Close to life: Year 5 student, Kavya Kudithipudi , demonstrates how real the sim manikins can be for local media

Member for Mallee, Andrew Broad MP, officially opened Mildura’s extension to its clinical simulation laboratory on Thursday 20 February.

Guests at the opening included included Mildura’s Mayor, Glen Milne, and Chairman of the Mallee Health Foundation, Ross Lanyon. The foundation donated $140,000 towards the purchase of teaching aids for the facility.

Those facilities now include a simulation family: SimMan 3G, SimMom, SimBaby and SimNeonate. Student volunteers proudly demonstrated just what the manikins can do. Simulated symptoms, they showed, are very life-like!

Year 3 students based in Mildura began the year with a trip to Broken Hill to see firsthand what it’s like living, working and practising in remote areas. This is Dustin Lê’s report.

Down the mine: students learned about health (and injuries) in mining during a vist to the Day Dream Mine in Broken Hill. L-R: Tom deVries, Tom Curtis, Eve Malsen, Emma Sanderson, Katrina Fernandez, Hannah Karl, Sarah Wong, Peter Stark, Michelle Seckington, Dustin Lé, Alex Rofe, Hashm Albarki

It was only our second week in Mildura and Mildura’s Year 3B students were off to another state. I guess it’s quite easy to travel interstate when you live on the border! Early on a Tuesday morning, Year 3B along with Kate Murdoch, Jenny Timmis and Howard Cook we departed Mildura in our exclusive private bus to Broken Hill, NSW. The wildlife was prolific, with emus and kangaroos bounding across the road.

By the time we arrived in Broken Hill and stepped off the bus, we were hit by a tremendous 45 degree heat wave !

Our first stop in this hot remote town was to the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS). Through exploring the museum, we were educated about how this invaluable service provides patrons with what is their only source of healthcare over an extensive area, almost the size of the USA ! More incredible is that the flight crew only consists of the pilot, doctor and sometimes a nurse – a stark contrast to the hospital setting where a multitude of health professionals are always on hand to help with any condition. Read the rest of this entry »

Quite a ride: some of the Gippsland Regional Interprofessional Partnership in Simulation (GRIPS) team farewell Jane. L-R Katie Yeomans, Mollie Burley, Sue Townsend, Kerry Bell, Jane Taylor, Kaytlyn Eaton.

MUDRIH staff farewelled Jane Taylor at a morning tea in February. Jane has been an Education Lecturer with MUDRIH since 2006 when she first combined private practice as a speech pathologist with part-time lecturing.

She said that she has had “quite a ride” as an academic with Monash and it had been exciting to be part of the development of interprofessional practice in community health in Gippsland. She added that one outstanding honour was the acceptance accorded her at Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation.

“Every one of my colleagues have inspired me along the way, and I have never felt alone,” she said. She was “overwhelmed with all the warm wishes” and promised to keep in touch.

In her retirement, Jane and her husband intend doing some extensive travels in their motor home.

The research team from Bendigo presented flowers to Elmore Primary Health Services practice manager, Kathy Tuohey, to congratulate her on her award win.

Elmore Primary Health Service practice manager, Kathy Tuohey has been awarded best practice manager at the 2013 Victorian Rural Health Awards. The Elmore practice has been a partner with the School of Rural Health for many years in a longitudinal study of their service delivery model.

Kathy Tuohey has worked with Dr Adele Asaid since Elmore Primary Health Service was established 15 years ago. At the time she managed just the one practice in Elmore. Now Elmore Primary Health Services extends across four centres in Elmore, Rochester, Heathcote and Strathfieldsaye and employs 30 doctors.

Magical: Amazing Nigel entertained guests with magic tricks during the evening

Staff and community members officially welcomed medical students to the north-west over dinner at Silks Restaurant, Bendigo Jockey Club, on Thursday 13 February.

The Dja Dja Wurrung opened the evening with a warm Welcome to Country delivered by Harley Dunolly-Lee and smoking ceremony conducted by Trent Nelson as guests mingled on the lawns. Bendigo’s Director, Professor Geoff Solarsh, introduced students to the NVRMEN program and together with the year academic leads (Associate Professor Chris Holmes and Dr Leslie Fisher) welcomed the students to the new year ahead.

As is now traditional, Dr Damien Cleeve and Dr John Gault combined to introduce and present the John Gault Award for 2013 which went to Christopher Pring. Professor Solarsh presented the Shaker Issa Award for 2013 to Jarrel Seah. University of Melbourne Director Professor Julian Wright presented an Excellence in Teaching Awards to Dr Manny Cao and Dr John Edington on behalf of the Melbourne students. Congratulations go to all the recipients of these awards.

During the evening, guests were entertained by Amazing Nigel, a showcase magician, who wandered around the tables doing some remarkable tricks. He was well received by guests, but it must be said though that some guests were slightly unnerved by the magic of it all.

Dr Penny Buykx attended the 8th Health Services and Policy Research Conference, 2-4 December 2013, Wellington NZ and presented a paper.

Conference report

The conference was an exceptionally valuable networking opportunity. I have track record in the area of medication overdose and for some time have been developing a project concept involving the use of ambulance data to examine ambulance attendances at both overdose and other mental health events. I met with the research manager from Ambulance Victoria (who is responsible for negotiating research partnerships) and other paramedics and received considerable encouragement to pursue this idea.

The conference also provided useful networking in another area of interest: I have recently completed a working paper on spatial accessibility to alcohol and drug services in rural and remote Australia. I not only met the authors of some of the articles included in my review, but was able to discuss with them in greater depth the analysis methods used. These conversations have significantly informed my thinking on this topic and will make a useful contribution to a peer-review paper I am now preparing as part of the CRE work plan. Read the rest of this entry »

Professor Geoff Solarsh and Dr Natalie Radomski attended the Consortium for Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships (CLIC), International Conference, Big Sky Montana 29 September – 2 October, 2013. Geoff gives his impressions of the conference and an outline of his PeArLS session.

Conference report

Given our interest and involvement in longitudinal models for community-based health professions education, the annual CLIC conference was a particularly relevant forum to present and compare our educational programs and research interests with international peers. Since 2007, when David Hirsh’s paper on ‘Continuity in Medical Education’ appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, many medical schools have latched onto this idea as a theoretical framework to reconceptualise existing education programs or to design new ones.

This plethora was on full display at the opening poster session at which longitudinal models of different length, involving a wide range of disciplines and based in varied geographical and health care settings were presented. It soon emerged that many of these short and long programs were based on quite different interpretations of ‘continuity’ and what passed for longitudinal educational models. While there was richness in this diversity, there was also a palpable level of ‘dis-ease’ for some participants interested in channelling this work into international comparisons based on shared definitions and pooled educational outcome measures.

I attended all the plenaries and many of the PeArLS sessions. Some of the highlights were: Read the rest of this entry »

Dr Natalie Radomski and Professor Geoff Solarsh attended the Consortium for Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships (CLIC), International Conference, Big Sky Montana 29 September – 2 October, 2013. Natalie gives her impressions and an outline of her oral presentation.

Conference report

The theme of the CLIC conference was exploring ideas in medical education as they relate to longitudinal integrated clinical clerkship (LIC) programs. Approximately 190 delegates attended.

There is noticeable shift in emphasis from descriptive or exploratory research about LIC programs to a deeper level of research. Many research presentations aimed to compare educational outcomes achieved in LIC placements with mainstream ‘block style’ placements in hospital settings. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr Matthew McGrail attended (and presented a paper on the Index of Access at) the 8^th Health Services and Policy Research Conference, 2-4 December 2013, Wellington NZ

Conference report

This was the first time that I had attended the conference of the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand. In the past I was somewhat apprehensive of this conference as it had a strong reputation of being dominated by health economics. While I did find there was a strong gathering of health economists, it was only a small component of the overall conference and their contribution blended well with the remainder of the conference. Read the rest of this entry »

Research team: Penny Buykx, Julie Symons and Bernie Ward will be investigating the use of alcohol in secondary schools.

Bernie Ward and Penny Buykx have recently secured VicHealth funding to investigate the use and promotion of alcohol in Victorian secondary schools, and the emerging issue of alcohol consumption by adults at school events.

Julie Symons has returned to the team to assist for two days a week. She will be conducting interviews with school principals regarding decision-making processes around alcohol use in their school.