Associate Professor Elmer Villanueva

As well as taking on the role of Acting Director, Gippsland Regional Clinical School, Associate Professor Elmer Villanueva has been invited by the Commonwealth Government to become a member of the Advisory Committee on Biologicals (ACB) of the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

The ACB provides advice to the Minister for Health and the Therapeutic Goods Administration on issues relating to cell and tissue therapy products.  This appointment is due to Elmer’s expertise in population health, epidemiology and biostatistics.  His appointment started in September and runs until the end of 2014.

Elmer has also received an invitation to sit as Member on the Inaugural Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medical Devices (ACSMD).

Lisa Lavey from the Office of Research presented a poster at the Australasian Research Management Society’s (ARMS) Annual National Conference on the Gold Coast recently.

Lisa attended the conference, which had the theme ‘Ride the Wave of Collaboration: Industry, Institutions, Individuals,’ with Cathy Ward from the Office of Research and Michelle Moon from Bendigo Regional Clinical School.

Lisa’s poster was entitled:  ‘Collaborative research projects across Universities: developing guidelines to support research partnerships.’

The abstract explanation was: “Universities are promoting research collaboration as part of their overall research strategies, while at the same time centralising core services to all departments, schools and faculties. An effect of centralisation is that research collaborations and partnerships are made increasingly difficult.”

Project stages of development outlined the processes involved in collaborative partnerships, the problems and recommendations for improvement. It was the 14^th annual conference of the Society.

The Office of Research has enjoyed visits by two visiting academics, Professor Stephen Campbell, Professor of Primary Care Research with the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and Associate Professor Mike Jones from the Macquarie University.

Mike and Stephen have been working with staff of the Office of Research on various research projects, and will complete their work on 5 October and 12 October respectively.

The Director of Research, Leigh Kinsman and Stephen will visit Alice Springs to meet with Centre of Research Excellence collaborators from Flinders University, Alice Springs.

Stephen Campbell

Mike Jones

At a recent SRH Education Forum held in Bendigo, Judi Walker and Laura Major lead a discussion on the school’s involvement with the FRAME – Medical Schools Outcomes Database (MSOD) Survey and longitudinal tracking project, as well as strategies which will be implemented to increase student survey returns.

The FRAME survey is sent to students following their longest stint in a rural clinical schools and forms part of the MSOD and Longitudinal Tracking project, the world’s first nationally coordinated project for tracking medical students through medical school and into prevocational and vocational training.

The MSOD Project is a collaboration of a number of key stakeholder organisations representing students, postgraduate education and training, rural and Indigenous health, and workforce planning.

MSOD Project objectives include:

• Provision of an effective, reliable evaluation mechanism for assessing long-term outcomes of educational programs, in particular those aimed at increasing the recruitment and retention of a rural medical workforce.
• Provision of a secure, reliable source of accurate, up-to-date data for the purposes of long-term medical workforce planning.
• Determining the effectiveness of targeted programs and interventions in influencing the career decisions of medical students.
• Promotion of strategic reform of medical education policy and programs at the university, state and Commonwealth levels in order to match program and policy frameworks with national health priorities.
• Provision of an information resource for research projects for Australian medical educators that will contribute to the national and international literature on medical education.

The school’s active involvement with the project will ensure that it continues to meet all RCTS funding parameters, in particular Parameter 8 – Maintaining and progressing an evidence base.

The administration of the student survey across the school will coincide with scheduled end of semester Year 3B and 4C feedback sessions across all four regional clinical schools, to ensure all relevant students complete the survey.  This new way of administering the survey will ensure that Monash’s 2012 survey return rate will be an improvement on previous years.

For more information on the MSOD project and some more interesting facts, have a look at p26 of the August edition of Partyline magazine, published by the National Rural Health Alliance.

You can “like” the MSOD Facebook page which will keep you up-to-date with all things MSOD. You can also visit the Medical Deans website for up-to-date information

–        By Laura Major, Manager, Rural Education Program (OHoS)

Gippsland Medical School students recently completed their placement at Latrobe Community Health Service (LCHS) as part of a cross organisational experience designed to give them an insight into the range of services provided.

The Community Health Service hosted the 10 students this year, five in semester one and five in semester two. They attended various programs such as Creative House, District Nursing, Primary Intervention, Assessment, Aged and Disability Services and Drug Treatment Services.

The placements culminated in an evaluation day which, among the various formalities and perhaps as a sign of the success of the program, included an afternoon tea with a spread of home baked cakes direct from the kitchen of Student Placement Officer with LCHS Sue Townsend.

More formally, Gippsland Medical School’s Dr Margaret Simmons, CBP Academic Coordinator and Susan Smith, CBP Agency Liaison, attended to discuss the placements and confirm that the current program was meeting all student goals and objectives.

LCHS supervising staff Jane Taylor, Interprofessional Educator, along with Sue Townsend attended to give the students an opportunity to provide feedback on their thoughts and experiences during their placement and to finalise paperwork.

The student evaluations were all positive and the general consensus was that the current rotation was working really well. Some student comments were, “Keep the rotations, they worked fantastically”, “I had an excellent time and gained an appreciation of all the important services available in the community” and “learnt lots about the importance of ‘whole patient’ care and integrated care.”

Latrobe Community Health Service is looking forward to hosting the next cohort of Gippsland Medical School students in 2013.

Gary Hart (left) and Annie Tweedle (right) with Monash University medical students from left, Grace Vittor, Dorcas Lim, Bonnie Morison, Liying Chen, Rachel Elliott, Margaret Young, Ben Bentzen and Daman Tjibaenyana.

With more than a little help from local people with limited sight or Muscular Sclerosis, Monash University medical students based in Warragul learned a lot from the first of their community patient visits recently.

The students, who are undertaking their studies with the Gippsland Regional Clinical School this year, met up with patients at Vision Australia in Warragul.

The visit was organised by Gippsland Regional Clinical School community representative Mavis Gallienne and gave the students the chance to talk with patients in a relaxed atmosphere. Two local people, Gary Hart and Annie Tweedle, gave of their time to speak with the students on a wide range of topics beyond the physical condition.

The aim of the visit is to help medical students consider and understand some of the social, economic and psychological issues which face patients and also how to discuss with a patient, in a sensitive way, personal feelings about the diagnosis of a chronic disabling illness.

They were also exposed to the impact on a patient’s social, emotional and physical well being, while also discussing treatments available for MS, the cost of treatment and the economic impact on individuals with MS.

As well as taking a focused history on the patient, the students were encouraged to display empathy and, as a follow up activity, completed a written reflection on three skills that worked well in communicating with patient and three ways to improve their communication with patients. On the day after the visit, the group took part in a follow up session based on a clinical presentation of a patient with MS.

It was an extremely useful session for all involved and the students were very grateful for the time they spent with Gary and Annie, the organisation by Mavis Gallienne and the chance to meet and discuss issues with MS Society Nurse for Gippsland, Robert Slade.

Mildura Regional Clinical School is gradually collecting a nice bank of community people who enjoy being crash test dummies for mock OSCEs.

In September the Year 3 students were put through their paces in preparation for exam OSCEs later in the year.  The patients enjoy their roles, and are eager not to muck up.  Verbatim comments from the sim patients about why they are happy to help included:

• “to be part of the program to help support and retain students in Mildura”
• “I am happy to assist students and local facilities prosper”
• “A new challenge for myself”
• “[to be] valued as an individual”
• “interested in helping … encouraging medical students to the rural areas”
• “helping health professionals learn to treat patients”

Professor Stephen Campbell

Professor Stephen Campbell, Professor of Primary Care Research with the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, will present a workshop for members of the research team in Bendigo titled ‘Grants, Papers, Targets and Research Planning’.

The workshop will be held on Tuesday, 9 October, from 2pm to 4pm in Tutorial Room 5, Mercy St Building, Bendigo.

Please register early by contacting Cathy Ward by Friday 5 October by email cathy.ward@monash.edu

Stephen is Professor of Primary Care Research at the University of Manchester, UK. He has more than 150 publications generating in excess of 5000 citations. His research focuses on the quality and safety of general practice and primary care.

He is also a Postgraduate Research Tutor for Primary Care and the Institute of Population Health at the University of Manchester, and teaches Primary Care in the University of Manchester.

As well, Stephen is Principal Investigator on the £6,300,000 NIHR Greater Manchester Primary Care Patient Safety Translational Research Centre.

Eighteen hour flights each way for a ten day stay in Rwanda presented a daunting schedule for Gippsland student Hemmavathy Valluvan, known as Hemma – but as she reports, the experience was priceless.

Hemma with one of the Rwandan doctors taking part in the program.

In early August, I was selected as one of seven Australian Medical Students to accompany 20 specialists from all over Australia to assist and take part in the Specialists Without Borders Training Program in Rwanda.

Just the mere thought of having being selected to attend left me in disbelief, much less the realisation that I will be going on an 18 hour flight to Rwanda.

Rwanda is a beautiful country, very mountainous with an agriculture-based economy. The Rwandan government has playing a key role in ensuring the development of Rwanda by making numerous infrastructural changes such as the construction of roads and a proper traffic system.

The country also understands the importance of health awareness and service and has thus come up with many health programs and policies to ensure that its people are supported. In fact, over the past four years, there has been a steep increase in development of available resources and affordable and accessible health services.

A local child in hospital can still manage a smile.

The 10 day stay in Rwanda included two days of medical conference and six days of hospital visits in the city and villages. Unlike the majority of global health projects that primarily revolve around health education and health service, this program focused on training the local medical students and doctors to be capable of handling medical situations themselves by providing them with resources, basic skills and knowledge, including fundamental medical skills such as intubation and neonatal and adult resuscitation.

There was even a psychiatrist registrar who was able to educate the doctors on the importance of the holistic management of suicidal patients and those who are diagnosed with chronic illnesses.

The most eye opening experience I had was when I was on an orthopaedic rotation at the Kigabagaba Hospital. Since I had already seen numerous orthopaedic surgeries in Australia, I walked into their surgical theatre expecting the usual pattern of procedure.

However, what welcomed me was reggae music in the background, a femur exposed thigh and an orthopaedic surgeon who was actually a General Practitioner trained to conduct orthopaedic, gynaecological and general surgeries.

As much as I was worried that the patient would die from an increased loss of blood or an infection, everyone else in the surgical room were grooving to the music.

I have worked in Latrobe Regional Hospital this year and there were moments where the hospital might lack certain equipment or specialists for the patient and require the patient to be flown via a helicopter to hospitals like the Alfred. However, after going to Rwanda and having this experience, I could see the big difference in the level of health system in a developed country versus a developing country.

On my last day in Rwanda, a Rwandan doctor came up to me and pointed at the cover page of the information guide for the program and said: “See that girl standing at the back? It’s me when I was a medical student. I have been coming for this conference for the past four years because it is very good. I have gained so much knowledge, skills and most importantly confidence. Thank you so much for doing this.”

I could not help but give her hug and feel so proud of her. There is nothing more you can ask for from any global health program than improvement, creation of awareness and gratitude from the target population. This trip was definitely worth its 36 hour travel itinerary.

–        By Gippsland student Hemma Valluvan

Fourteen Year 2 students spent two weeks in Mildura for their rural immersion and, apart from clinical observations, the students experienced some exciting aspects of country life which they might not have otherwise seen.

Amazing Race

Students gained a very quick introduction to Mildura by forming teams led by a Year 3 student and navigating to find various Mildura landmarks / locations. As part of the ‘Amazing Race’ a small task had to be performed at each spot.

The race took students and their drivers-in-the-know across the width and breadth of the city, before finishing at the clinical school for a sausage sizzle.

The ‘race’ has been used previously with new students and is an immensely popular and fun-packed activity for both new and existing students … and the staff!

Tracking a friendly roo – well, hopefully friendly – is all part of the experience for Mildura students taking part in the amazing race.

Farm visit

Students looked a bit tentative as they ‘helped’ with the calf gelding exercise.

Each year the Year 2 students are introduced to the realities of outback farming while learning about animal-borne diseases under the guidance of local veterinarian Dr Bill Sutherland.

This semester, their animal observations included pregnancy testing on cows, and gelding calves.

Mungo national park tour

A day trip to the Mungo National Park, about 110 kilometres north east of Mildura, which encompasses The Walls of China always has its surprises!

Rose and Michael Gilby escorted the bus-load of students to Mungo, and also provided a fascinating overview of the area’s cultural history and importance to local tribal groups.  Remains of the earliest known humans to inhabit the Australian continent have been found in Mungo National Park, dating back to nearly 40,000 years ago. Mungo is thus the site of one of earth’s longest continuous human habitations. Originally a vast lake system, the current lunar-type landscape of the region is fascinating including the so-called Walls of China shapes.

While the students were exploring the Park, Nadine and Jenny were trying to staff the barbecue but were terrorised by the local crows who obviously hadn’t seen human food for a long time. They (the crows, that is) diligently pecked their way through the sides of plastic containers to get to the bread; since they had already made off with two tubs of butter it was appropriate that the bread would be their next target.