Tracey Zakazakaarcher year 4C medical student has won 3 gold and 1 silver in the Australian Masters Championships 2013. This competition only runs every two years and involves athletes from 13 different countries in 50 different sports. Tracey was successful in the athletics competition taking first place in the pentathlon, shot-put and the hammer throw, as well as second place in the discus throw.

Tracey is a mother of eight children, is studying medicine, as well as coaching other children in both soccer and athletics.

Tracey was also chosen to represent the Masters Games competitors on the “Weekend Today Show”, Channel 9 national TV, as well as local radio stations in Geelong Victoria.

Tracey’s TV interview can be found online.

Tracey admits, “I enjoy my athletics – it keeps me fit, however, the most important thing right now is passing the exams!”

A fantastic day was had by all, we'd like to thank Liddiard Road for coming along with 40 lovely smiles and teddies.

One fine day, the year 3B medical students invited 40 prep students from Liddiard Road Primary School to come and visit the clinical school for a very special morning. Our aim was to introduce the kids to the concept of good health, good eating and emergencies.

Being kids ourselves (sort of), we wanted to make the day as fun as possible – so naturally, the kids were invited to bring their Teddies along to help. The kids learned about exercise, healthy eating, x-rays, what to do in an emergency, and got a real plaster cast on their thumb – very exciting stuff.

Peter Nightingale, Year 3B Student, GRCS

Left to right – At the Docklands Channel 9 Studios – Jeremy Siow, William Bay (contestant), Matthew Howard, Darius Tan and Shayne Camilleri

It was with great excitement that the Warragul site of GRCS learned that William Bay (3B student at Warragul) had been selected to appear on the quiz show ‘Millionaire Hot Seat’ with Eddie McGuire as compere.

William, ably supported by Matthew Howard (3B student), and with a delegation of 3B students in the audience, went down to Channel 9 studios at Docklands in mid- October to appear in his ‘million dollar’ session.

To see how William and the team did, keep an eye out for the show which is scheduled to show at 5:30pm weekdays on Chanel 9 in the next couple of weeks.   The experience at the studios is one that the students will not forget in a long time!

Anne Leversha recently volunteered to assist with a Clinical Pharmacy Workshop, which was held in the Pacific Region nation of Vanuatu. Anne is a Senior Lecturer with the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, based in Traralgon.

Anne’s friend, Amanda Sanburg, is the Chief Pharmacist for Vanuatu, a position which is funded through the Australian Government Overseas Aid Program, AusAID.

Amanda organised a four-day workshop, which was supported by the World Health Organisation. The event was opened by the Acting Director of Health for Vanuatu and pharmacists from Vanuatu and another Pacific Region nation, Solomon Islands, attended.

The success of the event was partly due to its broad program in which lectures, case presentations by each participant and team building activities were included.

Anne’s direct contribution was presentations on analgesia and pain management, medication chart review and team building. In addition, she used  her broad knowledge of pharmacy and pharmacy education to comment on the other topics covered.

John May achieved a high distinction in the John Desmond Occupational Medicine exam

Each year there is an opportunity for Year 3B students to sit the John Desmond Occupational Medicine exam. The John Desmond Prize is donated by Drs Robyn Horsley and Peter Desmond in honour of their son who died in infancy. Dr Horsley practices occupational medicine as a speciality and finds it to be a diverse area of medicine.

The objectives of the John Desmond Prize in Occupational Medicine are to:

• encourage some students to contemplate occupational medicine as a career;
• encourage most students to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitude needed to effectively practise occupational medicine as part of any general or specialist medical practice

The results this year were very pleasing with special mention made of Sale students as achieving overall ‘superior performance” in the exam. Special mention should be made of John May from Sale who achieved a high distinction.

Our congratulations go to the students and our thanks to Dr Lloyd Waters from the Clocktower Medical Centre in Sale for tutoring the students and for coordinating their on-site visit to the Esso Gas plant at Longford.

Drs Elizabeth Farrell and Deirdre Bentley, guest speakers at the Women’s Health Conference held in Foster recently

Early in October a full day Women’s Health Conference was held at the South Gippsland Community Health Centre in Foster.  Year 4C students were fortunate enough to hear from a number of speakers including  Drs Elizabeth Farrell and Deirdre Bentley who presented case studies on breast cancer support, endometriosis and menopause. The day was particularly beneficial to the students  given their exams are fast approaching and it is hoped that such conferences become a regular event of the academic year for them.

Dr Elizabeth Farrell, gynaecologist, pictured with a gynaecologist she is mentoring whilst in Australia for continued training.

A series of three inspirational dinners have been held at the South Gippsland campus of the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School. The dinners, the brainchild of Dr David Iser, are held for the Year 4C students to show them the myriad opportunities that doing medicine opens up to them.

The first dinner was held in August this year with Dr Andrew Steer speaking about infectious diseases and rashes. Dr Steer is an Infectious diseases physician with the Department of General Medicine at the Royal Children’s Hospital and a senior research fellow at the Centre for International Child Health, Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne.

Following Dr Steers talk, retired Paediatric specialist, Dr Robert Birell, spoke of his journey as a doctor at the Royal Children’s Hospital and his work to introduce mandatory reporting of child abuse, for which he is recognised.

The second dinner was held in October with Dr Elizabeth Farrell as the guest speaker.  Dr Farrell talked to students about her involvement over the past 20 years in the management, education and research of the menopausal woman. Dr Farrell has her own private gynaecology practice and is head of the Menopausal Unit at Monash Medical Centre, a senior lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology with Monash University and a Director and consultant gynaecologist at the Jean Hailes Foundation.

Dr Farrell established the first Early Menopausal Clinic in 2002, the first Adult Turner’s Syndrome Long Term clinic  and in 2009 established the first Women and Cancer Clinic in Victoria at Monash Medical Centre.

The third dinner is scheduled for November and by all accounts the dinners have been extremely successful events, rewarding and informative experiences for the students fortunate enough to be involved.

Mr Stephen Lindsay, a Urological Surgeon in Bendigo, recently held a skills session for the University of Melbourne final year students, “Surviving Urology 101”. Mr Lindsay enlisted Senior Lecturer in Clinical Skills, Adele Callaghan, to help in developing a scenario on Renal Colic using the new Bendigo Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre (CSSC) facilities. Mr Lindsay praised the enormous amount of preparation that Adele did to ensure that the session was highly successful.

“I have been teaching Medical undergraduates since 1990 and I think I usually do a reasonable job. But I have never had students more energised and engaged than the group on Thursday. The quality of the experience for the students (and me!) in the simulation centre is unbelievable, and Adele ran the session beautifully. We had a lot of fun, and I think I learned at least as much as the students!” praised Mr Lindsay and he looks forward to using the CSSC again for his “boring old Urology tutorials”.

For more information about Bendigo’s CSSC, contact Adele Callaghan.

Cassie Coetzee reports on her exchange to Greymouth, New Zealand as part of an annual students exchange. Cassie is at the Sale campus of East Gippsland Regional Clinical School for her Year 4C academic year.

Greymouth is a town on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, with a population of approximately 13, 300. Grey Hospital is a 100 bed hospital that provides services such as general medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry, paediatrics, geriatrics and anaesthetics.  During the two weeks at Grey I was able to attend clinics such as orthopaedics, cardiology, general medicine, endocrinology and paediatrics. I spent time on the medical ward and was able to assist the house surgeons in many tasks and gain great experience seeing both common and rare conditions.

Although Grey hospital is of comparable size to Central Gippsland Health Service, it services a much larger geographic area with a diverse patient demographic. The exchange program enabled me to appreciate the unique challenges that can affect health care, both from the perspective of comparing the differences in procedures and policies from an international viewpoint, as well as from a rural/metropolitan stance.

Grey hospital, New Zealand

Although the hospital has a few resident consultants, the majority of specialist health care is provided by liaison consultants who travel from Christchurch on a regular basis. Greymouth is a rural town that can be quite isolated when access roads to Christchurch are closed due to snow (as they frequently can be during winter). This imposes some unique challenges regarding transporting critically ill patients to a tertiary care hospital. It was not uncommon for patients to be flown in one of the helicopters or in the fixed wing aircraft, even for semi-urgent investigations such as an MRI.

Helipad at Grey Hospital

While on exchange I was fortunate enough to experience some of New Zealand’s breath taking sights. From the Canterbury snow fields to the spectacular train ride across the coast-traversing plains, high-country, alpine ranges and rain forests to the glaciers and beaches of the west coast.

Mt Hutt skifield

The experience provided a fantastic and unforgettable learning experience that has greatly added to my professional development and interest in both global and rural health.

Chris Ward, Year 4C student at the Sale campus spent two weeks in Blenheim. This is his report.

In July I was fortunate enough to travel to the south island of New Zealand for two weeks in exchange for a student from Otago University’s Rural Medical Immersion Program (RMIP). It was a short but busy trip which I thoroughly enjoyed. A 3 hour flight from Melbourne to Christchurch was followed by a bumpy 40 minute flight on a 19 seat plane to Blenheim. There I was met by two RMIP students I would be living with, as well as Dr Buzz Burrell, an iconic rural GP in the south island who put together my itinerary. We wasted no time, heading straight for the pub and sampling some local kiwi beers which were surprisingly drinkable.

Learning the ropes

The RMIP is for 5th year medical students and is similar to our year long placement in East Gippsland. Their time is split between a range of isolated rural GP practices, as well as paediatrics, obstetrics, gynaecology, emergency medicine and orthopaedics.

During the first week I learnt a lot about how the New Zealand health system operates, spending 2 days on orthopaedics and 3 days in the emergency department. The real advantage of this hospital is that there are only 4 students and no registrars. This allows the students and residents to gain fantastic experience and teaching from consultants.

On the first night I was told to go to a nearby pub with one of the other students and await a call from Buzz, who in collaboration with the local fire brigade had orchestrated a simulated car crash scenario, where we were to employ first responder emergency medicine.  It was bitterly cold, and pitch black, requiring us to triage patients based on severity of injury in difficult conditions. It was an invaluable experience

The most striking difference that the healthcare system in NZ has compared with ours is the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). This is essentially a no fault compensation scheme for accident and injury to anybody hurt on New Zealand soil, regardless of the mechanism of injury, excluding  natural aging. I had no choice but to learn how this system worked, as a large proportion of patients presenting to emergency required ACC forms to be filled in (absolutely the student’s job!). I spent the rest of the week on orthopaedics, great experience as I was the only assistant. This meant I was frequently able to suture, and in one case perform a procedure myself, cutting, popping and draining an elbow cyst,  which although disgusting was great fun!

Sampling the attractions

Blenheim residents are very proud of the fact that their town of 30,000 people is the sunniest place in New Zealand. The downside of clear days is clear (and freezing) mornings! The coldest was negative 3, so cold. However the upside to ever present sunshine is perfect conditions for wine making. Blenheim is right in the middle of the Marlborough region, which most Australians will have heard of for their famously delicious Sauvignon Blanc

On the weekend I got my tourist hat on and went on a winery tour. We visited 6 in total, the most famous of which was Giesen. It was a great day, and after about 40 samples we were in good spirits to continue the trans-Tasman cultural experience and watch some AFL. On the weekend we also visited some surrounding towns. Nelson is a town of 60,000 people about 100 km from Blenheim. It is surrounded by national parks and nice beaches. Picton is a small town half an hour from Blenheim that offers stunning views of the Marlborough Sounds, an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys at the top of the south island.

Road trip to Kaikoura

Week 2 was road trip time, heading 130 km south to a beachside town of 3,000 people called Kaikoura. With the ocean on one side of the road and snow capped mountains on the other, it was a highly enjoyable and picturesque drive to work! In Kaikoura the medical students stay in the house of one of the town GPs. Not sure what to expect, this only heightened the overall experience, with delicious home cooked meals, table tennis games, as well as ocean and mountain views from the kitchen

The practice is attached to a small 20 bed hospital run by the GPs, all highly skilled  generalists, as the nearest tertiary hospital is more than two hours away. This, coupled with a volunteer ambulance service, means the GPs are called to many 111 (000) calls, including car crashes, heart attacks, births etc. and as the student you are called as well. I saw some interesting chest pain and seizure presentations throughout the week. During the days at clinic I saw every second patient by myself, which the GP would then wave consult. It was a very flexible, laid-back set up, allowing student consultations to run for as long as required; 5 minutes in the case of a common cold, up to 40 minutes in one case with an interesting Type 1 diabetic patient. I saw a number of Maori patients in Kaikoura and was able to learn a bit about their culture as well.

Kaikoura is also a tourist hub, so I took an afternoon off to do a whale watch, which as an industry keeps the town going. We saw two sperm whales in what was a very unique and enjoyable experience. There was also a waterfall just out of town with 40-50 baby seals swimming around in the pool of water at the bottom.

A great exchange

I returned to Blenheim and flew home amidst scenic views of snowy mountain ranges and clear blue ocean. Overall it was a wonderful two weeks, both for my education, being able to learn about another health care system and to gain such hands on experience, and also to have some time to be a tourist. I’d like to thank the East Gippsland Clinical School for the opportunity, as well as everyone in Blenheim and Kaikoura who made the trip so memorable. The exchange is a fantastic initiative between the two universities and I hope it continues into the future.”

The view as Chris flew home.