On Tuesday 17 September 2013, the Monash University Surgical Interest Group (MUSIG) held its inaugural clinical skills workshop at the Mildura Regional Clinical School. MUSIG has held similar workshops in metropolitan hospitals for clinical school students at Monash Medical Centre and The Alfred Hospital as well as workshops for pre-clinical students at Monash University. Last year, MUSIG held its first event in the Bendigo Regional Clinical School.

The aims of this event were to educate and inspire medical students about the exciting area of surgery and specifically, about trauma and its application to rural medicine. Thirty-seven students attended the night from years 2 to 5 which included the Year 2 pre-clinical students who were up for their 2 weeks rural placements. Students had the opportunity to rotate through three different stations throughout the night. There were three tutors who volunteered their time including Kristy Allen, Dr Marli Williams and Ms Cathryn Wakefield.

The stations included a surgical skills station with the surgical registrar Dr Marli Williams, a plastering station where students learnt how to put a forearm cast on and a SimNewB station where students learned how to tackle tricky situations and learn about neonatal resuscitation.

The support from the Mildura Regional Clinical School contributed to the success of the night.  Furthermore, a big thanks to year 3 student and Mildura Clinical Site Liaison, Hui Ling Yeoh, for helping out with the organisation of the evening. There has been excellent feedback from the students who attended the night and MUSIG hopes that these workshops will continue in Mildura into the future. Furthermore, MUSIG hopes to expand these workshops into other rural sites in the years to come.

Jennifer Tang
MUSIG Mildura Representative 2013

During semester two, Mildura Regional Clinical School hosted 16 students, and the program was certainly up to expectations; Orange World, Glen Esk Station, Mutawinji – all whimsical or exotic names for places which the students might experience during their rural health immersion based in Mildura for two weeks.   The aim of the Mildura team is to make rural health REAL, through the people, the sparse outback landscape, or interaction with local Aboriginal peoples.

A network television ‘infomercial’ raising awareness of domestic violence and its implications has been filmed at Monash University’s regional clinical school in Mildura.

Commissioned by Mallee District Aboriginal Services (MDAS), the production features three Monash students as actors playing the part of surgeons in filming at the Mildura Regional Clinical School’s simulation laboratories, which doubled as an emergency ward in the storyline.

Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria and Mildura Base Hospital also participated in the production, shot at locations around Mildura.

MDAS, north west Victoria’s major service provider for Indigenous people, worked through a rigorous community consultation process in the development of this confronting campaign publicising an important regional issue.

The infomercial will screen on WIN TV Mildura and Bendigo during the Christmas period.

Professor Nestel leads the national NHET-Sim Program (National Health Education and Training in Simulation).  This program is for simulation educators and has received funding from Health Workforce Australia until the end of June 2014. Any clinician or educator interested in healthcare simulation is eligible to take the program which is offered free. The program is available as a combination of e-learning and workshops or e-learning only.

Congratulations to Professor Debra Nestel, who has been elected to the Board of Simulation Australia.

The Year 2 placement in Bairnsdale travelled to the village of Bruthen, a small town (population 624) located alongside the Tambo River, approximately 25kms from Bairnsdale on the Great Alpine Road in East Gippsland. Nestled in the hills, the small town boasts the last coffee before the snow fields which gives it a daily buzz more akin to a larger town.

Sixteen Year 2 medical students visited the Bruthen Primary School, which has 44 students in all, so it was a manageable ratio to help with first aid training. The primary students were engaged from the beginning with our medical students giving them hands-on activities in small groups of mixed grade levels. Practicing CPR on our simulated equipment was a great hit as was helping locate body parts and learning how lungs work.

It was then time to feed the medical students. The Year 2 students had worked hard and earned a fabulous BBQ in the park.

We were very fortunate to have a paramedic from Omeo, Scott Fyfe, come to Bruthen to conduct hands on Basic Life Support sessions, complete with Jimmy, the simulated model who had fallen from his bike and later had cut his leg with an axe. The inclement weather meant we lay claim to the town’s rotunda. Wet weather failed to dampen the spirits of those involved and even engage travellers in the town who were intrigued with the activity.

The Year 2 students at Bairnsdale campus finished off the week with more community activities and in their spare time were able to explore the area and even  go kayaking in the canals at Paynesville. We are sure they will take back to Melbourne stories of a great placements which combined lots of fun with a valuable learning experience.

Our recently appointed Year 2 (and 3B) academic coordinator, Alda Dunlop, was thrown into the deep end when 15 Year 2 Monash medical students recently spent two weeks in Sale as part of their curriculum, getting a taste of rural medicine.

Alda had only been with the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School for a matter of weeks when asked to coordinate the Year 2 program. She was fortunate to have the assistance of Jennie Casey who had run the program over previous years and wasn’t far away. Jennie has moved to manage the Year 4C program at the South Gippsland campus.

Activities over the 2 weeks varied from visits to local medical practices, hospital wards and pharmacies, a day out with the Community Health department of the Central Gippsland Health Service to hands on plastering and basic life support tutorials.

All students agreed that the East Gippsland region has a lot to offer in both lifestyle and medical education opportunities. We hope some will return for more rural experiences at some stage during the remainder of their medical studies.

Thanks to a generous Wildfire grant, I was able to attend the 2013 Conference for the Environment and Health held in Basel, Switzerland in August.  This conference brought together experts from across the world to discuss issues relating to the impact of the environment and climate change on human health.  I attended the conference in order to give an oral platform on “Preparing rural GPs and health services for climate change and extreme weather” which was research completed as a part of my Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours).

Basel is a city embracing environmentally friendly technologies and uses 100% renewable energy.  There is a strong focus on environmental preservation and strategies to minimise the impacts of the city on the environment.  With efficient public transport, cyclist friendly roads, and the River Rhine which is so clean that swimming is a popular local and tourist activity (a big change from the Yarra!), Basel is a fitting city to host such a conference.  Over 1700 clinicians, researchers and scientist from 70 countries across the globe converged on Basel for the conference week.

As the conference for the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, International Society for Indoor Air Quality and the International Society for Exposure Sciences, the topics discussed at the conference were broad and reflected the wide scope of impacts that the environment has on human health.

The conference was a valuable opportunity to learn about other research being done internationally regarding the environment and health.  It was also particularly interesting to hear about this research in a rural context, from both researchers based in Australia and elsewhere.  It offered the potential to learn from other projects, and also to receive suggestions on further directions for this research in Australia, with particular relevance to rural health.  It was fantastic to be able to meet people whose work and ideas had helped shape how I structured the research I did for my BMedSci.  There was a strong representation of Australian researchers from across different universities and it was inspiring to meet some of these people working in an Australian context.

The research I presented, “Preparing rural GPs and health services for climate change and extreme weather” was based in the South West of New South Wales.  The project explored the views of rural GPs as to the needs for preparing rural health services for climate change and extreme weather events.  It also sought to identify the perceptions of rural GPs on their role as advocates in their communities for extreme weather and climate change issues, both in relation to community and patient engagement, and in the forward planning of rural health services.

Attending the Conference for the Environment and Health was a valuable learning experience and I would like to thank Wildfire for the support of their grants program.

Rachael Purcell

The 20th Wildfire Annual Dinner was a great night for all who attended. Held at Mamaduke’s on Caulfield Campus, the event included a delicious three-course meal and motivating speeches complimenting the theme –The Past, Present and Future of Rural Health.

Professor Sarah Strasser from Flinders University in Darwin spoke about remote and Indigenous medicine, shared her own survival skill toolkit for a rural doctor, and urged the audience to “invest in women” in health education as this has the highest likelihood of being passed on to the next generation. Dr. Ged Dalgeish, a former Co-Chair of Wildfire who has recently begun his Physician training, provided us with a wonderfully balanced perspective on working in rural areas compared with metropolitan medical practice, based on his own wide-ranging experiences. He was a strong advocate for the role of the rural experience in broadening the scope of medical training.

Finally, two of our very own council members summarised the club’s vision, and our impressive achievements this year.

A number of prizes were handed out, including the best-dressed prize which went to Thomas Shiels for the marvellous orange bow tie he wore on the night! Thank-you to the 2013 Wildfire Council, MWOP (Member without portfolio), Emma Sturm and her team, for organising this annual event. Good luck to Marcus Hall as he plans the 21^st Wildfire Annual Dinner in 2014 – see you all there!!

The 2014 Wildfire Council was announced at the conclusion of the evening. Representatives are as follows:

President – Patryck Lloyd-Donald & Jayden Harper
Vice President – Grace Andrews
Treasurer – Lewis Fry
Secretary – Emma Sturm
Snr NRHSN (National Rural Health Students Network) Rep – William Goss
Jnr NRHSN Rep – Steph op’t Hoog
Publications Rep – Hannah Corcoran
Promotions Rep – Ruth McLeod
IT Rep – Luke Fletcher
Snr ATSI (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Health Advocate – John May
Jnr ATSI Health Advocate – Noni Harold
Allied Health Rep – Mitch Simpson
Sponsorship Officer – Luigi Zolio
Liaison Officer – Tom Nicholls
Membership – Laura Donaldson
Gippsland Medical School Rep – Emma Cole
MWOP – Marcus Hall

We expect 2014 to be a promising year for Wildfire with such a highly motivated and enthusiastic group of individuals!

The staff in Bendigo are a talented group, but we were all stunned by the amazing skill and creativity on display at the first ‘Off Ramp Creations’ exhibition held at the School of Rural Health in Bendigo this month.

Bendigo staff were invited to showcase their artistic and creative talents during a two-week exhibition. Paintings, jewellery, poetry, children’s books, masks, textile collage, candles, tapestry, long stitch, cross stitch, a streetscape diorama, ceramics, quilting, knitting, beading, a coffee table, gift cards and crotchet ‘bombing’ decorated the foyer.

At the closing of the exhibition, a number of donated art and craft pieces were auctioned. There was fierce competition for all the items, but the most hotly contested item was the painting “Platypus at Play” by Regional Manager, Kerrie Thomsen.  The final winning bid for the painting, along with all the proceeds of the other auction items and gold coin donations raised $425.00 for St Luke’s Anglicare. St Luke’s assists children, young people, adults and families to make positive change in their lives and to be connected and contribute to their community.

The organising committee and Bendigo staff would also especially like to thank the family of Kay Togno for generously allowing us to display Kay’s beautiful art during the exhibition.  Kay was a long time Monash Bendigo employee who died 2 years ago in October 2011.