

Whale watching at Kaikoura, New Zealand

In July I was fortunate enough to travel to the south island of New Zealand for two weeks in exchange for a student from Otago University’s Rural Medical Immersion Program (RMIP). It was a short but busy trip which I thoroughly enjoyed.

A 3 hour flight from Melbourne to Christchurch was followed by a bumpy 40 minute flight to Blenheim.

There I was met by two RMIP students I would be living with, as well as Dr Buzz Burrell, an iconic rural GP in the South Island who put together my itinerary. We wasted no time, heading straight for the pub and sampling some local kiwi beers which were surprisingly drinkable!

The RMIP is for 5th year medical students and is similar to our year-long placement in East Gippsland. Their time is split between a range of isolated rural GP practises, as well as Paediatrics, Obstetrics, Gynaecology, Emergency medicine and Orthopaedics.

During the first week I learnt a lot about how the New Zealand health system operates, spending two days on orthopaedics and three days in the emergency department. The real advantage of this hospital is that there are only four students and no registrars. This allows the students and residents to gain fantastic experience and teaching from consultants.

On the first night I was told to go to a nearby pub with one of the other students and await a call from Buzz who, in collaboration with the local fire brigade, had orchestrated a simulated car crash scenario where we were to employ first responder emergency medicine.  It was bitterly cold and pitch black, requiring us to triage patients based on severity of injury in difficult conditions. It was an invaluable experience.

The most striking difference that the healthcare system in NZ has compared with ours is the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). This is essentially a no-fault compensation scheme for accident and injury to anybody hurt on New Zealand soil, regardless of the mechanism of injury, excluding natural aging.

I had no choice but to learn how this system worked, as a large proportion of patients presenting to emergency required ACC forms to be filled in (absolutely the student’s job!)

I spent the rest of the week on orthopaedics, great experience as I was the only assistant. This meant I was frequently able to suture, and in one case perform a procedure myself, cutting, popping and draining an elbow cyst, which although disgusting was great fun!

Blenheim residents are very proud of the fact that their town of 30,000 people is the sunniest place in New Zealand. The downside of clear days is clear (and freezing) mornings.

The coldest was minus 3 … cold!

However the upside to ever present sunshine is perfect conditions for wine making. Blenheim is right in the middle of the Marlborough region, which many Australians will have heard about for its famously delicious Sauvignon Blanc.

On the weekend I got my tourist on and went on a winery tour. We visited six in total, the most famous of which was Giesen. It was a great day, and after about 40 samples we were in good spirits to continue the Trans-Tasman cultural experience and watch some AFL.

On the weekend we also visited some surrounding towns. Nelson is a town of 60,000 people about 100ks from Blenheim. It is surrounded by national parks and nice beaches.

Picton is a small town half an hour from Blenheim that offers stunning views of the Marlborough Sounds, an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys at the top of the south island.

Week two was road trip time, heading 130ks south to a beachside town of 3,000 people called Kaikoura. With the ocean on one side of the road and snow capped mountains on the other, it was a highly enjoyable and picturesque drive to work!

In Kaikoura the medical students stay in the house of one of the town GPs. Not sure what to expect, this only heightened the overall experience, with delicious home cooked meals, table tennis games, as well as ocean and mountain views from the kitchen.

The practise is attached to a small 20 bed hospital run by the GPs, all highly skilled  generalists, as the nearest tertiary hospital is more than two hours away.

This, coupled with a volunteer ambulance service, means the GPs are called to many 111 (000) calls, including car crashes, heart attacks, births etc. and as the student you are called as well. I saw some interesting chest pain and seizure presentations throughout the week.

During the days at clinic I saw every second patient by myself, and the GP would then wave consult. It was a very flexible and laid back set up, allowing student consultations to run for as long as required; five minutes in the case of a common cold, up to 40 minutes in one case with an interesting Type 1 diabetic patient.

I saw a number of Maori patients in Kaikoura and was able to learn a bit about their culture as well.

Kaikoura is also a tourist hub, so I took an afternoon off to do a whale watch, which is an industry that helps keep the town going. We saw two sperm whales, a unique and enjoyable experience. There was also a waterfall just out of town with 40-50 baby seals swimming around in the pool of water at the bottom.

I returned to Blenheim and flew home amidst scenic views of snowy mountain ranges and clear blue ocean.

Overall it was a wonderful two weeks, both for my education, being able to learn about another health care system and to gain such hands on experience, and also to have some time to be a tourist.

I’d like to thank the East Gippsland Clinical School for the opportunity, as well as everyone in Blenheim and Kaikoura who made the trip so memorable. The exchange is a fantastic initiative between the two universities and I hope it continues into the future.

–          By Chris Ward

Magnificent New Zealand mountains

Each year there is an opportunity for two Year 4C students from the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School, to undertake an exchange with two students from the University of Otago Rural Medical Immersion Program (RMIP).

Students spend the two weeks alongside the RMIP students and are involved in all aspects of the program, also managing to fit in some sightseeing.

For the two East Gippsland students, Cassie Coetzee and Chris Ward, it was a memorable and packed trip.