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Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
School of Rural Health Mildura
Newsletter
Summer 2014/2015
Opening of Renovated Skills Lab
The renovated Skills Lab was officially
opened by Mr Andrew Broad, Federal
Member for Mallee on the 20th of
February 2014. Other invited guests
included Mr Glen Milne, Mayor of
Mildura Rural City Council, Mr Ross
Lanyon, Chair of the Mallee Health
Foundation and Mr Dane Huxley, CEO
of Mildura Base Hospital. The invited
guests were provided with a tour
and demonstration of the facilities by
medical students and staff from the
School of Rural Health.
Mr Andrew Broad cutting the ribbon to open the Skills Lab.
Director’s Report
Associate Professor Fiona Wright, Director SRH Mildura
2014 was again a busy year
for the School. We started with
a name change (from Mildura
Regional Clinical School) to
“School of Rural Health Mildura”
to bring nomenclature in line with
University policy.
105 students spent time at SRH
Mildura in 2014, with their stays
ranging from 2 weeks to 36 weeks.
For the first time in 2014, we offered
6-week placements to fifth year
students in Indigenous Health (at
MDAS), Anaesthetics (at MBH) and
Cardiology (at Mildura Cardiology).
We hope to increase the number
and variety of Year 5 electives in
years to come, with likely options to
include Oncology/Palliative Care and
Clinical Skills/Medical Education.
The School as a whole, incorporating
sites at Bendigo, Gippsland,
Churchill and Mildura, underwent an
internal Faculty review in July 2014.
The outcomes report, released in
December 2014, indicates that the
Faculty was very pleased with the
standard of education delivered
to MBBS students in the Regional
Schools, and that the Schools
were meeting expectations around
workforce outcomes.
There were also several staff
changes in 2014:
• Evelien Spelten was appointed as
a part-time Research Fellow to
assist staff and students develop
research skills;
• Nicky Meredith commenced work
as an Administrative assistant
March 2014;
continued on page 2
www.med.monash.edu/srh/mildura
Director’s Report…continued from page 1
• Kris Pinney transferred to our School
to coordinate the Year 2 and 3 MBBS
programmes, after 28 years with the
Mildura Base Hospital!
heart-felt ‘thank you’ to each of you who
is involved in any way with the teaching,
supervision or support of our students.
Unfortunately, two key staff retired after
many years commitment to the School
– Assoc Prof Ian Pettigrew and Ms Kate
Murdoch. We sincerely thank them for
their contributions and wish them well in
their new endeavours.
I would also like to welcome Travis Taggert
to the Mildura medical fraternity as Intern
at MBH. Travis was born in Mildura and
spent all of Year 3 and portions of Year 5
at the Mildura School. He will undertake
a full year placement as Intern at MBH
during 2015.
Most importantly, I am very pleased to
advise that all Year 3, 4 and 5 students
who spent time at Mildura in 2014
were successful in their end-of-year
assessments and progressed to the next
level. This 100% success rate is due to
a combination of dedicated teaching by
staff at the School and the wonderful,
supportive, hands-on experiences
students access during each of their
clinical placements. I would like to say a
During 2015, there will be 13 x Year
3 students at Mildura for the whole
Academic year (36 weeks) , 9 x Year 4
students (18 week placements) 55 x Year
5 students (6 week placements), and up to
44 Year 2 students (2 week placements).
We hope the School can continue to
rely on your support and mentorship as
we grow and improve, and look forward
to seeing you at some of the School
functions to be held throughout the year.
Upcoming Events
13 February 2015
The Registrars, HMOs and Interns
from Mildura Base Hospital will attend
a lunch at the School to meet the
Year 3 students. Mr Kevin Chambers,
Director of Surgery and Dr Vasant
Mani, Director of Medicine have also
been invited.
18 February 2015
A dinner to welcome the Year 3, 4
and 5 students to the School and to
the town will be held on the 18th of
February at The Rustic Olive. Local
dignitaries have been invited including
Mr Peter Crisp, State Member for
Mildura, Mr Andrew Broad, Federal
Member for Mallee, Mr Glen Milne,
Mayor of Mildura Rural City Council
and Mr Dane Huxley, Chief Executive
Officer Mildura Base Hospital and our
Head of School, Professor Judi Walker.
welcome to attend. The session will
commence at 1745pm on Tuesday
17th March. Refreshments will be
provided. (Please RSVP to Kris Pinney
for catering purposes on 5022 5537 or
kris.pinney@monash.edu).
21 May 2015
An Information Night will be held for
school students considering a career
in medicine. This evening will provide
an opportunity for local high school
students to ask questions about
admission processes for Monash
MBBS, meet current medical students
and view our facilities.
20 October 2015
Save The Date! End of year “thank
you” function for supervisors, tutors
and students. Venue to be advised
closer to the date.
17 March 2015
Associate Professor Chris Wright,
Academic Director, Clinical Programs
will be visiting the School to address
members of the MBH Medical Staff
Group and local GPs. All local doctors
interested in viewing the school’s
facilities and hearing more about
the Monash MBBS curriculum are
Manager’s
Report
2015 begins as our 12th year of
hosting medicine students with 13
Y3B, 9 Y4C and 10 Y5D students
eagerly starting semester 1 and I
welcome each and every student
to our school. It is also fantastic to
see so many familiar faces in Y5D
returning to Mildura, welcome back!
2014 ended with a few staffing
changes to our school. Kate
Murdoch’s retirement made way for
Kris Pinney who has over 20 year
experience with the Mildura Base
Hospital. We welcome Kris to our
team in a full time capacity. We
also welcome back Dr John Russell
who spent the second half of 2014
tutoring sessionally and providing
valuable clinical skills sessions with
students and supervising students
in ED. He will also be a part of our
teaching team in semester 1.
As part of the Loddon Mallee SLE
project, the School of Rural Health
Mildura’s simulation laboratory
delivered over 3000 hours of
simulated learning to undergraduate
and post graduate students as well
as other health professionals. Our
high fidelity manikins – SimMan,
SimMom, SimBaby and SimNewby
have been off for their end of year
maintenance and are ready for
another year of scenarios with
Howard Cook and Kristy Allen
coordinating students and other
participants.
The rest of the Mildura team
are well prepared for the 2015
academic year after many hours of
planning and scheduling at the end
of last year. Our annual information
night in May, Teddy Bear Hospitals
in May and September as well as
our mini medicine academy days
later in the year are just of a few
of the events we have planned for
2015. I look forward to giving you
all an update later in the year.
Kendall Livingstone,
Regional Manager
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Teddy Bear
Hospitals 2014
The 2nd Year and 3rd Year MBBS Students on
placement at the School of Rural Health Mildura
conducted Teddy Bear Hospitals at Ranfurly, Mildura
West, Irymple and Mildura Central Primary Schools in
May and September 2014.
Eyenaemia App
Eyenaemia analyses the conjunctiva and
calculates the risk of anaemia, putting
years of medical training into the hands
of untrained users.
Jarrel and Jennifer took home
$50,000 and the Imagine Cup in front
of 3,900 Microsoft’s global employees
attending the TechReady19 event at
the Washington State Convention
Centre last week.
Monash medical students Jennifer Tang (left), Jarrel Seah (middle), and Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella (right)
Two Monash University medical students
who spent time at Mildura and North West
in both Year 4 and Year 5 have taken home
the Microsoft Imagine Cup for their selfie
Jarrel Seah and Jennifer Tang beat more
than 33,000 students worldwide to take
out the top prize.
Jarrel and Jennifer’s Eyenaemia app is a
simple, non-invasive and easily accessible
screening tool for anaemia.
app for anaemia. This app is designed to
assist clinics in rural and remote areas.
Student Numbers Snapshot @ 2014
YEAR 1
YEAR 2
YEAR 3
YEAR 4
YEAR 5
TOTAL
2009
21
24
11
11
24
70
2010
20
24
12
16
23
75
2011
22
27
12
16
21
76
2012
—
48
10
16
40
94*
#
2013
—
30
13
16
55
114
2014
—
44
12
8
41
105
The pair also won the incredible
opportunity to sit down with Microsoft
Founder Bill Gates for a private mentoring
session and they will receive an invitation
to work with Microsoft YouthSpark for
a week.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the
125 students and 34 teams who made
the finals that everyone who was a finalist
should think of themselves as a winner
– especially since the competition began
with 33,000 students.
Number of doctors who
were former students of SRH-M
returned to Mildura Base Hospital
as interns or registrars:
2012
2013
2014
8
7
5
* added Aged Care placements.
#
new electives in Indigenous Health, Anaesthetics and Cardiology, plus an additional placement in Emergency (3 in total).
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Annual Celebratory Function
An Annual Celebratory Function was
held on the 24th of October 2014.
Mildura Director Associate Professor
Fiona Wright welcomed guests.
The Rustic Olive provided a delicious
assortment of continuous finger food and
beverages throughout the evening.
As per past celebratory events, the night
was combined with a fundraising activity
for the local cancer resources volunteer
group, with guests asked to pay a minimum
of $25 to attend (and secure a ticket) and
all proceeds from ticket ‘sales’ were then
passed on to the charity.
It was also an excellent and appropriate
venue to make presentations of appreciation
and farewell to Associate Professor Ian
Pettigrew who is retiring from both full-time
practice and teaching.
Kate Murdoch surrounded by students.
It was also with much sadness that
we farewelled Kate Murdoch, Program
Administrator for Years 2 and 3 who
is retiring.
Presentations for appreciation were also
made to Mildura Base Hospital doctors
Dan Turner, Mark Wadsworth, Arvind Byka
and our own John Russell for their donation
of monies to purchase anatomy models
and mannequins for the school’s simulated
learning environment.
Associate Professor Ian Pettigrew giving his farewell speech.
PROMPT/Sim Mom Training
The PROMPT program was developed in the United Kingdom in
response to the identified need to reduce risks associated with
obstetric care. PROMPT delivers multi-professional obstetric
emergency training within hospitals using teamwork, drills, interactive
lectures and simulation methods. Studies have found that one of the
root causes of risk in maternity is the lack of multidisciplinary training
in the management of obstetric emergencies.
Local obstetricians and gynaecologists, anaesthetists and midwives
attended PROMPT * Training with Sim Mom at the SRH Mildura
skills lab.
The training involved setting a scenario of an obstetric emergency
(usually by an Obstetrician or Anaesthetist). Staff were informed of the
scenario on the day of training. Each particular practitioner carries out
his or her role as they would in a real-life situation. A debriefing was held
following the training and any concerns about how the situation was
handled were addressed with the various staff members concerned.
* Practical Obstetric Multi-Professional Training.
Associate Professor Ian Pettigrew providing feedback to staff during PROMPT Training.
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International Visitors
A group of 20 women from Myanmar, all
senior representatives of their country’s
health sector, were hosted for three days
by the School of Rural Health Mildura in
mid-June 2014. Their study tour aimed to
address healthcare problems contributing
to high infant and maternal morbidity
and mortality. They sought to gain insight
into improving the use of evidencebased obstetric practices in Myanmar.
The delegation trialled equipment in the
school’s simulation learning environment
and spoke with final year medical students
about differing health perspectives.
Organised by the Monash Sustainability
Institute, the 10-week visit to Victoria
was funded by a range of organisations
including the Australian and Myanmar
Governments, and the United Nations.
The women have been to various Monash
campuses including hospitals and rural
health care facilities. Monash researchers
are keen to learn about current issues
in Myanmar community health while the
Myanmar group is learning of Monash
initiatives in community health and
related areas.
Mini Medicine Academy Days
The School of Rural Health Mildura Mini Medicine Academy Days
were again offered to district secondary school students in 2014.
The program offered secondary students interested in a career in
medicine, a half day at the School of Rural Health Mildura where they
were provided with the opportunity to tour our facility, learn what is
offered locally, the chance to meet medical students on placement
here at Mildura, and to experience some hands on clinical skills
sessions (supported by Monash staff and students).
MMADs were held in June, August and September and were
attended by students from Irymple Secondary College, Red Cliffs
Secondary College, St Joseph’s College, Mildura Senior College,
Trinity Lutheran College and Chaffey Secondary College.
Contact
details
Above: Irymple Secondary School students are introduced to Sim Man.
Monash University
School of Rural Health Mildura
231-237 Thirteenth Street
Mildura West
Postal address
PO Box 6252
Mildura West Vic 3500
Telephone:+ 61 3 5022 5500
Facsimile: + 61 3 5022 5577
www.med.monash.edu/srh/mildura
Monash University reserves the right to alter information, procedures, fees and regulations contained in this document. Please check the Monash University website for updates
(www.monash.edu). All information reflects prescriptions, policy and practice in force at time of publication. Published February 2015. MMS378832.
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