A major theme of the conference is social accountability and to have the opportunity to hear how the Northern Ontario School of Medicine has engaged with local communities to best meet their needs in providing medical education has been very interesting. A highlight today was listening to Dr. Doris Mitchell’s account of the history of the First Nation people, and appreciating how this paralleled the story of the Australian Indigenous people.
The conference offers huge opportunities for networking – both a chance to catch up with SRH colleagues and to hear about their research endeavours, an opportunity to hear international speakers and to showcase local work and establish networks of colleagues interested in further collaboration.
Cathy Haigh

Have managed to catch a horrid head cold so have spent the morning recovering from a dreadful night’s sleep and dosing myself up on Canadian cold remedies 🙁

Am hoping to feel better so I can attend some PeArLs and Oral Sessions this afternoon….

Laura Major

Day 2 at Rendez-Vous 2012 – I attended a couple of PeArLs this morning, including one delivered by Dr Gayle Roberton from Flinders Uni (who seem to be EVERYWHERE at the conference) and one from our very own Prof Geoff Solarsh. I was interested to hear others’ suggestions as to how distributed medical education programs can work best, eg. how do we ensure that students undertaking LICs obtain equivalent learning experiences to those that undertake rotational placements. The resounding sentiment that emerged from this PeArL was that we should celebrate the diversity that occurs when implementing the one curriculum in variable ways across our different sites. Do we need all things to be equal? Is equity actually a “furfie” by people who “don’t get it”?

UWA delivers a totally different learning experience in each one of their sites across a widely dispersed geographical area and students and teachers seem to embrace this and this model works very well in the west. In addition, UWA rural clinical school graduates are highly sought after by local hospitals as they are seen to be more practically ready for internship.

Rather than trying to make our unique learning experiences the same as those being undertaken by students in metro locations we need to: demonstrate that the programs we are offering ARE indeed different; demonstrate WHY students undertaking these programs will do better than their block rotational counter-parts; develop an understanding and appreciation within our students about a different way of learning; and perhaps let’s put in place a mechanism whereby students can share their experiences with each other, eg. an online feedback “blog”.

Lunch was a sit-down affair once more…am slowly watching the kilos piling on – followed by three plenary speakers: Dr Agnes Soucat, Director for Human Development for the African Development Bank based in Tunisia; Dr Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde, Director of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative Coordinating Center at the African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation, based in Uganda; and Dr Gretchen Roedde, Family Physician and part of the Haileybury Family Health Team based in Haileybury, Ontario.

Each of these speakers provided some confronting statistics, particularly around challenges being faced in vulnerably communities and the shocking truth about the state of global maternal health. These are but just a few examples:
16 pregnant women die daily in Uganda;
The maternal mortality ratio has doubled in the last 10 years in Papua New Guinea; and
In every hour of every day, one woman dies related to pregnancy in Tanzania.

Oral sessions which I attended today centred around Student Experiences and Perspectives and included presentations from Harvard Medical School, the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Flinders University and the NOSM.

It was interesting to note that when character profiles of students opting for longitudinal integrated clerkships were looked at, the following traits emerged: students were self directed, novelty-seeking, reward dependent, persistent and cooperative.

Tonight it was time for some fine dining and dancing at the Gala Dinner and Dance held in the Ballroom at the Valhalla Inn. Once the formalities were over, a lovely meal was enjoyed by all and then we were entertained by “The Sensational Hot Rods” who perform great music from the 50’s era sung with perfect six piece doo wop harmonies. No one (not even our Head of School) could resist getting up for a dance. Prof David Campbell was also spotted in the distance dancing up a storm! Just as well there were a few doctors in the house – I spotted a couple of would be Elvis’ who looked like they may have needed some doctoring sooner rather than later…….

On to day 3 tomorrow……

Laura Major

We all had a very busy day @the conference which started with several speakers including Roger Strasser, Dr Tim Evans and a native elder. I have attended the IPL workshop entitled”a new model of integrated interprofessional university clinic” by Dawn Forman from Curtin University.The workshop described various IPL models and tools used to evaluate students on interprofessional placement. The models discussed were similar to the MUDRIH model run by Mollie and her team. I also met the IPE lead Justine Bertrand at NOSM. We exchanged information on the logistics of running the various IPL models.
Still jetlagged and tired..
Getting ready for Day 2..
Hanan Khalil

So many great workshops, oral sessions, PeArLs and thematic poster sessions to attend – where does one start! I took a couple of hours earlier in the week to work out which sessions I wanted to attend in order to avoid wondering around aimlessly looking completely lost in the sea of over 850 delegates from around the globe. I fear that my blogs are going to be longer than desired, given all the interesting material which is being shared by global medical educators.

Roger Strasser opened proceedings via an official conference launch during a sit down lunch in the Ballroom at the Valhalla Inn. The opening ceremony included a traditional blessing of the delegates and the food which we were about to eat via a traditional “smudging” ceremony (read below).

A native elder taught us that before a person can be healed or heal another, one must be cleansed of any bad feelings, negative thoughts, bad spirits or negative energy – cleansed both physically and spiritually. This helps the healing to come through in a clear way, without being distorted or sidetracked by negative “stuff” in either the healer or the client. The elder said that all ceremonies, tribal or private, must be entered into with a good heart so that we can pray, sing, and walk in a sacred manner, and be helped by the spirits to enter the sacred realm.

Native people throughout the world use herbs to accomplish this. One common ceremony is to burn certain herbs, take the smoke in one’s hands and rub or brush it over the body. Today this is commonly called “smudging.” In Western North America the three plants most frequently used in smudging are sage, cedar, and sweetgrass.

There were a few anxious folks in the room as smoke started billowing towards the smoke alarms….

After lunch it was time to listen to a key note address delivered by Dr Tim Evans, who has held the position of Assistant Director General with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is currently Dean of the James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University and International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh. Tim delivered a thought provoking address outlining why Public Health education is currently in crisis. It’s sad to think that so many of the things we take for granted back home are not accessible to vulnerable communities around the world.

Next it was on to the first Oral Session for the day. Its theme was Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships (LIC’s). I found it very interesting to listen to presenters from Canada, UK and Australia deliver their findings in comparing students’ perceptions of themselves after undertaking LIC’s vs. block rotations. Students unanimously felt they’d learnt more and contributed to the workings of the health care team when undertaking LIC’s as opposed to when they were undertaking rotational clinical placements.

The last Oral Session for the day which I attended was around the theme of “Community Engagement” and I was really impressed with the first presenter from Flinders Uni (NT) who talked about Indigenous community engagement within their medical curriculum. The medical and cultural curriculum is threaded through Years 1 – 4 as part of their graduate program.

Students are introduced to the cultural curriculum in Year 1 and continue on through Years 2 – 4, both through community service placements as well as having Indigenous Health form part of their ethics, PBL learning and a range of theme teaching which students undertake throughout their four year course.

Looking forward to Day 2 and what it will bring…….

Laura Major
Manager, Rural Education Program

I left home at 6am on Saturday 6 October and by the time I arrived in Thunder Bay, Northern Ontario I’d been travelling for 31 hours! Arrived late at night – took a trusty Melatonin to regulate the body clock and slept for 10-11 hours. Jet lag? What jet lag?

Have spent the first two days acclimitising to our new environment and seeing some of the local sites along with Kendall Livingstone from Mildura Regional Clinical School and Elaine Evans from Gippsland Regional Clinical School. Will post up some pics ss soon as I work out how to do this. Have also managed to get in early for on-site Rendez-Vous 2012 registration to beat the rush of around 800 people expected tomorrow morning prior to the conference kicking off mid-morning.

So far the weather has been great. Cold, but sunny or just a bit of cloud. We had some rain tonight and I believe they’ve predicted fresh snow falls before the week is over.

Am hopeful of catching a glimpse of the northern lights on a clear night this week….fingers crossed.

Laura Major
Manager, Rural Education Program

Currently on the morning train to Toronto from Montreal. Canada in the fall is beautiful.
I am hoping to meet with an exchange student and medical staff from the university of Toronto in the next day or so, prior to flying to Thunder Bay.
The weather forecast for the conference area; possible snow showers and blizzard conditions coming in from the west in Manatoba….rug up everyone or if you haven’t left yet, pack some woollies!
Cheers
Dennis OC

Bendigo Regional Clinical School is a significant sponsor of the Bendigo Inventor Awards for the third year.

The Bendigo Regional Clinical School Silver sponsorship of the Bendigo Inventor Awards, contributes money and time to benefit our community. Graham Allardice representing Monash sat on the inaugural committee in 2010,  Pam Harvey was our committee member in 2011 and Kerrie Thomson, Regional Manager of the Bendigo Regional Clinical School, sits on the committee this year.

This year has again been a massive success, demonstrated by the number of inquiries, continual demand for support from innovators, popular attendance at support events, some international entrants to the awards and media attention – not to mention the employment that has been created for Central Victoria by some of the past entrants!

The awards and exhibition ceremony will see 60 inventions on display at the Bendigo town hall on 12 October 2012. Free tickets are available now by calling (03) 5434 6100

New arrival: going through the intubation simulation training session are, from left, Dr Suri Hariprakash, Dr Chellam Kirubakaran, Dr Dan Turn, Associate Professor Fiona Wright, and Laerdal trainer Amy Dearsley going through the intubation simulation training session.

Amy Dearsley from Laerdal Melbourne spent two days in Mildura installing new additions to the Simulated Learning Environment and training key staff in their correct use.

Scenarios which are used in teaching sessions cover a range of situations including, for the Sim New Born, Resuscitation with Positive-Pressure Ventilation and Chest Compressions, Resuscitation with Positive-Pressure Ventilation and Endotracheal Intubation and Care of the Infant with Asthma for SimNewB.

The new scenarios for the sim baby covered areas including Care of the Infant with Asthma, Pediatric Nasogastric Tube Insertion for SimBaby and Management of the Child with a Bradycardic Episode.

The range of new scenarios will add substantially to the learning opportunities provided by the sim lab.

One of the MMI interviews last year.

While some areas are looking forward to a quieter time during mid-semester break, staff at Gippsland Medical School are gearing up for two of the busiest days of the year, the Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs) for applicants hoping for a place in the 2013 cohort.

Over two days, 130 applicants will be interviewed. There will be 56 interviewers including staff from SRH, Gippsland and Clayton campuses, current students and community volunteers.

A team of Year A students will be on hand to assist with coordination and to chat to applicants and calm their nerves. Staff will be assisting either as interviewers or with coordination on the days.

The MMIs are the culmination of a year of hard work for the GMS Admissions team, Judy and Lauren, led by Dr Marg Hay, Director of Admissions. The intention is to select the best possible students within the pool of applicants, while increasing the numbers of rural, particularly Gippsland-based, students offered places.

The year-long process for applicants begins in January when they register for the GAMSAT. After sitting in March, applicants apply through GEMSAS (Graduate Entry Medical Schools Admissions System) preferencing the Medical Schools they wish to attend. Judy and Lauren then work with QTAC (Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre) to manage the simulations and rank and select those lucky few who make it to interview. After interviews comes the nail-biting waiting period for applicants prior offers being released in October.

International interviews this year have already taken place in Singapore, Canada, Malaysia and Gippsland, with 78 international applicants interviewed before last week.

The MMI originated from McMaster University in 2001 and now plays a heavy role in the selection of medical students in Australia.

Gippsland Medical School would like to thank staff from School of Health sites for their assistance as interviewers.