Applications opened on 9 April 2015 for the Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme, a joint initiative of Universities Australia and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The former Go8-DAAD scheme has been replaced by this scheme.

This scheme will support exchanges for Australian researchers to spend time at partner institutions in Germany and for collaborating German researchers to spend time at Australian universities. The support of early career researchers and junior scholars is a significant focus of this scheme. The scheme is open to Monash researchers in all academic fields involved in a collaborative project with German research partners.

Grants up to AUD12,500 per project per annum are provided to support Monash researchers travelling to Germany. The German collaborating partner must submit a corresponding application, with the same project title, to the DAAD in Germany by the closing date. The funding available per German application is up to EUR 8,000 per project per year. Grants will cover the costs of economy airfares and living expenses. Projects are funded for one or two years commencing in 2016.

This scheme has been advertised in Research Professional. You can also download an application pack. (You will be asked to log in with your Monash email address and authcate password.)

Applications close on Tuesday 30 June 2015 with the Monash Research Office.

MRO will arrange for the applications to be ranked within each research discipline according to the assessment criteria. If you have any queries please contact Dennis Batson (dennis.batson@monash.edu or 990 51193).

Graduate research student, Kate Templeman has had two papers published this year in the run up to submitting her PhD thesis in the next few months. Kate’s research focuses on complementary medicine under the supervision of Anske Robinson and Lisa McKenna of the School of Nursing and Midwifery.

Templeman, K., Robinson, A., McKenna, L. (2015) Complementary medicine in medicine: Conceptualising terminology among Australian medical students using a constructivist grounded theory approach, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 21: 33-41
doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2015.01.005

Abstract

Terminology around the use of complementary medicines (CM) within medical discourse is ambiguous. Clear collective discourse within the medical context is required. This study reports the findings of a Constructivist Grounded Theory Method study used to explore medical students’ conceptualisation of terminology and associated value components around CMs as evidenced within their discourse community. The results show that terminology surrounding CMs within medicine is politically charged and fraught with value judgements. Terms used to describe CMs were considered, many of which were deemed problematic. Categorisation of specific medicines was also deemed inappropriate in certain contexts. Conceptualisation of CM terminology, categorisation and value implications, discriminated between levels of evidence for CMs and provided insights into the social change of medicine towards emergence of an evidence-based integrative approach. The results show that terminology surrounding CM is a social construct consistent with fluid conceptualisation and operationalisation in different social contexts.

Templeman, K., Robinson, A. McKenna, L., (2015) Student identification of the need for complementary medicine education in Australian medical curricula: A constructivist grounded theory approach. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 23(2): 257-264.
doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2015.02.002

Summary

Objective

Across the Western world, including Australia, growing popularity of complementary medicines (CMs) mandates their implementation into medical education (ME). Medical students in international contexts have expressed a need to learn about CMs. In Australia, little is known about the student-specific need for CM education. The objective of this paper was to assess the self-reported need for CM education among Australian medical students.

Design

Thirty second-year to final-year medical students participated in semi-structured interviews. A constructivist grounded theory methodological approach was used to generate, construct and analyse data.

Setting

Medical school education faculties in Australian universities.

Results

Medical students generally held favourable attitudes toward CMs but had knowledge deficits and did not feel adept at counselling patients about CMs. All students were supportive of CM education in ME, noting its importance in relation to the doctor–patient encounter, specifically with regard to interactions with medical management. As future practitioners, students recognised the need to be able to effectively communicate about CMs and advise patients regarding safe and effective CM use.

Conclusions

Australian medical students expressed interest in, and the need for, CM education in ME regardless of their opinion of it, and were supportive of evidence-based CMs being part of their armamentarium. However, current levels of CM education in medical schools do not adequately enable this. This level of receptivity suggests the need for CM education with firm recommendations and competencies to assist CM education development required. Identifying this need may help medical educators to respond more effectively.

Dr Matthew McGrail (left) from the Centre for Research Excellence with Professor Wei Luo and Professor Jim Wilson outside the Department of Geography building, Northern Illinois University.

Dr Matthew McGrail was awarded the 2014 APHCRI Robert Graham Center Visiting Fellowship in September for his project ‘Rural PHC access measures: Applicability to workforce planning and policies’.

Matthew’s Fellowship allowed him with to travel to the Robert Graham Centre based in Washington DC for five weeks from 20 October. He spent time meeting with staff, sharing his expertise on access measurement and its application to health services planning and policy, comparing methodologies and data availability, and exploring new research learnings. Notably, this research is exploring the wider application of Matthew’s Index of Access in other settings.

Matthew also visited the Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the Department of Geography at the Northern Illinois University, DeKalb where he presented a seminar entitled “GIS and rural health policy development: Lessons from Australia”.

He also attended the North American Primary Care Research Group Conference held in New York.

Warragul-based GP registrar, Dr Ei Thu Aung presented the results of the first part of her skin cancer study at the General Practice Education and Training Convention 2014 in Brisbane in September. The presentation was entitled “Skin Cancer follow up in Rural General Practice” which she is completing as part of her academic year.

According to Dr Aung, studies on skin cancer follow-up are primarily conducted by specialists and hospital-based research. However there is limited data available on how rural GPs draw up their protocols or the factors that influence their protocols.

The aim of the research is to establish the rural clinicians’ views and practices regarding skin cancer follow-up in general practice and to look at the challenges in skin cancer follow-up.

The two-part study involves a questionnaire to assess skin cancer follow-up systems, intervals and investigations followed by semi-structured interviews of some GPs around perspectives and influencing factors on follow-up guidelines.

Dr Aung is a GP registrar in Warragul, doing her fellowship under the supervision of Associate Professor David Campbell and Dr Eleanor Mitchell. Dr Aung also teaches in the Year 4C program in South Gippsland.

Matthew McGrail’s research on the development of a new national-scale measure of primary health care access was presented as a finished product (in terms of its development) for the first time in a public forum at the 2014 Primary Health Care Research Conference in Canberra.

His conference presentation was titled “A new Index of Access and the Monash Model: two ‘fit-for-purpose’ measures for rural workforce planning and resource allocation”. The concurrent session presented a significant body of research in rural and remote PHC, with three out of the four presenters supported by the CRE.

“I have recently submitted my main paper on the Index of Access to a leading international journal, where it is currently under peer-review. In addition, a related discussion paper is currently being finalised for publication as a small book,“ he said.

“The Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care was extremely well represented at the conference. I have now participated and presented key findings in each of the last four years of this conference.”

The PHCRIS conference, which returned to Canberra this year, is a key annual event for Primary Health Care research.

Matthew is currently in Washington DC for five weeks as a visiting scholar in the Robert Graham Centre for Policy Studies in Family Practice and Primary Care. “During this time, I will be exploring opportunities to continue and further my research relating to the Index of Access. Additionally, my visit in the USA will conclude at the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) conference in New York.”

Dr Deb Russell at her graduation.

Deb Russell from the Centre for Research Excellence  at SRH Bendigo has passed her PhD without amendment. Deb’s thesis, “The patterns, determinants and measurement of rural and remote primary health care workforce turnover and retention” was supported by the Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care (CRERRPHC) and was supervised by Emeritus Professor John Humphreys and Dr Matthew McGrail.

This work has provided important new empirical evidence to guide rural health workforce retention policies. Links to the publications related to her PhD are available on the CRERRPHC website.

Deb is the first of the CRE’s four PhD students to graduate and will receive her testamur at a graduation ceremony in December at the Clayton campus.

Everyone at Bendigo congratulated Deb on a brilliant effort at a morning tea in late October.

A forum to provide information and direction on topics that may help develop and shape your career will be held at MUDRIH in Moe on Wednesday 26 November 2014.

The Early Career Research Forum is open to any School of Rural Health staff interested.

Guest speakers will provide expert direction on the topics for discussion:

• translating research into practice
• highlighting your research in the media

The forum runs from 9.30 am to noon, with lunch to follow.

You can attend by video- or teleconference, or in person. RSVP to Janelle McGrail by Monday 10 November on 5128 1016 or email: janelle.mcgrail@monash.edu.

September’s Journal Club will look at a mixed methods study of the impacts of bushfires on mental health and social connectedness. PhD candidate, Rouve Jan Forbes, will facilitate the session.

When: Wednesday 17 September 12.00 noon to 1.00 pm
Article: Gibbs et al, Beyond Bushfires: Community, Resilience and Recovery – a longitudinal mixed method study of the medium to long term impacts of bushfires on mental health and social connectedness, BMC Public Health 2013 13:1036

Download  the article from BioMed Central.

How to join the session

This month’s Journal Club will use Zoom which allows you to join from a desktop or laptop computer, tablet, smartphone, destop phone or videoconference facility. No matter where you are, if you’re near just about any kind of communications device you can join the session.

Keep an eye out for a follow-up email with details you need to join the session. In the meantime, see how to join a Zoom meeting and download the application to your device.

Retention of NSW rural and remote GPs differs markedly according to both geographical remoteness and community population size, as well as according to a range of other factors including Visiting Medical Officer status, procedural activities, country of primary medical degree, conditional registration and coastal location.

These are some of the finding presented by Dr Deb Russell School of Rural Health Research from her research on the retention of rural and remote NSW general practitioners at the Primary Health Care Research conference in Canberra in July.

The conference theme was: Integrating knowledge exchange to improve primary health care outcomes. Deb’s presentation related to recently published research undertaken by herself, and John Humphreys and Matthew McGrail, at SRH and the Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care, as well as with key stakeholders from the NSW Rural Doctors Network. The research presented forms part of Deb’s PhD and fits closely with one of SRH’s strategic research direction themes: health services and workforce. Presenting this work strengthens the national profile of the School of Rural Health, according to Deb. (more…)

Professor Mike Jones from Macquarie University has been visiting the School of Rural Health throughout 2014, with two more visits scheduled in the first weeks of September and December.

Mike has been working with research academics across the school to assist with planning research activities and projects as well as supporting the establishment of collaborative teams. See Mike’s interview about his research work “Missionaries, Mavericks and Madmen”.

Please contact Cathy Ward for more information on these visits.