Bendigo’s Helen Cronin is pictured at her Mildura writing workshop with Desley-Reid-Orr and Ros Hocking.

Editors please note: This is published verbatim with reasons contained therein.

Bendigo’s Helen Cronin travelled to Mildura on 25^th November to conduct her ‘Writing killer content’ workshop for the SRH Mildura staff.

The nine members of staff who attended were often lost for words while focusing on Helen’s killer strategies, tips and tricks, but came away with a renewed enthusiasm for the written word.

In a day of team bonding, communication and information sharing, staff learned valuable new skills such as devising catchy headlines, the summative ‘who, what, why, when, where and how’ messages, targeting an audience and using the correct register – and that was just before lunch!

In a hands-on teaching manoeuvre, Helen illustrated the term ‘register’ by drawing on a range of writing styles from Grahame’s Wind in the Willows to a 19^th century legal document. Those attending were asked to give their impression of whether the various documents were written in informal, standard or formal register (language) which in itself incited some hilarious exchanges and colourful language.

It is the writer’s intent to couch this report in an informal tone, however readers will have to judge the success or otherwise of that endeavour for themselves; it is in fact the result of a joint exercise by those who attended and we now warn you to watch out for the latest in ‘killer-content’ in a SRH Mildura publication coming soon.

Students attend interprofessional women’s health workshop

Year 4C medical students from South Gippsland were joined by a number of nursing students based in the area for a full day women’s health workshop held at the South Gippsland Community Health Centre in Foster.

The topics included breast lumps, contraception and menopause management with the format featuring a range of both formal presentations and small group case studies.

Presenters included Dr Elizabeth Farrell, head of the Menopause Unit at Monash Medical Centre, and a director and consultant gynaecologist at the Jean Hailes Foundation.

The day was particularly beneficial to the students, given their exams were fast approaching and according to organisers, they all enjoyed the interprofessional nature of the day.

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.

Director of SRH Mildura Associate Professor Fiona Wright and Associate Professor Ian Pettigrew at the annual dinner in Mildura.

Assoc Prof Ian Pettigrew retires

Associate Professor Ian Pettigrew was officially farewelled at the annual SRH Mildura thank-you dinner held in Mildura late October.

Ian was appointed to the position of Associate Professor in Rural Obstetrics and Gynaecology, arriving in Mildura in 2002. Since that time, he has been involved in teaching medical students and training rural GPs, as well as providing outreach and educational services to towns in the Murray River region.

Ian has conducted a private consulting practice while also setting the timetables, rosters and schedules for those students undertaking their Women’s Health rotations in Year 4C in Mildura and acting as the discipline head for the NVRMEN (Northern Victoria Rural Medical Education Network program.

Wife Mandy has been invaluable as the go-to person to tweak changes to timetables, producing the rosters each week for students.

Ian is now looking forward to retirement. When asked for his fondest memories or proudest moments, Ian said: “I have enjoyed being involved with the students and working with a great group of colleagues at the clinical school.”

SHPA President Professor Michael Dooley presents School of Rural Health lecturer Anne Leversha with a certificate of appreciation after she steps down from her role as inaugural Rural Adviser with the organisation.

School of Rural Health lecturer Anne Leversha has been honoured as a ‘champion of rural health’.

Anne has stepped down from her role with the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) as its inaugural National Rural Adviser, a role she has filled for 18 years.

SPHA recently acknowledged Anne’s substantial contribution to rural health at its annual general meeting, presenting her with a certificate of appreciation. Read the rest of this entry »

It was all hands on deck in the “operating theatre” at the School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland.

Staff at the Bairnsdale site were taking part in a malignant hyperthermia scenario, organised in consultation with Sian Guns, the NUM theatre, Marnie Connolly, Dr David McConville, Dr Daryl Smith, Kim Cantrill, Nurse Educators Liz Barlow and Beth Jacob, and the SLE Project Officer.

Dr John Urie worked as a member of the simulation team and coordinated the debriefing of the scenario.

The interprofessional scenario was well attended by 26 staff with SimMan 3G having his first visit to theatre for a hernia repair.

The surgical team involved were Mr Servaise DeKock, Mr Lee Van Schoor, Ally Smith and Helen Petersen. The anaesthetic team comprised Dr David Mc Conville , Dr Daryl Smith, Dr Peter Worboys Linda Malcolm , Jenny Coverdale and Ken Whateley.

Ann Maree Reggardo was elected as the team leader for the scenario and the nursing coordinator was Tanya Murray. Three staff members were allocated to mixing the dantrolene with Carmal, Donna and Kim getting the bolus dose ready for the patient.

It took team work and non-technical skills in the theatre environment to treat the medical emergency of malignant hyperthermia.

Scribe for the scenario was Jade Danby.

The feedback on the scenario, team work and the activation of the malignant hyperthermia policy was positive.

Students from the South Gippsland cluster attended a talk on paediatric infectious diseases.

Students from the South Gippsland cluster attended a talk on paediatric infectious diseases last month.

The presentation by Associate Professor Andrew Steer was the first in a series of extra activities over the weekend. Held at Sandy Point on the coast, it aimed to bring students together for the final time in preparation for the exams.

This was followed by an inspirational talk by Dr Tony Holmes on his work in paediatric plastic surgery. He outlined techniques involved working with children born with various facial abnormalities. An “amazing meal”, prepared by Narelle Iser, completed the session.

These evenings involving great speakers have been a regular feature of the South Gippsland program and plans are already underway to continue this next year. The students then attended the women’s health workshop at Foster the following day. It is envisaged this will also be expanded next year to involve local GP obstetricians.

Pictured are participants at the Premuster conference in Bairnsdale.

International visitors were guests of the Monash School of Rural Health East Gippsland last month for a Premuster conference.

The Premuster was held over two days prior to the fourth 2014 Muster at Uluru in the Northern Territory. Read the rest of this entry »

Year 4C medical students from South Gippsland took part in a Medicine of the Mind revision workshop recently which focussed on youth mental health issues.

Key workers within their fields led the workshop. They hosted 30 minute case scenarios for discussion, aimed at increasing understanding of the complexities of the youth mental health field.

The content of each scenario was matched to each facilitator’s speciality. Scenarios were designed to ensure that key competences such as MSE (mental state examination) and risk were explored in the context of a larger more complex scenario.

Students reported they enjoyed the workshops, saying they added to their overall understanding of youth mental health situations.

Learning: primary school students recently met Sim Man who is used to train nursing and medical students based in East Gippsland.

The School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland hosted some budding young scientists recently.

The students visited the Bairnsdale site as part of a Scientists in Schools program being run by the CSIRO.

MUDRIH lecturers Eleanor Mitchell and Angelo D’Amore are delivering the program this year in partnership with Paynesville Primary School. They team with a teacher who then rolls out the program as part of extra curricula activities.

Eleanor and Angelo visited the school twice recently, initially spending time with the grades three and four students and the following week, with grade five students. The focus was on forensic science.

As a reward for undertaking the extra curricula activities, the students visited the skills laboratory at the SRH Bairnsdale. The visit included a session with Sim Man and mannequins with students treated to hands-on simulation in both cardio vascular and asthma scenarios.

Eleanor said the visit was a great success. “Not only did the teacher and students come but a number of parents too.”