We farewell Loy Perryman who commenced with the SRH as a sessional in 2007 then to the Y4C Academic Coordinator for Year 4C at Sale in 2010. Loy will commence Long Service Leave on May 18th, and has tendered her resignation for the end of her leave to join her fiancé and daughter in Canberra. We would like to thank Loy for her input over the last eight years and wish her all the best for the future.

Alda Dunlop Year and 3B Academic Coordinator has tendered her resignation as at 30th June 2015 to spend more time with her family, and again we wish Alda all the best.

We welcome Karen Cox who has joined the administration team as a casual. Karen is based at the Bairnsdale site, and brings with her a wealth of administration and management skills from the finance and media industries. Karen can be contacted karen.cox@monash.edu or phone  03 5150 3613.

Fundraising fun run: Bendigo staff and family took part in the annual Run for Health fun run in November. L-R: Cathy Ward, Sonya Steve, Sarah Moon, Michelle Moon, Donna-Lee Stanes, Melissa McNicol, Gillian Fallon, Colin Fallon.

Eight Bendigo staff and family tied on their running shoes to tackle the annual Bendigo Bank Run for Health fun run at the beginning of November.

A field of 3,300 runners and walkers tackled the 5 or 10 km circuit around the centre of Bendigo and raised $133,000 for the Bendigo Health Renal Unit.

Melissa McNicol led the troops when she ran the circuit with the rest of the team following at cracking walking pace.

Bendigo's farewell to Peter Disler

We wished Peter Disler a fond adieu on Wednesday 26^th November with good food, many stories and a cake made to suit. Peter began with the Bendigo Regional Clinical School in 2005 and was Head of School after Gordon Whyte in 2006 until Geoff Solarsh took on the role. The many speeches on the night told similar stories of Peter’s enthusiasm and exuberance about teaching, music, literature and family. Particularly moving was daughter Jess’s heartfelt words about her dad.

Peter’s teaching style has been tremendously popular with students. His connection with his patients role-modelled excellent doctor-patient relations, and is sure to be remembered by students. His work in Monash’s Year 5 MBBS – as academic head (well managed by Kay Togno and then Sonya Steve) – helped to develop a clinical educator network focused on these senior students.

We will still see Peter as he continues a teaching role at Monash, but hope that he is also suitably occupied doing all those things he is yet to do!

Dr Susan Waller has joined the team at Monash University Department of Rural and Indigenous Health in Moe as a Senior Lecturer in Interprofessional Education.

Susan is responsible for interprofessional collaboration leadership through coordinating the development, delivery and evaluation of interprofessional education and practice programs across the School of Rural Health and Gippsland health services.

As a paediatric physiotherapist, Susan has practised for many years in various allied health services across the hospital and community sectors, both in Australia and in the Middle East. She experienced firsthand the importance of interprofessional education and collaborative practice to meet service user goals.

Susan studied the impact of an interprofessional student placement in community rehabilitation teams and was awarded a PhD in Interprofessional Education from the University of Queensland in 2010.

She was part of a team that developed an interprofessional curriculum in the first clinical school located in a large private hospital in Brisbane and has run training workshops in practising interprofessionally.

The School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland has welcomed another PhD graduate.

Elisabeth Jacob recently completed her PhD thesis by partial publication titled “An Exploration of Similarities and Differences in Registered and Enrolled Nurse Pre-registration Education and Role Expectations on Graduation”.

Her thesis contributes to nursing by assisting in understanding the differences between the two levels of nurses currently practising in Australia.

Elisabeth undertook her thesis as a part-time student. She started in 2010, under the supervision of Associate Professor Tony Barnett and Dr Ken Sellick, and finished  under the supervision of Professor Lisa McKenna and Dr Angelo D’Amore.

Nine journal articles form part of the thesis, of which seven are published or in-press and two under review.

Congratulations to Beth on completion of her PhD.

Ban naked tea pots: quirky tea cosies were among many items on display at Bendigo's Off Ramp Creations exhibition.

Funds raised through an exhibition of the creative output of Bendigo-based staff will benefit a local primary school with a mult-cultural program.

The Off Ramp Creations exhibition demonstrated that staff do have a life outside work. The exhibition included photography, painting, poetry, woodwork, embroidery, patchwork and knitting. One staff member even launched a crusade to ensure no teapot goes un-cosied, contributing some delightful examples of tea-cosy art.

Curated for the second year by Dr Natalie Radomski, the exhibition ran for 10 days and was open to visitors and staff for a gold coin donation.

Creative: Bendigo-based staff revealed hidden talents.

Graduates: Kendall Livingstone, Judi Lawless, Tracey Minster and Jo Kingsley successfully completed their accounting studies.

A number of dedicated School of Rural Health personnel recently celebrated an impressive professional development achievement.

Kendall Livingstone from SRH Mildura, along with Tracey Minster,  Judi Lawless and Jo Kingsley all based in Gippsland, completed their Certificate IV of Accounting and Diploma of Accounting.

The women celebrated with their classmates at a graduation ceremony and afternoon tea on 10 September at Monash University’s Caulfield campus.

All four had attended 12 workshops and finished 12 intensive assignments as well as four Recognised Prior Learning (RPL) modules while juggling busy work and home lives.

Congratulations also to Michelle Ryan who completed her Certificate IV in Bookkeeping.

The women chose to undertake this study to build on their existing skills and knowledge of finance and accounting. Their enhanced expertise in all facets of financial reporting, budgeting and the legal context of accounting is expected to deliver genuine benefits to SRH.

Professor Debra Nestel's work in the use of simulation in healthcare education has been recognised by the presitgious Ray Page Lifetime Simulation Achievement Award.

Professor Debra Nestal received the Ray Page Lifetime Simulation Achievement Award at the SimHealth conference in late August. The award recognises an outstanding contribution to the development of modelling and simulation in science, technology, policy or industry in Australia. It is only presented if a candidate who meets the criteria is nominated.

As Professsor of Simulation Education in Healthcare for the School of Rural Health, her research interests include the role of simulation in supporting learning, particularly in procedural and operative skills.

Debra pioneered the concept of patient-focused simulation (PFS) with her colleague Roger Kneebone. In PFS, a simulated patient and simulator model (urinary catheterization, suture pad etc) are ‘combined’ in a simulated environment in order to provide a learner-centred experience. The approach has been adopted internationally for teaching, learning and assessing procedural skills in undergraduate medical education.

The Simulation Achievement Award is recognition of her significant contribution to the use of simulation in healthcare education.

Best wishes: Julie admires her farwell cake.

Colleagues at MUDRIH sadly said goodbye to Julie Irvine who starts a 12 month secondment to SRH Latrobe Valley & West Gippsland on 1 September.

Julie is filling in for Michelle Ryan while she is on maternity leave and will be greatly missed at MUDRIH. Staff wished both Julie and Michelle well.

Bon voyage: Mollie opens her farewell gift

Staff from the Monash Department of Rural and Indigenous Health and the Latrobe Community Health Service farewelled long-time colleague Mollie Burley.

Mollie, who decided to retire at the end of July,  was farewelled on several fronts. Firstly, at a MUDRIH morning tea, Associate Professor Darryl Maybery paid tribute to her significant contribution going back 22 years at Monash. He noted that Mollie had always been a strong voice for nursing and allied health in SRH.

Mollie started work with the School of Rural Health (then Centre for Rural Health) based in Moe. She began as a lecturer, working on a Gippsland health promotion project being undertaken at that time. (more…)