Lewis John Coates

Little Lewis John Coates arrived safely on time at 11.24 am on Monday 20 October weighing 3050 gm (7lbs and 14ozs) to the delight of his mother, Dr Cathy Coates, her family, colleagues and friends.

Cathy was the Clinical Dean for Year 4C and a consultant paediatrician at Latrobe Regional Hospital. Dr Coates taught in the Children’s Health program and also assisted in supervising Year 4C students on clinical placement at Latrobe Regional Hospital

Baby John and mother Cathy are both doing very well. All SRH staff congratulate Cathy.

Asra Bechez welcomes back Dr Evelyn Chan.

A former School of Rural Health medical student, Dr Evelyn Chan, dropped in to her old school for a visit recently.

Evelyn was one of Warragul’s 3B students in 2006 and also did a component of her 4C program at Warragul and Traralgon in 2007.

She received a Rhodes Scholarship in 2011, spending two years in Oxford undertaking research. She is profiled on the Rhodes Project website.

Since returning to Australia and Melbourne, Evelyn has worked at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Paediatrics and is currently completing a paediatric rotation at Latrobe Regional Hospital.

School staff said it was wonderful to catch up with Evelyn and to hear that she retains fond memories of her time at Warragul while completing her undergraduate studies, and very good to catch up on all her news and that of her 3B Warragul cohort.

Staff and students from the School of Rural Health Latrobe Valley & West Gippsland enjoyed an end of year celebration recently.

Everyone enjoyed dinner and entertainment in the form of several rounds of trivia including a round in which all those who attended received a prize. Director, Associate Professor Dr Joseph Tam, was especially chuffed with his colourful, long striped socks; while GP Dr Paul Brougham was delighted with his plunger.

At the end of the evening, scores were tallied and in a nail-biting finish, Team Tam was declared the winner with each member receiving a movie pack prize that included popcorn, lollies, soft drink, chips and movie tickets.

Students are now back into the books, studying hard for their end of year exams. SRH staff wished them well.

Year 2 students started their day with a visit to a dairy farm.

Year 2 students were immersed in everything rural over two weeks including a jam-packed program of activities on Thursday 11 September.

Alda Dunlop put together a full program for the recent Year 2 student rural placement with the School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland.

With a focus on health and safety for all sessions, Alda scheduled a range of activities with the assistance of Maria Rose, the Dairy Extension Officer with the local Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI).

A 6am start (yes 6am on a cool Gippsland morning) saw the students arrive at a Tinamba dairy farm to view the milking and discuss dairy farm related health issues. The farmer, Hans van Wees, is an active dairy industry representative who took the students through the milking process while Mark Jago, from Murray Goulburn Maffra, facilitated discussion around services provided to the farmers on a daily basis.

Followed by a visit to the Maffra Motor Museum

Then it was off to the Maffra Motor Museum. A tour of the current vehicle display was something the students found fascinating, many of the vehicles being somewhat older than the students themselves! With students armed with material safety data sheets, Jane Rhodes, the leading Chemical Standards Officer with DEPI Maffra, spoke to the students on the hazards (many often not recognised) relating to a rural enterprise.

A delicious morning tea gave the students a short break and refreshed to move on to the next activity – still only 10am.

A visit to the Gippsland Water Treatment Plant included discussion about public health issues and the updated processes used to minimise these. Facilitated by Chris Wood from Gippsland Water, students found this session most informative giving many of them a new perspective on the importance of good quality and reliable supply of water for rural communities.

They talked to vegetable farmers.

Vegetable farming in Gippsland is a major primary industry and employer of local and visiting workers. During a visit to the booming Boisdale vegetable farm operation, Farms Manager Steve Hibberson discussed potential health and related injury issues in the industry.

And finished the day with a trip to Glenmaggie Weir and a privileged look inside the wall.

The next stop was Glenmaggie Weir. This body of water is well known for its recreational activities: water skiing, fishing and a general holiday spot for many visitors throughout the year. However, the weir plays a vital role in the water supply for Gippsland and surrounding areas. Students were fortunate to tour the weir wall, something restricted to those directly involved in the running of the weir operations by Southern Rural Water.

Following the tour and talk by guest speaker Rick Ziarkowski, the students relaxed in the area surrounding the weir for lunch and reflected on what was a busy, informative and interactive day.

Thanks to Maria for her invaluable assistance in organising a rural experience with such variety for the visiting medical students while at the same time, maintaining relevance to their curriculum.

Warragul-based GP registrar, Dr Ei Thu Aung presented the results of the first part of her skin cancer study at the General Practice Education and Training Convention 2014 in Brisbane in September. The presentation was entitled “Skin Cancer follow up in Rural General Practice” which she is completing as part of her academic year.

According to Dr Aung, studies on skin cancer follow-up are primarily conducted by specialists and hospital-based research. However there is limited data available on how rural GPs draw up their protocols or the factors that influence their protocols.

The aim of the research is to establish the rural clinicians’ views and practices regarding skin cancer follow-up in general practice and to look at the challenges in skin cancer follow-up.

The two-part study involves a questionnaire to assess skin cancer follow-up systems, intervals and investigations followed by semi-structured interviews of some GPs around perspectives and influencing factors on follow-up guidelines.

Dr Aung is a GP registrar in Warragul, doing her fellowship under the supervision of Associate Professor David Campbell and Dr Eleanor Mitchell. Dr Aung also teaches in the Year 4C program in South Gippsland.

The School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland has welcomed another PhD graduate.

Elisabeth Jacob recently completed her PhD thesis by partial publication titled “An Exploration of Similarities and Differences in Registered and Enrolled Nurse Pre-registration Education and Role Expectations on Graduation”.

Her thesis contributes to nursing by assisting in understanding the differences between the two levels of nurses currently practising in Australia.

Elisabeth undertook her thesis as a part-time student. She started in 2010, under the supervision of Associate Professor Tony Barnett and Dr Ken Sellick, and finished  under the supervision of Professor Lisa McKenna and Dr Angelo D’Amore.

Nine journal articles form part of the thesis, of which seven are published or in-press and two under review.

Congratulations to Beth on completion of her PhD.

All Monash nursing students who are currently completing their final year of study at Bairnsdale have received graduate nurse placements.

Students have secured positions at Bairnsdale Regional Health Service and Latrobe Regional Health Service.

The School of Rural Health East & South Gippsland congratulates all these students.

Forty Year A medical students from the School of Rural Health Churchill took part in a recent workshop to learn surgical skills such as basic suturing and hand tying of knots.

The workshop was run by the Monash University Surgical Interest Group (MUSIG).

Two general surgeons, Mr Neil Jayasuriya and Mr Gordon Arthur, assisted with the workshop while a surgical registrar, Mr Dane Holden, helped at the information session on surgery.

MUSIG committee members, Michael and Matt, coordinated the night with the help of Hemma Valluvan and five Year 5D students.

The workshop was a huge success and a great chance for students to network and build new skills. It was also a good opportunity to find out more about surgery and the journey into this career.

The event was made possible by the School of Rural Health with a special mention to Kelsey Giardina for her invaluable support.

By Apoorva Rao

Matthew McGrail’s research on the development of a new national-scale measure of primary health care access was presented as a finished product (in terms of its development) for the first time in a public forum at the 2014 Primary Health Care Research Conference in Canberra.

His conference presentation was titled “A new Index of Access and the Monash Model: two ‘fit-for-purpose’ measures for rural workforce planning and resource allocation”. The concurrent session presented a significant body of research in rural and remote PHC, with three out of the four presenters supported by the CRE.

“I have recently submitted my main paper on the Index of Access to a leading international journal, where it is currently under peer-review. In addition, a related discussion paper is currently being finalised for publication as a small book,“ he said.

“The Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care was extremely well represented at the conference. I have now participated and presented key findings in each of the last four years of this conference.”

The PHCRIS conference, which returned to Canberra this year, is a key annual event for Primary Health Care research.

Matthew is currently in Washington DC for five weeks as a visiting scholar in the Robert Graham Centre for Policy Studies in Family Practice and Primary Care. “During this time, I will be exploring opportunities to continue and further my research relating to the Index of Access. Additionally, my visit in the USA will conclude at the North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) conference in New York.”

Adelle McArdle from the School of Rural Health Churchill attended the Lactation Symposium hosted by Monash Health (formerly Southern Clinical School) in September in Clayton.

The symposium focused on some of the latest research findings on breast milk, lactation and breastfeeding. There was particular emphasis on the role of breast milk in pathological conditions such as infant and maternal infection, and the importance of human milk for infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care units.

“I heard the latest evidence and research finding on breast milk and its unique properties, from speakers who are considered leaders in their respective fields, including Associate Professor Donna Geddes.” Adelle said.

Associate Professor Donna Geddes, a senior researcher and current Head of the Hartmann Human Research Lactation Group at the University of Western Australia, agreed to present at an upcoming training forum for physiotherapists in the treatment of inflammatory conditions of the lactating breast in August 2015.