East Gippsland’s Eleanor Mitchell and Angelo D’Amore are taking part in the Scientists in School program and have recently begun a partnership with Tambo Upper Primary School in East Gippsland.

Scientists in Schools is a national program run under the auspices of the CSIRO that creates and supports long-term partnerships between teachers and scientists.

Eleanor and Angelo had their first session with the Year 5/6 composite class in May, looking at Acids and Bases.  The students were taught the basics about pH and how to go about doing an experiment.  They were able to test the pH of different substances using litmus paper and red cabbage juice and also the pH of lemon juice, detergent, river water and the soil in the school’s vegetable garden. Read the rest of this entry »

Onscreen: the new Advanced ALS Simulator can simulate real life scenarios in a safe, lab environment

Five East Gippsland Regional Clinical School staff recently had a hands-on, one day course on operation of the newly installed Advanced ALS Simulator. The day covered instruction on the use of the simulator’s software, in addition to planning and programing scenarios.

The Advanced ALS Simulator will allow the clinical school to perform preprogramed specific scenarios and enables the educator to run a scenario in real time while controlling the ALS mannequin’s reactions. It will also allow the instructor to manipulate the responses according to the desired learning outcomes and include the ability to record events (both positive and negative), track trends and record for debriefing purposes.

The program and equipment will help simulate real life scenarios in a safe environment for all medical students and other health professionals who use the East Gippsland simulation suite. It is hoped that this equipment will help teach students such skills as recognising the deteriorating patient and be used as a tool for real time debriefing and feedback.

– Loy Perryman
Academic coordinator/Clinical Educator, EGRCS Sale campus

East Gippsland Regional Clinical School, in partnership with Bairnsdale Regional Health Service (BRHS) and Gippsland Region Rural Maternity Support Program, recently held an Obstetric Emergency Workshop for medical students and midwifery staff at the School’s Bairnsdale Campus.

Obstetric emergencies are topics/procedures that are embedded into the Year 4C medical curriculum, while midwifery staff are required to practice clinical knowledge and skills annually to maintain competencies.

The workshop participants included 10 Year 4C medical students and seven midwifery staff from BRHS. Tutors were BRHS midwifery educator Ms Lynne Hammond, Midwife Ms Angela Kellock, Clinical Midwife Consultant, Ms Kylie Osborne and General Practitioner Dr Elizabeth Boyd. Read the rest of this entry »

Two University of Melbourne final year medical students undertook a two week placement at Latrobe Community Health Service in May.

Jane Taylor, Interprofessional Educator, supervised the students and scheduled them to participate in the various programs across LCHS. The students were involved in visits to clients, attended the Moe After Hours Medical Service (MAHMS), meetings, workshops, clinics and undertook an audit of several LCHS clients.

The students gave a presentation to staff at the end of their placement. Recent feedback from the University of Melbourne was that the students have found their placement rewarding and enjoyable and Melbourne now has medical students indicating that they would like to be considered for placements scheduled at LCHS for the rest of 2012.

If the walls could talk: students on placement with Latrobe Community Health Service take part in multi-disciplinary workshops.

Part of the program involving the Monash University Department of Rural and Indigenous Health (MUDRIH) and Latrobe Community Health Service (LCHS) is various workshops and clinics for students on placement at LCHS.

Mollie Burley, Jane Taylor and Sue Townsend have been conducting these for some time. Recent workshops included an Interprofessional Collaboration workshop for students from differing health disciplines including medicine, dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy, pharmacy and counselling, while another was an Integrated Student Supervised Clinic, again for students for different disciplines.

Interprofessional Collaboration Workshops are offered whenever students from three or more disciplines are on placement at LCHS at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »

The new research council formalises the collaboration between Latrobe Community Health Servies and MUDRIH

The launch of a Research Council has formalised the collaboration between Latrobe Community Health Service (LCHS) with Monash University Department of Rural and Indigenous Health (MUDRIH) which has been assisting LCHS in building its research capacity.

The Research Council consists of staff from MUDRIH, Monash University Senior Lecturer and LCHS. This is a new and exciting era for LCHS, where research is being embedded into the organisation with the assistance, support and guidance of Monash University.

LCHS Chairperson, Mr John Guy and CEO, Mr Ben Leigh officially launched the Research Council at a recent function. LCHS staff currently undertaking research gave short presentations of their projects which included Wound Care, Caregivers, Healthy Heart and Student Supervised Clinic. Hanan Khalil (MUDRIH) gave an overview of the Joanna Briggs Institute: Gippsland Centre for Chronic Disease Management. Mollie Burley gave a final presentation on the future of LCHS research both internally and externally.

Gippsland Medical School lecturer Tracy Morrison has had an abstract of her PhD ‘Faculty development, leadership and organisational culture – a case study’ accepted for a presentation at the Case Studies Methodologies conference in Orlando in July 2012.

It will be a busy couple of months for Tracy and also Professor Debra Nestel, who have had two abstracts accepted at the ANZAHPE meeting in New Zealand for PEMER (program of excellence in medical education research) and MERGE (Enabling multi-level learners in general practice).
Tracy will be presenting these at the conference in late June.

Debra has also been invited to serve as one of four Symposium Co-chairs for the upcoming Society in Healthcare Faculty Development Symposium, being held on 25 and 26 January 2013 in Orlando, Florida on the eve of the 13th International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare.

MUDRIH has made a major contribution to a recent Medical Journal of Australia supplement dealing with parental mental illness

Monash University Department of Rural and Indigenous Health academics have made a major contribution to a recent supplement of the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA):  Parental Mental Illness is a Family Matter.

As well as co-authoring two of the 11 papers in the supplement, Associate Professor Maybery (MUDRIH) joined colleagues Dr Andrea Reupert and Dr Nick Kowalenko from Monash and Sydney University respectively to co-edit the supplement.

One of the key messages was that mental illness impacts on more than the individual. In families where a parent has a mental illness, children are affected in many and often adverse ways.

The supplement was undertaken in collaboration with the National Children of Parents with a Mental Illness (COPMI) Initiative. The supplement includes 11 papers from renowned International and Australian authors (two co-authored by Associate Professor Maybery, and notably an editorial from Australian of the year, Professor Patrick McGorry.

MJA is Australia’s leading peer-reviewed general medical journal, with an impact factor of 2.68 and in an ERA 2010 rank of A.

Year 4 & 5 Academic Coordinator, Mark Heald, showcased the Mildura facilities for a group of careers advisors.

Links between schools and local industry have been enhanced through a professional development program run by the Northern Mallee Local learning and Employment Network (NMLLEN) and involving the Mildura Regional Clinical School.

Mark Heald, Academic coordinator for Year 4 and 5 students, showcased the Mildura Regional Clinical School to 18 local careers advisors on a tour of the facility.

They also took in an information session around the requirements needed for entry into medicine and the different pathways open to rural students, which they were happy to take back to their individual organisations and share with students in the upper secondary year levels.

Year 3 medical students bought a touch of realism to the information-sharing session with an overview of both their learning and personal experiences at Mildura’s clinical school.

Mildura RCS introduced prospective students to the skills lab at their May information evening.

Mildura Regional Clinical School  enjoyed an excellent turnout at its second annual information evening for years 10, 11 and 12 secondary school students, together with their families and carers.

More than 70 people, including more than 30 students, attended the evening to hear from Monash staff and students about the pathways and possibilities that Monash University offers school students who would like to pursue a career in medicine. Read the rest of this entry »