Elaine Evans and David Birks celebrate their ‘hard labor’ with the School of Rural Health.

Gippsland Regional Clinical School Manager Elaine Evans celebrated a significant anniversary recently, with a surprise morning tea to mark the 20 years since she started at the School of Rural Health.

Elaine was joined by local surgeon and senior lecturer David Birks and Pharmacy Lecturer Anne Leversha, who have also been associated with the School since the very early days of its inception. Elaine’s fellow staff members at Gippsland put on the morning tea to mark Elaine’s two decades of service.

Elaine joined the then Centre for Rural Health when it was based in the tiny office in the former Moe Hospital, where MUDRIH is now based.

A number of her long term colleagues as well as current staff members were on hand to congratulate Elaine … and yes, she was surprised!

Bake-off winners are (L-R) Andrew Moon accepted for Sarah Moon, Bernadette Ward and David Russell.

Research staff held a Bake Off in aid of an annual June fundraiser, ‘Give Me 5 For Kids!’ staged by local radio station 93.5 3BO.

Each year the event raises funds for Bendigo Health’s paediatric ward to buy much needed equipment that assists in helping seriously ill children. All money raised locally, stays local.

The Research office enticed 11 budding bakers to make their specialty for staff morning tea.  Each cake and slice was put to the taste test and votes were placed.

The entrants provided an array of cakes and slices that would rival a High Tea at the Windsor. Bernie Ward’s Lumberjack cake was a firm favourite, closely followed by dishes produced by two junior chefs. Sarah Moon’s Fudgy Ginger cake and Kate Russell’s Chocky Orange and poppy seed cake were both declared ‘yum!’

So far $224.50 has been raised. Thanks to Lisa Lavey for organising the morning, to those who donated gifts for the raffle and to all the taste testers, who probably had the best time of everyone!

The litter of boutique puppies ‘The Dog’ caused a sensation and all went to good homes for a modest sum.

Paramedic Terry Houge from Orbost is pictured taking Ambulance Community Officers through a scenario at the workshop in Bairnsdale.

Ambulance Community Officers in Far East Gippsland are receiving excellent professional development through a program run by East Gippsland Regional Clinical School in association with Paramedic Community Support Coordinators.

East Gippsland Regional Clinical School, Bairnsdale was successful last year in securing a simulation grant from Health Workforce Australia (HWA) to support clinical education for the East Gippsland region.

The campus was able to purchase sophisticated simulation mannequins to support professional development and collaboration between health professionals, and provide opportunities for inter-professional educational activities at a local level.

Creation of the Simulated Learning Environment project, under the leadership of Marnie Connolly and supported by project officer Laurea Atkinson, has also created opportunities to support an outreach program for health care professionals.

As part of this program, a series of workshops is being held at the Bairnsdale campus, with Ambulance Community Officers from Mallacoota and Omeo participating in simulation scenarios. These are run by Paramedic Community Support Coordinators, Terry Houge from Orbost and Scott Fyfe from Omeo.

Ambulance Community Officers are all volunteers in their local community. Sophisticated technology allows them to experience lifelike simulated events. The hands-on experience in collaborative patient care develops skills particularly advantageous to health care workers in remote areas.

Terry and Scott both agree that such hi–tech training is designed to give the Ambulance Community Officers a controlled training environment yet one that is as real as possible. They also believe opportunities such as this are an invaluable tool for paramedics and Ambulance Community Officers from remote areas.

A program of workshops will be held over the next few months with Ambulance Community Officers visiting from the relatively remote communities of Mallacoota, Omeo and Cann River.

The project is possible due to funding made available by Health Workforce Australia.

Year 4 Bendigo-based medical student, Saada Malouf, has just returned from several weeks in Uganda, part of a team on a visit organised by Monash medical student global health group, TeaMMEd.

Before she went, Saada, who is originally from Gippsland, spoke to the Bendigo Advertiser and what she hoped to achieve on the trip. (Read the article).

The team originally had a choice between Tonga and Uganda, but Saada chose Uganda because it appealed to her more.

The group took numerous medical supplies to help out the local people and to leave supplies once the trip had ended. In a country where people live on $A1.25 a day and a box of band-aids costs about $4.00, the group decided the medical supplies would be valuable.

Saada approached several business and Rotary clubs in Bendigo as well as in her home area of Gippsland to support purchase of the supplies and was delighted with the response.

One of the current Mildura students, Tom Kavanagh (Year 4) demonstrates an ear examination in the sim lab to a potential doctor.

Early in June, Mildura Regional Clinical School opened its doors to more than 25 school students, their families and careers advisors, for the annual information evening for aspiring medical students.

Guest speakers included Head of the School of Rural Health, Professor Judi Walker, Mildura Director, Associate Professor Fiona Wright and Juliet Baxter from MBBS admissions Clayton, who gave a very informative and engaging presentation on the pathways into health sciences at Monash.

A range of current medical students and one recent graduate also spoke on their experiences, a privilege enjoyed by those attending.

The students were fantastic ambassadors for Monash University and its medical program and spent considerable time talking with families and students over supper about medicine as a career. The students helped run simulation demonstrations in conjunction with Howard, Jenny and Kristi, Mildura’s formidable simulation /skills lab team.

Thanks for their involvement go to Elliot, Amy, Scott, Charles, Fiona, Thomas Hannah, Steph, Amy (some of the current medical students) and Georgia, a recent Graduate, as well as the staff from Mildura Regional Clinical School.

Of the 45 evaluations completed on the night, 24 were from the secondary students.  Overwhelmingly, the highlights of the evening were skills lab / practical work, and the opportunity to meet current students and hear their stories.

Paired questions to students and parents were asked as to whether the information evening has affected career choices. Obviously it has for some, with this response from one parent: “She definitely knows what she wants to do now – I know from the smile on her face!”

The majority response to “which university / course do you intend to apply for” was Monash Medicine, or variations of medicine.

Catching up with past students is one of joys of working in the School of Rural Health, especially when they take the time to drop into one of the campuses. That was the case with Raffy Halim, who recently popped into the East Gippsland Regional Clinical School at Sale where he was a student eight years ago. He tells here what he has been up to since his student days.

It seems in many ways so long ago, yet in other ways only like yesterday. It was 2005 and I was starting as a new clinical medical student at Sale Hospital.

It was my first “proper” clinical experience and after a few encounters in the city, I was pleasantly surprised at both how welcoming both the faculty and the patients were to being examined and questioned. I’m sure my patients now blame Sale for me being fairly relaxed around them and occasionally even dropping a bad pun!

I visited the hospital about a month ago and the friendly faces were still around and updating me on all the …erm… updates.

I hope the new students appreciate the huge new area that they have near the library! Back in my day (am I allowed to say that?) we were upstairs and the library was our hangout. So anyway, here’s my story since Sale, eight years ago.

Med School finished almost in the blink of an eye. Fourth year was fast and furious: covering GP/Psych/Paeds & O+G is quite a task and there seemed to be never enough time and always too much to do, especially as someone with a part-time job!

But then came final year, the reward for essentially completing Uni. I spent the first month or so on an elective in Nepal, assisting in theatre in Kathmandu, then later exploring the National Parks and Annapurna Ranges. After a brief rotation back in Australia, I was off to Malaysia for another rotation, where I finally found my specialty: Anaesthetics.

My holidays were also spent overseas in New York and I arrived exactly two and a half hours before my graduation ceremony. Final year was fun (and expensive!)

Internship saw me starting at Eastern Health, though my first rotation was not too far away from Sale, in Bairnsdale.

I recommend that others interns do not copy me; my first patient died within 10 minutes of me starting as a doctor! I actually had just picked up the patient in ED when he arrested. After that baptism of fire, things improved markedly. How could they get any worse?

As a resident, I did a critical care year and again did more Anaesthetics, now determined to pursue it as a career. This led me to Monash Health as an Anaesthetic SRMO and then a Registrar.

Now, I’m in second year, having just finished my Primary Exams and once again discovering that life does, indeed, exist outside the library and finally seeing old friends and familiar faces (like those in Sale).

Other than work, I’ve also travelled somewhat – Japan and Iceland are the standout countries – helped start a medical journal, JMTM where I’m the News and Media Editor and recently started a small online store.

But wherever I go, the bad puns follow…

–          By Raffy Halim, Year 3 Sale 2005

Elliot Anderson (centre) takes delivery of a load of supplies from Mildura Base Hospital Director of Corporate Services Ms Julia Morgan, and Supply Manager Rod Moore.

Students from Mildura travelled to Tonga during their mid-year break to take part in a volunteer medical program.

Mildura-based Elliot Anderson (Year 4), and Fleur Muirhead (Year 3) together with other Monash students Andrew Long and Olivia Wells, joined the program run by TeaMMED, a student-driven, not-for-profit organisation.

It provides an avenue for Monash University medical students to become involved in medical volunteer initiatives world-wide, including medical resource collection and fundraising events in addition to local volunteer opportunities.

TeaMMed has been sending small groups of volunteers to the island of Vava’u, Tonga for three years.

As volunteers the students help alleviate the problems of limited resources and medical staff, and implement an educational approach to problems of obesity and increasing diabetes.

Elliot and Fleur visited schools located on Vava’u, holding workshops/lectures to teach children about the importance of exercise and healthy eating, and how they can avoid risk factors.

The team also headed to rural towns and villages to offer free “health checkups,” that included brief talk about the importance of healthy living, measurement of blood pressure and blood glucose level, a body mass index (BMI) calculation, and the distribution of brochures regarding diabetes and healthy lifestyle.

Another aim of the program is to aid in the treatment of those who have been previously diagnosed with diabetes, particularly those who suffer from diabetic wounds. This is a largely undervalued part of diabetes treatment, particularly in developing nations. Diabetic wounds are very common complications that often go unnoticed due to their painless nature and the fact that they are often hidden on the soles of the feet.

Appropriate dressing and treatment of these wounds are vital so that they do not become infected and potentially life-threatening.

To tackle this issue, the team helped increase local access to appropriate dressings by purchasing these and making them available for free administration within the Prince Wellington Ngu Hospital.

Before their trip Elliot and Fleur did some fundraising to help the cause; Mildura Base Hospital donated essential supplies and equipment and Nuttelex also provided generous financial support.

The next Journal Club will be held on Wednesday 10 July.

The article for discussion is to be announced, so keep an eye out for an email explaining what it will be.

Those who wish to do so can join in person or by tele/videoconference link.

The Journal Club will be in Meeting Room 3 (Level 2), School of Rural Health, 26 Mercy St Bendigo or by videoconference (IP 130.194.213.113) or teleconference (9903 5988) from other sites. The Journal Club runs from 12 noon for one hour and this month’s facilitator is Fiona McCook.

Please let Deb Russell know if you are able to attend, deborah.russell@monash.edu or 5440 9046.

The students managed to get a feel for stomas thanks to some innovative ‘gown-art.’ The students are pictured with their gowns and artificial stomas.

Learning about stomas, while medically interesting, is perhaps not the most inviting topic.

However Year 3B students at Warragul managed to see the lighter side of stoma study while still learning a lot about the condition, which is a surgically made opening from the inside of an organ to the outside and usually requires some sort of external bag.

Gippsland Regional Clinical School’s Renee Laidlaw (right) and Michelle Livingstone measure up the area for cubicle curtains in the revamped Clinical Skills Room, along with local tradesman Charlie.

The clinical skills training facilities at Gippsland have been undergoing significant upgrades in the past few months.

As well as the opening of the new simulation labs upstairs in the former accommodation floor, the Clinical Skills Room downstairs is also being refurbished as part of a $4 million training precinct shared with Latrobe Regional Hospital and the School of Nursing.

The upstairs area includes two state-of-the-art simulation suites with five of the latest simulator mannequins.  There are also observation rooms, complete with one-way glass and the latest in video monitoring equipment, adjoining the simulation suites.

While the work on the clinical skills area has not been quite as major, it still means a significant improvement in its usability.

The old carpeted floor has been replaced with more appropriate and clinical-looking flooring and a proper basin has been installed. Curtains to create hospital-style cubicles are also being installed.

The overall project means better facilities that will be used by School of Rural Health medical students, the Monash School of Nursing and Midwifery and Latrobe Regional Hospital staff.