Judy Embleton will be affectionately remembered in Churchill

Although she finished in December, it wasn’t until the first week of semester this year that SRH – Churchill staff got an opportunity to farewell Judy Embleton at a celebratory lunch and present her with a gift to acknowledge her time working with us.

Judy Embleton had been Regional Manager of the Gippsland Medical School and has now taken up a senior administrative position at the Gippsland campus of Federation University. Read the rest of this entry »

Master Chef 2013 - Cathy Ward (L) and Lisa Lavey (R)

The annual Bendigo Master Chef and Junior Master Chef challenge was a resounding success. Funds raised for the Support, Prevention and Research into breast and gynaecological cancers totalled approximately $540. This was made up of on-line donations, entry fees, raffles and the sale of plants.

You can make a tax-deductible donation any time – online!

Prizes were donated by Purtill’s Nursery of Huntly, Elegant Concepts, Axedale Reef Winery, The Good Loaf, Pat & Leonie Francis, Marilyn Hards, Cathy Ward, and Sandra Paschkow.

Old hands and budding chefs created superb dishes to tantalize the tastebuds of the foodies and freeloaders who sipped, sucked, slurped and scoffed the tempting array of dishes on offer. After carefully considering their vote, which may have included going back for seconds, winners were announced.

Master Chef 2013 is:

Junior Master Chef 2013 is:

Congratulations to the winners, organiser Lisa Lavey and all participants and taste testers.

Professor Mike Jones from Macquarie University will be visiting the School of Rural Health from 2-6 December 2013 and will be based in Bendigo. Professor Jones will be presenting a research seminar on Wednesday 4 December from 2-4pm. Please direct any questions regarding Professor Jones’ visit to either Leigh Kinsman or Cathy Ward.

A reminder that registrations are due now to attend all or any of the Research Bootcamp being held in January in Bendigo.

In the last couple of weeks, we have been able to confirm the following speakers:

• Simon Barrett from the Monash Research Office will be presenting an interactive seminar on “Working in a team to produce publications and authorship”
• Professor David Perkins, Editor of the Australian Journal of Rural Health, will be joined by other editorial panel members to lead a panel session “Meet with an editorial panel”.
• HDR students will have the opportunity to meet with the Monash Postgraduate Association whilst the HDR supervisors have a meeting to discuss the School’s HDR program
• Nicola Johnson from Monash University will present a session “Publishing from your PhD”
• Kaye Lassere from the Monash University Library will run a library workshop covering indexes, journal rankings, Google Scholar, EndNote tips and citations
• Luke McAvaney from the Monash University Research Office will be joined by colleagues from the La Trobe research office to discuss the best ways to find funding for your research project or fellowship or HDR scholarship
• Professor Michael Kingsley will be running a research speed dating session to hone your presentation skills
• The “Thesis Whisperer” will be running a session on what makes a good publication

Plans will continue to be finalised for each session so keep a watch on the website for new speakers. Don’t forget there will be writing workshops, research seminars from both senior academics and HDR students and journal clubs happening throughout the bootcamp.

The past couple of months have seen quite a few milestones achieved by some of our PhD students. October 31 saw four students presenting at MUDRIH and November 21 saw another two students present at the Education Faculty in Clayton. They were followed by two education students who had also reached a milestone. All students have been successful in achieving their milestone.

Those successful in achieving confirmation of candidature are Rouve Jan Forbes and Michael Naughton, both of whom have their main supervisors located at MUDRIH.

Those who achieved their mid-candidature review are Annette Woodhouse, Sue Barker Anne Grant and Kate Templeman; again, all have their main supervisor located at MUDRIH.

Anne Grant had the dubious pleasure of presenting from Ireland via Adobe Connect. This is a new type of video conferencing technology currently being trialled by the Education Faculty at Clayton  and worked very well.

Both days were very well attended by students, supervisors and examiners. One supervisor came all the way from Nauru to support her student and one examiner flew over from Tasmania to maintain consistency in panel members.

Pictured from left to right are: The Hon. David Davis, MLC (Minister for Ageing and Minister for Health) Helen Chambers (Database Manager/Research Officer, MUDRIH), Nicole Steers(Executive Directory Ambulatory Care (past), LCHS), Marianne Cullen ( Project Leader and Regional Wound Consultant, LCHS), Ben Leigh (Chief Executive Officer, LCHS), Rachel Strauss (Executive Directory Ambulatory Care (acting), LCHS) John Guy (Chairperson Board of Directors, LCHS)

A big congratulations to the Mobile Wound Care Team.

At the 2013 Victoria Public Healthcare awards, the collaboration of  MUDRIH and Latrobe Community Health Service (LCHS) received a Gold award in the category of “Optimising healthcare through e-health and communications technology”. The topic of our research: “Mobile Wound Care (MWC)”.

E-health and communications technology can improve the way the health system and the community access or receive relevant information, when it is needed and in an understandable and useable form. E-health and communications technology can improve knowledge management and provide ongoing benefits to health services, clinicians and consumers, their carers and families and the broader community. This award recognises innovative use of e-heath and communication technologies that improve knowledge management resulting in better practice, management, patient outcomes or experience.

MWC enables nurses to enter the clinical details of their patients’ wounds, including digital photos into a web-based program. If specialist support is required, referral can be made to the regional nurse consultant (RNC). The RNC can then access the electronic record, reply and make clinical recommendations almost immediately.

MWC represents a unique effort to provide remote consultancy to regional clientele while monitoring treatment and cost outcomes for health services and patients. It has resulted in I improved care and expertise in collecting data and will inform future discussions about a national wound care minimum dataset. The research has facilitated skill development in all participating organisations and enhanced collaboration across the region, including between LCHS and Monash University – a partnership which will lead to future research collaborations.

Well done to all and particularly to LCHS for another great collaboration.

The following grants/scholarships have been notified through Research Professional as having a rural and remote health aspect.

If any of these grants interest you, please access further information through Research Professional.
If you need any assistance contact Cathy Ward or Helen Chambers.

Rural pharmacy scholarships Pharmacy Guild of Australia, AU
$40,000
closing date: 14 Jan 14

Targeted research grants Government of Western Australia, AU
$400,000
Closing date: 13 Feb 14

NSW metropolitan allied health clinical placement grants NSW Ministry of Health, AU
$750
Closing Date: 06 Mar 14

Clinical placement scholarships Australian Department of Health and Ageing, AU
$11,000
Closing date: 08 Apr 14

Information society innovation awards Information Society Innovation Fund, AU
$3,000
Closing Date: 24 May 14

Mildura Regional Clinical School has been successful in receiving a grant for $38,000 through the Mallee Health Foundation to purchase a SimMom. The Foundation, previously known as the Mildura Base Hospital Foundation, was established and began fundraising in 1987.

The Mallee Health Foundation was one of the generous donors towards the purchase of SimMan back in 2010.

The entire family of SimMan, SimMom, SimBaby and SimNewby will complete the recently upgraded skills lab in Mildura.

Forty-five battered, scruffy, highly loved teddy bears made the exciting journey with children from Parkland’s kindergarten in Morwell to attend the teddy bear hospital at Gippsland Regional Clinical School recently.

A number of Year 3B students put aside their study to introduce the children to a range of positive experiences relating to going to hospital.

Discovering x-rays and bones was a highlight for the children who got to see what our finger bones look like under our skin, plus a teddy bear x-ray. This led into a session about plastering and the lucky children were able to get their thumb or finger plastered.

Students spoke to the children abut emergencies and the number to call if there is an accident.   However, it was pleasing to see that a number of them already had this knowledge. They also got to play with stethoscopes, oxygen masks, and tendon hammers to become familiar with some common equipment they may encounter if attending hospital themselves.

Finally the weather was beautiful and allowed the children to have some time to play outside exploring the topic of exercise. Medical students Sean and Cindy even learnt how to play “duck, duck, goose” and the children’s giggles could be heard across the courtyard.

A big thank you goes to Manny’s Market Traralgon who donated a box of fresh fruit for the children to snack on and discuss healthy eating options.

Overall the teachers, parents and children from Parklands were very impressed by the professionalism shown by the Year 3B students and cannot thank Alex and the students enough for giving up their study time so close to exams to provide such a wonderful, educational learning experience for all involved.

Meagan Presley, Clinical Educator, Gippsland Regional Clinical School

Tina Whitney

Your name and Position
Tina Whitney, Gippsland Regional Clinical School Receptionist

Describe your job/ role.
My job is to meet and greet people direct them to the appropriate people, I answer the phones, manage teaching space and accommodation bookings. I provide administrative support to all GRCS staff members.

Why is it important?
I think it is important to provide a positive and friendly service to the public, as well staff members.

What is the best aspect of your work with the school of rural health?
To have the privilege of working with the most amazing people, including the students.

When not at work, what do you enjoy doing?
Spending time with family and friends and gardening.

What was your most recent holiday destination and why did you choose it?
My last holiday was to Queensland 12 months ago; it was a girls’ week. I chose it for the theme parks, as they are always fun and relaxing.

If you were Emperor for a day, what is one thing you would implement?
I would make every single person do one special deed for another without wanting anything in return.

Surprise us. What is something about you that most of your peers wouldn’t know?
I am rather a shy person.