What tools are being used in the rural simulated environment to assess interdisciplinary effectivness? This was one of the questions Cathy Driver posed when she presented an overview of her research at the SimHealth 2014 conference in Adelaide in August. The conference explored the theme “Mind the Gap”, a reflection on how simulation-based initiatives have addressed a gap in the healthcare curriculum; assisted learners to bridge the gap between theory and practice; closed the gap between professional silos; or tackled the gap between best patient care and avoidable patient harm.

A clinical skills educator at SRH Bendigo, Cathy’s research is titled, “The effect of interdisciplinary simulation approaches in breaking down ‘tribalism’ in Healthcare” and asks the question, “How do the SIMPLE and TeamSTEPPS approaches work to increase communication and teamwork skills between undergraduate medical and nursing students in a rural simulated environment?” Cathy anticipates data collection will take place over a 12 month period.

Dr Deb Russell at her graduation.

Deb Russell from the Centre for Research Excellence  at SRH Bendigo has passed her PhD without amendment. Deb’s thesis, “The patterns, determinants and measurement of rural and remote primary health care workforce turnover and retention” was supported by the Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care (CRERRPHC) and was supervised by Emeritus Professor John Humphreys and Dr Matthew McGrail.

This work has provided important new empirical evidence to guide rural health workforce retention policies. Links to the publications related to her PhD are available on the CRERRPHC website.

Deb is the first of the CRE’s four PhD students to graduate and will receive her testamur at a graduation ceremony in December at the Clayton campus.

Everyone at Bendigo congratulated Deb on a brilliant effort at a morning tea in late October.

Pam Harvey recently presented a paper about using young adult literature to teach health professionals about adolescent illness at the 12^th International Conference on Communication in Healthcare, hosted by the European Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH).

‘Faults in their stars: Literature for teaching about adolescent illness’ identified award-winning young adult novels that articulate an otherwise unheard voice: that of the adolescent patient.

The conference delegates gathered in Amsterdam were health professional educators and researchers with a special interest in the health system and professional and service communication.

Pam said she found it interesting that her paper appeared to be the only one investigating how medical humanities can inform communication teaching, although she saw some posters with similar themes. Read the rest of this entry »

Professor Alan Trounson gave a lecture to Year A students when he visited Churchill in September.

Eminent scientist Professor Alan Trounson captivated  Year A medical students with his lecture at Churchill on Monday 29 September.

Professor Trounson, Emeritus Professor Monash University, was a pioneer of human in vitro fertilisation (IVF), introducing fertility drugs for controlling ovulation, embryo freezing techniques, egg and embryo donation methods, initiated embryo biopsy, developing in vitro oocyte maturation methods and the vitrification of eggs and embryos.

He led the Australian team for the discovery of human embryonic stem cells in the late 1990s.

He told students it was an interest in farming that started his career. “I wanted to be a farmer,” he said. “I studied wool technology and ended up at Cambridge University (London), working with cattle and horses on reproduction.” Read the rest of this entry »

Innovative: Cathy Ward explains the school's use of Zoom to visitors at our Innovation & Technology Expo stand.

The School of Rural Health put its use of technology on show at the Innovation and Technology Expo in September. The event featured exhibitions, information sessions and demonstrations specific to PhD students, early career researchers, supervisors and other research staff.

Dr Julie Willems represented the school and contributed two demonstations of our use of Zoom, a cloud-based meeting technolgy currently being trialed by the University.

Two Ed Tech Inservice sessions were broadcast to the expo which generated a lot of interest. Julie and Cathy Ward were able to explain to visitors how the school uses Zoom. Both sessions demonstrated participants across multiple sites working on the same presentation or document.

Cathy and Melissa McNicol, who also attended the expo, will be disseminating all the useful tips they learned over the next couple of weeks. If you’d like to know more about what they learned, please contact them.

Zoom, zoom: Julie Willems conducts a training session on Prezi using the online meeting application, Zoom.

A forum to provide information and direction on topics that may help develop and shape your career will be held at MUDRIH in Moe on Wednesday 26 November 2014.

The Early Career Research Forum is open to any School of Rural Health staff interested.

Guest speakers will provide expert direction on the topics for discussion:

• translating research into practice
• highlighting your research in the media

The forum runs from 9.30 am to noon, with lunch to follow.

You can attend by video- or teleconference, or in person. RSVP to Janelle McGrail by Monday 10 November on 5128 1016 or email: janelle.mcgrail@monash.edu.

By gum: students constructed three red gum tables for Bendigo's deck

Medical students took time out from their weekend studies to build three outdoor tables for the cafe at SRH Bendigo.

Past TAFE teacher, John Harvey, collected the redgum from his rural property. He oversaw the work which culminated in an all-day effort one Sunday in August. The finished tables are so heavy they had to be constructed on-site.

A few coats of marine varnish applied by the students between lessons over the ensuing days brought out the classic deep red colour of the timber.

The tables now host patrons of the cafe which shares the ground floot of SRH Bendigo.

Ban naked tea pots: quirky tea cosies were among many items on display at Bendigo's Off Ramp Creations exhibition.

Funds raised through an exhibition of the creative output of Bendigo-based staff will benefit a local primary school with a mult-cultural program.

The Off Ramp Creations exhibition demonstrated that staff do have a life outside work. The exhibition included photography, painting, poetry, woodwork, embroidery, patchwork and knitting. One staff member even launched a crusade to ensure no teapot goes un-cosied, contributing some delightful examples of tea-cosy art.

Curated for the second year by Dr Natalie Radomski, the exhibition ran for 10 days and was open to visitors and staff for a gold coin donation.

Creative: Bendigo-based staff revealed hidden talents.

Graduates: Kendall Livingstone, Judi Lawless, Tracey Minster and Jo Kingsley successfully completed their accounting studies.

A number of dedicated School of Rural Health personnel recently celebrated an impressive professional development achievement.

Kendall Livingstone from SRH Mildura, along with Tracey Minster,  Judi Lawless and Jo Kingsley all based in Gippsland, completed their Certificate IV of Accounting and Diploma of Accounting.

The women celebrated with their classmates at a graduation ceremony and afternoon tea on 10 September at Monash University’s Caulfield campus.

All four had attended 12 workshops and finished 12 intensive assignments as well as four Recognised Prior Learning (RPL) modules while juggling busy work and home lives.

Congratulations also to Michelle Ryan who completed her Certificate IV in Bookkeeping.

The women chose to undertake this study to build on their existing skills and knowledge of finance and accounting. Their enhanced expertise in all facets of financial reporting, budgeting and the legal context of accounting is expected to deliver genuine benefits to SRH.

Are paper pay slips just cluttering up your pigeon hole? You do have the option to opt out of receiving a printed pay slip every fortnight if you find you don’t need them. (And some sites haven’t received them in a long time anyway.)

All your pay slips are available online through ESS if you do need to print a copy.

Save a tree – email payroll@monash.edu and ask them to opt you out.