Marita Chisholm

Marita Chisholm has had a busy month, in an academic and sporting sense.

She presented her PhD topic, ‘Access to dementia care and support services in rural Victorian communities’ before colleagues and a panel to successfully gain her confirmation of candidature.

At around the same time she was busy preparing for and taking part in the annual 8km swim, the Cohuna Bridge to Bridge race, along the town’s Gunbower Creek.

Marita swam into second place, continuing her impressive record in the event.

She has swum the 1.5km race three times and the 8km race twice, earning a top three placing in every race.

The event is held amongst the picturesque surrounds of Cohuna, Gunbower Island State Forest and the Gunbower Creek making it a great family day. There are a range of events for adults and juniors and all money raised is donated to the Cohuna District Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Bendigo Zonta celebrated International Women’s Day with a dinner addressed by key note speaker Dr Louise Mahler, founder of Vocal Intelligence.  Zonta is a global service organisation of executives and professional women working together to advance the status of women through service and advocacy.

Ten staff members from the School of Rural Health enjoyed an evening of good food and laughter.  At the Bendigo dinner, the participants were taken through exercises in breathing and big gestures to achieve ‘the wisdom of voice.’ In order to understand how to make the mind, body and voice work together, there were tips for what to do with your hands and how to use your voice when speaking in public.

Dr Mahler told the group that ‘vocal Intelligence is a means of getting in touch with coherence of voice, words, emotions, relationships and context.’

Her background is in economics, business and Opera singing, and she sees the ‘voice as a much richer and more complex creative tool for effective personal and professional development.’

The School of Rural Health group agreed that Dr Mahler was one of the most entertaining and informative speakers that it had the privilege to hear, and highly recommend attending one of her sessions if anyone gets the opportunity.

The group also thanked the volunteers from Bendigo Zonta for organising the event for International Women’s Day.

Bendigo Professional staff enjoyed the dinner, as the photo shows. In the front row from left are Cheryl Sutherland, Lyndsey Brown, Sonya Steve, Cathy Wheel and Sandra Paschkow, while in the back row are Gillian Fallon, ZONTA District 23 Governor Ann Horrocks, Bendigo ZONTA President Rosalie Lake, Michelle Moon, Terri Galea and Melissa McNicol. Bendigo Regional Clinical School Regional Manager Kerrie Thomsen took the photo.

Jannelle McGrail

Your name and position

Janelle McGrail – Research Administration Assistant.

Describe your job/role

Research Support and Publications Coordinator for the South East Region. This includes updating staff profiles on ROPES.

Why is it important?

It is important to make sure that staff have up to date publications records and have current profiles.

What is the best aspect of your work with the School of Rural Health?

I enjoy working with different kinds of people .

When you are not at work, what do you enjoy doing?

I enjoy catching up with friends.

What was your most recent holiday destination and why did you choose it?

We had a family holiday at Queenscliff as it was close to the beach.

If you were Emperor for a day, what is one thing you would implement?

Kid free holiday.

Surprise us! What is something about you that most of your peers would not know?

I am a one eyed Geelong Cats supporter.

Clare and Hilton are pictured cutting their cake.

Festivities were held at MUDRIH recently for a 90^th birthday – combined birthday, that is.

With two staff members celebrating milestone birthdays – Hilton Gruis turned 50 and Clare van den Dolder turned 40 – other staff decided it was a great excuse for a light-hearted catch-up over a sinful chocolate mud cake.

After the combined 90^th morning tea, all are looking forward to their 100^th!

Your name and position

Ann Allenby, Research Fellow, School of Rural Health, half time.

Describe your job/role

Undertaking rural health research project, particularly the Heart of the country project which is examining how well rural primary care services are managing cardiovascular risk factors and disease.  We aim to come up with some policy directions as a result of the project.  I am also developing a project on grey nomad health, looking at the health profile, literacy, travel preparedness and use of services by nomads and the impact that grey nomads place on rural and remote health services.  Similarly we hope the outcomes to be policy directions that will assist nomads plan better, insurers to provide incentives and health services to more effectively undertake surge capacity planning. (more…)

Gippsland Regional Clinical School will have new Year 2B coordinators this year, with both Nadine Pollerd and Kerry Sibson moving on from the role.

Nadine has relocated to Melbourne and Kerry had an addition to her family last year, daughter Ella Jane, so both opted to finish their roles at the end of 2012.

The positions are about to be advertised for 2013.

Plenty of rest was required for the ankles, although Kendall managed to keep smiling even in hospital.

Regional Office Manager at Mildura Regional Clinical School, Kendall Livingstone, really jumped in the year with a bang, albeit with an unpleasant consequence – one broken ankle and the other badly sprained.

A trip to Mildura Base Hospital tested the preparedness of the local health services.

Kendall was not partying hard to celebrate the New Year, but rather visiting a neighbour and took a tumble down their balcony stairs.

The injury fortunately did not require surgery, although a plate or two had been suggested early in the piece.

After a week of rest in which the family stepped up on the home front and Kendall soldiered on doing what she could via iPad / email, she is back to hobbling around the office for a few hours each day.

For nearly four gruelling weeks, eight of MUDRIH’s hardiest (known collectively as “Rural Health Rocks”) marched, strolled, danced, staggered, limped and crawled their way from Cape Otway  in Victoria to Lake Macquarie in New South Wales (at least virtually) a distance of 1664km or more than two million steps. The team managed to register a very creditable 9^th placing among the 25 Monash Gippsland teams competing. (more…)

Deb Johnston from East Gippsland Regional Clinical School has recently returned from the trip of a lifetime. The main reason was to attend a birthday party, but there were many highlights on the way to and from the party. This is Deb’s story.

The spectacular Bogong High Plains in the Gippsland High Country was one of Deb’s favourite spots.

We left Bairnsdale on 18 October, destination Townsville by 9 November, with plans to return to work on 21 November.

Was this a carefully planned timetable to miss OSCE’s and exams and then return in time for student farewells? Many of my colleagues thought so, however, my (very good) excuse was that it was my son’s 21^st, and he’s in Townsville studying medicine with the opposition!

My husband and I had no set plans, just hook up the camper trailer and go, and we decided to head up via the coast and return inland. Weather wise we had one wet day in five weeks. Hottest temperature was St George, 41c at 9am. Coldest was Goulburn at just 4c at 5.30am.

The scenery, the animals, and the lifestyle were all fantastic. If it could be looked at we did so, and if it wasn’t on the tourist trail we went there. We relied on information from fellow campers for the great places to visit. Lovely beaches were Lennox Heads, Yamba, Seaforth, Hillsborough National Park, Dingo Beach, Hydeaway Bay, Alva Beach and Picnic Bay on Magnetic Island.

Inland my favourites were Carnarvon Gorge, Lightning Ridge, Parkes, Dubbo Zoo and Bogong High Plains in the Gippsland High Country, which goes to show that some of the prettiest places are in your own backyard.

All I can say now is bring on retirement! There is so much to see and do that we need to be out there seeing and doing it now!

By Deb Johnston

The ‘girls night in’ event run by Gippsland Regional Clinical School’s Senior Clinical Educator Meagan Presley last month was a huge success, raising more than $3,700.00. “Guests opened their purses and with their generosity of buying auction items we raised a total of $3717.60, which was a whole lot more than the $600 I had put on my form as my goal for the night!” Megan said. (more…)