Terry Houge supervising a couple of the community ambulance officers at Cann River

The Mallacoota workshop

A two-day ALS Physical Assessment workshop in Mallacoota in the far east of the state recently provided an excellent training opportunity for community ambulance officers.

Mallacoota is about 235 km east of Bairnsdale (or 520 km east of Melbourne).  Run by Terry Houge, Paramedic Community Support Coordinator with Ambulance Victoria, and assisted by Laurea Atkinson, the SLE Project coordinator, the workshop was attended by 23 Ambulance Community Officers, all volunteers.

It is an exciting development for the SLE project to reach remote parts of the state.

Laurea also visited Cann River, a little closer to home at a mere 165 kms from Bairnsdale, where participants took part in a workshop using the equipment available for off-site training.

Laurea and her mannequins are well sought after throughout East Gippsland for training opportunities and workshop participation which, until now, was very difficult given the distances required.

South Gippsland - the view at Port Welshpool

While SLE Project coordinator Laurea Atkinson was loading up her mannequins to head further east to the picturesque town of Mallacoota Deb Johnson headed south to cover leave in South Gippsland.

Photos were being exchanged as to who had the best views when they got out of bed each morning.

Being budget conscious, Deb was staying at her Mum’s in Port Welshpool and Laurea was staying at the short term ambulance accommodation in Mallacoota.

We will let you be the judge as to which you think is the best breakfast view, however it was decided that the coast from South Gippsland all the way to far East Gippsland is pretty spectacular.

The Office of Research fondly farewelled Rachel Tham and Ann Allenby during April.

Rachel finished up after six years to take up an NHMRC scholarship with the University of Melbourne. Rachel has worked on many projects, most significantly in recent years the Elmore Primary Health Service evaluation project. Rachel will be sorely missed by the team, not least her talents with iPads and iPhones!

After assisting to complete the Heart of the Country data analysis, Ann is off on a trip around Australia to discover the delights of being a grey nomad. The team wished her well with the purchase of several caravan-friendly essential items.

Dr Fahad Hanna

Your name and position

Dr Fahad Hanna, Academic coordinator of year 3B, SRH Gippsland Regional Clinical School.

Describe your job/role

As an academic coordinator I am responsible for the planning and delivery of the academic program for Year 3B at the school (Traralgon and Warragul cohort). This includes taking direct part in delivering a number of lectures and tutorials.

Why is it important?

Just like any other academic role, the academic coordinator job is about ensuring smooth delivery of program and contributing to solving any arising issues and help and support the students to ensure successful completion of the year, which represents a new challenge for the students being full time clinical work/ training.

What is the best aspect of your work with the School of Rural Health?

Working in a relaxed environment in comparison to a crowded city environment and the feeling of contributing to rural health.

When you are not at work, what do you enjoy doing?

Working in my big backyard with my three year old son chasing me and copying whatever I do.

What was your most recent holiday destination and why did you choose it?

Three days in Philip Island. Wife’s choice being our wedding anniversary.

If you were Emperor for a day, what is one thing you would implement?

I would order some of the best doctors to move to rural areas and work for few years before going back to their city life

Surprise us! What is something about you that most of your peers would not know?

I sing and I love it 🙂

Thomas Wilhelm

One of the Gippsland Regional Clinical School’s former staff member, Ace Wilhelm, and his wife Nicole are celebrating the birth of a son.

Thomas Gordon Wilhelm, a brother for Sophie, was born on Tuesday 2 April, weighing 10 pound 4 ounces (4.6 kg), length 52 cm.

Mother, son and Dad are all doing well!

Ace worked with the IT group for a number of years and is well known across the School of Rural Health.  He now works with an I.T. firm that contracts to Latrobe Regional Hospital.

Emily Modridge

Emily Modridge is this year’s successful applicant for the East Gippsland Education Trust scholarship.

The Education Trust was established in 2010 in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Sale, the Wellington and East Gippsland Shires and the community to assist local students who gain a place to study MBBS with Monash.

Emily tells us that the money will be well used towards text books and accommodation expenses as she embarks on her first year of study at Clayton campus.

The end of university years are looming for Year 5D students across the state, a fact that was brought home at an initial intern matching session in April.

The Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria (PMCV) conducts a computer matching service to allocate intern positions to Victorian hospitals and health services.

The matching service is a preference-based and merit-based system, which matches the preferences of both candidates and hospitals/health services.

For Year 5D students it’s a glimpse into their first year out of university.

The sessions in April covered important dates, how to register for the match, nominating preferences and applying to hospitals/health services.

Information about the number and distribution of intern positions and notification was also provided.

Students in Gippsland and other centres video-conferenced in on Friday evening, 12 April.

Gippsland Medical School has now graduated two cohorts of medical students who have begun their careers as junior doctors. The students were issued a laptop for the duration of their course which they have since returned. So Gippsland Medical School found itself with many surplus laptops.

We decided to donate them to various local community agencies. These agencies also form part of the teaching program known as our Community-Based Practice Program. The program enables students to work with and across rural community agencies to learn more about their local communities and the kinds of services offered and needed in a rural environment. Many of the agencies have expressed an interest in receiving some laptops and we are in the process of organising their distribution on an equitable basis to those agencies.

Associate Professor Darryl Maybery of MUDRIH has been awarded $1,855,891 to continue his research in support services for parents with a mental illness.

His project – Developing an Australian-first recovery model for parents in Victorian mental health and family services – was one of five successful projects to be funded by the Victorian Mental Illness Research Fund.

Announcing the funding at the end of March, Minister for Mental Health, Mary Wooldridge said the funded projects were of very high scientific merit and build on Victoria’s key research strengths.

“The five projects were selected from a very strong field of 43 submissions and will build knowledge that can be applied to improve treatment and recovery outcomes for people with mental illness,” the minister said.

Associate Professor Maybery will lead the research project and work with SANE Australia, Family Life, Neami, the Bouverie Centre, the Parenting Research Centre, Raising Children Network, beyondblue, Eastern Health, Northern Health and the University of South Australia. The project will work with parents with a mental illness to develop and trial approaches that effectively engage families and children within specialist mental health services. This is expected to deliver significant mental health and wellbeing benefits to both parents and their children.

Trace Morrison crosses the line to finish in under 10 hours.

Saturday  24 March was a big day for two staff based at Gippsland Medical School as they took on one of the toughest athletic events on the calendar.

Professor Debra Nestel and Trace Morrison participated in the longest triathlon event in the world – the Ironman (IM) held in Melbourne.

They work closely so were also pleased to line up together to take on the IM challenge, which includes a 3.8 km swim, 180 km ride and a 42.2 km marathon-length run.

It was Debra’s first and Trace’s second IM. Both felt excited but also anxious. Trace wanted to see if the hours of training would pay off to deliver a faster time than last year while for Debra the challenge was to get through an enormously difficult event.

With strong winds and a big swell on the race morning and with competitor safety in mind, officials shortened the swim to 1.5 km. The ride and run distances remained the same.

Debra and Trace took on the rough waters and completed the swim leg. The strong cross winds for the 180 km bike were tough, physically and mentally, and they were relieved to start their favourite leg, the run.

A race as long as an IM has many high and low points but the achievement of crossing the finish line is unforgettable. Trace improved her time to 9 hours, 45 minutes and 18 seconds. Debra finished hours later but achieved her goal and was greeted with great excitement by family and friends.