The American Express Edition - Australian Medical Students

Official Magazine of the Australian Medical Students’ Association
Volume 45, Edition 2, 2011
In this edition:
Innovation or economisation
Putting social media to work
The Subconscious Stethiscope
10 Reasons Medical Students should join a Gym
The American Express Edition
The Totipotency of the Medical Student Body
Christchurch 198 Youth Health Centre Charity Event
Liberal Market Values have a lot to offer patients.
Elective Reports
and loads more...
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the
power
of your degree
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contents
3
Final words from AMSA 2011 by Robert Marshall & Lee Fairhead
4
The Autopsy by Yin Lin
7
Innovation or economisation? by Anonymous (Adelaide)
8
Health and Wellbeing Competition by Wendy Wang (UTAS)
’
10
Putting Social Media to Work by By Jeremy Hill, AMSA Treasurer (2011)
12
Luck by Andrew Mamo (USYD)
14
The Subconscious Stethoscope by Hamish Gunn (UTAS)
16
10 Reasons Students Should Join A Gym By Samantha Stott (Newcastle)
17
The Totipotency of the Medical Student Body by Molly Kehoe (UNDA Freo)
18
Global Health Conference 2011 by Jasmine O'Neill (UNDA Freo)
20
Mentoring Matters by Prashanti Manchikanti and Stefanie Pender (Monash)
22
Australians pay inflated textbook prices by Grant Ross (Melbourne)
24
Elective Report - Vienna, Austria by Jessica McDonald (Bond)
26
Christchurch 198 Youth Health Centre Charity Event by Aysha Al-Ani (Deakin)
28
Thank God You're Here by Elliot Dolan-Evans (Griffith)
30
Liberal Market Values have a lot to offer patients by Grant Ross (Melb)
32
Not At The Movies by Lucy Donlon (UNE)
34
The AMSA Rep Reports
panacea
Volume 45, Edition 2
Editor
Proofing & Design
Andrew Dunn
December 2011
Maya Rajagopalan
Robert Hand
The AMSA Executive
major sponsors
Advertising Enquiries:
e: [email protected]
AMSA would like to thank its major partners for their ongoing support.
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2
Final words from AMSA 2011
Robert Marshall & Lee Fairhead
As 2011 draws to an end, the Christmas
parades begin, and medical students around
Australia celebrate the end of another (or final)
academic year; my term as AMSA President,
and that of our Perth based Executive, is
drawing to a close. In October, the new
Executive from Victoria was elected, headed
by incoming President James Churchill, who
will take the reigns on January 1 2012.
The importance of recruiting and retaining
Indigenous medical students and improved
awareness of the discrepancies between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous health
outcomes
The end of the year inevitably conjures a sense
of reflection on what has been an incredibly
busy, productive, and successful period for
AMSA. I’m sure every AMSA President must
think that looking back on the year, as the
retrospectoscope inevitably distorts our
perception of both the importance and the
effectiveness of 12 months’ worth of lobbying,
advocacy and representation on a number of
important issues. In 2011, however, I think it
might just be true.
The need to get the current crop of students
through the system before opening any new
medical schools
We began the year strongly advocating for
an increased focus on the quality of medical
education and training and continued to
advocate and agitate on core issues affecting
medical students in Australia. These have
included:
Our stance against the re-emergence of fullfee places for domestic students enrolled in
the Melbourne MD degree
The impact on the quality of training caused
by increasing student numbers
The issues of student overload and the
prospect of International students missing out
on internships
The importance of medical student wellbeing
The importance of ethical electives and
opportunities for overseas and developing
world experiences for medical students and
junior doctors
Awareness of issues relating to the use of social
media amongst the medical profession
Our successful agitation to over-turn student
learning entitlement legislation
The importance of a workable and effective
transition to e-Health
The stance against bonding of students to rural
areas and the need for support and assistance
to recruit and retain rural origin students
Focus on the development of medical
education consistent with 21st century
medical professionalism
Most of these issues have had, at their core,
the problem of a severely overburdened
medical education system caused by
successive and large increases to the number
of medical students in Australia over the last
decade - the responsibility of Universities and
Governments alike. Finally recognising that
this problem was not going to go away on its
own, the Government established Health
Workforce Australia (funded to the tune of
$1 billion) and its National Training Plan. While
we have continued to contribute and shape
the modelling of the National Training Plan,
and the final report released in December
this year is sure to be crucial to addressing
both workforce shortages and the myriad of
problems with clinical training in Australia,
it’s worth noting that the name is a bit of a
misnomer. A far cry from a detailed “plan”, the
best we can hope for at this stage is a series of
calculations, models and data. Useful, certainly,
but it will still be the politicians on the hill who
decide how and when medical education will
be expanded, improved and properly funded.
Another big focus for 2011, as with every year,
is our community and student events. In July,
the AMSA Global Health Conference and
AMSA National Convention were both held in
Sydney. Attracting over 1600 students to both,
these events offered world-class speakers,
workshops and networking opportunities for
students from all over Australia. In August the
AMSA/NRHSN National Rural Leadsership
Development Seminar was held in Victor
Harbor, South Australia, and was also a
resounding success.
In September, the AMSA National Leadership
Development Seminar was held in Canberra
at Parliament House, with 80 handpicked
students from across Australia in attendance
with the likes of AMA President Steve
Hambleton, Deputy Leader of the Opposition
The Hon Julie Bishop MP, HWA DIrector Ian
Crettenden, MDANZ President Professor
Justin Beilby and AMA Vice-President
Professor Geoffrey Dobb.
Throughout the year, we also held three
AMSA National Councils, passing a myriad of
new policies which underpins and continues
to progress AMSA’s advocacy. We also finished
the year with the appointment of a new
Chief Executive Officer Ms Helen Jentz, who
commenced in Canberra in late November.
AMSA students are also active in the
community with over $25 000 raised for
the Movember campaign and making over
920 blood donations during the AMSA
National Blood Drive across the country,
which the Australian Red Cross estimates
as a contribution towards improving 2,760
lives. Our Pink Ribbon breakfast held during
National Convention in Sydney in July raised a
further $10,000 for the National Breast Cancer
Foundation. Finally, AMSA has taken the Red
Party project, which started at UWA in 2007,
to both the national and international medical
student communities, raising over $100,000
for HIV/AIDS in the process.
So, I think we can say that it has indeed been
a very busy, very important year for AMSA. If
I were to pinpoint what it continues to make
AMSA so successful - and I think the same
would be true of any professional association,
the AMA included - it is that our members, the
medical students of Australia, are ultimately
the people who can affect change and progress
the organisation. Students raise the issues, our
representatives turn those issues into policies
and solutions for a better way forward, and
we get to present those solutions to the
people making the big decisions in health and
education. Throughout the year, it has become
increasingly apparent just how important the
message of medical student leadership is. All
doctors are leaders, and it is our duty to step
up to the role and be a part of the process
of improving our health care system for the
benefit of all Australians.
It has been an incredible opportunity to
contribute in some small way to improving the
experience of my medical student colleagues,
and I know that next year’s Executive and
the many medical students who get involved
with AMSA in the future will continue to do
their best to connect, to inform and most
importantly, to represent.
3
The Autopsy
by Yin Lin (Bond)
What did you see when your last breath
was stolen, swallowed by the impact of
the drunk driver ramming into the side of your car
Did you see the
last glow of light that
filters through a closing guillotine
Did you see
a womb of stars as life reversed and time got sucked out
Now you lie, like a statue
in its perfect symmetry. And I examine your
lover-kissed lips, curved toes, and
fleshed rivulets of a spine.
But the man who snatched your life, a mother of his son and a daughter of his father,
lives. Yet he will never understand
the ghosts that ride their grief like heartbeats
pulsating through veins tunneling through your body like rivers.
He will not know the shadows growing from long to short to long
whilst they kneel in prayer.
Show me memories
of a heaven filled with shapeless dreams
Stitches on your knee – from showing off tricks to your mates on a skateboard
A scar down your chin – trying to finish a race first, tripped and landed wrongly
Burn marks on your wrist – you tried cooking to impress a first lover
The writer’s bump that you acquired while studying in your law degree
I am a stranger but
you must trust me. I can discover the last moments of
your waking life.
Surgeon knives tear apart the poetry of your skin
we shall write another day.
4
Australian Medical Association
Your voice in the
health system
of the future
Student MeMberShip iS Free
so join the AMA todAy And
enjoy A lifetiMe of
professionAl benefits.
the AMA is the only independent,
national voice of all doctors in
Australia. your membership
ensures physicians have a
say in the development
of the health system
you will lead into
the future.
Contact details
www.ama.com.au/jointheama
phone: 1300 133 655
email: [email protected]
5
6
Innovation or
economisation?
G
uess what kids? Analysis has
demonstrated that most
students only need to complete
one half to two thirds of a normal
OSCE before they have sufficiently
demonstrated competence. In the
proud spirit of innovation that
is so strong at this university, we
are only going to make the poorly
performing students continue for
the remainder of your end-of-year
OSCE! Such is the wonder and
power of statistical analysis.
You
know
those
written
examinations that medical students
used to complete? The ones where
you could explain your reasoning
and demonstrate adequate written
communication skills? Spending
hours marking those assessments
is unnecessary! A computer can do
all of that now with multiple choice
question examinations. We know it
might seem like an assessment of
your colouring-in skills, and well it
may be, but every doctor needs to
know how to complete lengthy and
irrelevant forms. Our focus at this
university is on clinical relevance
and life-long learning.
Other recent innovations at
this esteemed university have
modernised our Medical Program
and made it the envy of all others.
So many advances! There is no
evidence that increasing tutorial
sizes correlate to poorer learning
outcomes. Therefore in the spirit of
group learning, we have increased
tutorial sizes to facilitate the
development of teamwork skills.
It is also important for medical
students to be culturally aware
of all groups within our diverse
Australian
community.
This
explains our deliberate strategy
of ensuring there are not enough
chairs for all students to sit on.
by Anonymous (of Adelaide origins)
Remember the bad old days,
when groups of medical students
used to dissect an entire human
body during the course of their
pre-clinical training under the
supervision of a surgical registrar?
Anatomy teaching from cadavers
is a thing of the past too: it is all
online now! That is right: no more
formaldehyde-plus-latex
smell
sticking to your hands. You can
study coronary vasculature in
the simultaneous presence of the
comforting banality of Facebook.
If you think the Medical School
looks old, just wait until you get
into the public hospitals! Our
seventies decor will ensure you are
comfortable with life on the wards,
as will the almost complete absence
of any information technology.
Furthermore methicillin-resistant
staphylococcus
aureaus
and
vancomycin-resitant enterococcus
are nothing, literally nothing,
compared to the potent flora in
your student common room. This
is why the University does not
clean it. Not only have we achieved
a suitable environment in which to
research the potential effects of
biological warfare, but we have also
created a generation of microbeinvincible future doctors. You will
thank us in time.
The list of innovations goes on.
The compulsory First Aid course
that is a necessary component
of your assessment for First Year
will now be paid for by students.
The benefits of this are clear: if
students pay for the course, their
engagement with it will greatly
increase. The last thing we want is
for medical students to be slacking
off during their essential First Aid
training! Students will also pay for
all of their compulsory blood tests
and vaccinations. Remember: your
health and wellbeing is paramount,
so we need you to take it seriously
and pay for it.
Dear students, did you think that
is all we had? We have been saving
the most exciting innovation for
our last announcement. This will
set us apart from any other Medical
Program in Australia. Remember
the long, resource-intensive and
rigorous OSCE which you once had
to complete to pass your first clinical
year? Research has demonstrated
that the university simply cannot
afford this. We are scrapping your
only major summative clinical
assessment for the year. Good luck
learning for life.
The Medical Deans of Australia and
New Zealand (Medical Deans) have
calculated that it costs between
$50,727 and $51,149 per year to
train a medical student. The total
amount of funding from the
Federal Government (including
HECS) is $30,889 per student per
year. This means Medical Schools
need to find around $23,500.00
per student per year in additional
income and savings.
And you wonder why your Medical
School needs to keep ‘innovating’?
Australian Medical Schools are
functioning on the smell of a
formaldehydey rag. This threatens
the quality of medical education
in this country. AMSA recently
passed a policy calling for more
Commonwealth funding for basic
medical education in Australia. Go
to the AMSA website (www.amsa.
org.au) to find out more.
7
health and
wellbeing
competition
“The mental and physical health of medical students and doctors in Australia is an ongoing concern
within the medical profession and community. How do you believe the high rates of suicide,
depression, anxiety disorders, substance use and self-medication throughout the profession should
be addressed?”
By Wendy Wang (UTAS)
‘Everybody stand up. Now half you of you sit
down, those left standing will be depressed at
some point in their life. Of those still standing, can
the people in these rows sit down? Those left
standing will attempt suicide’. I distinctly remember
having a lecture of that nature back in First Year.
Or was it Second Year? It all becomes a blur after
awhile, as Medical School tends to be. Maybe I
remember that lecture so well because I was one
of the people left standing in the ‘suicide’ group.
A bit off-putting, yes, but I guess the intended
message sank in: ‘it could be you’.
There is no doubt that Medicine is busy and can
possibly dominate your life if you’re not careful.
Beyondblue reported that between 14-60% of
doctors suffer from depression, while 18-55%
experience anxiety disorders. Suicide rates were
higher among medical professionals in comparison
to the general population. Female doctors and
8
psychiatrists were found to be at highest risk
among this group.
Like almost everything in life, staying mentally and
physically healthy is about balance. Just think of
‘homeostasis’, for those into physiology.
All medical students will at some point encounter
the Frank-Starling law of the heart.
As end diastolic volume increases, myocytes are
stretched, resulting in greater force of contraction
and increased cardiac output. Cardiac output will
decrease if the myocytes are over-stretched.
(Srivastava 2006)
We can apply similar principles to our stress levels.
Our productivity can be increased by stress. But
if we are too stressed, then our health, happiness
and performance suffer.
(Berthume 2011)
Cardiac myocytes function best with a balanced
amount of stretch, just like we function best with a
balanced amount of stress. As Joshua L. Liebman
(author of a book called Peace of Mind) once said,
‘maturity is achieved when a person accepts life as
full of tension’.
Ultimately it really does come down to you. Your
own attitudes, how you choose to deal with
adverse events and bounce back from things
that get you down. Hopefully, simply increasing
awareness of mental health problems in Medicine
and providing accessible help for students and
doctors may help the situation. We could integrate
self care into medical education and encourage
people to be open to receiving help. Disturbingly,
34% of medical students said that they would
not seek help for depression, as reported by
Beyondblue.
Some practical suggestions include:
• Posters around clinical school and the hospital regarding self care
• Computer screensavers promoting self care
• Grand Round presentation on the mental health of doctors
• Organising a group session with a motivational speaker
• Access to confidential sessions with a psychologist
• Having a hospital gym open day
• Further restrictions/increased surveillance addressing doctors self-prescribing
• Continued research about doctors and mental health problems, particularly focusing on sources of
stress that could be preventable. For example: understaffing leading to doctors feeling guilty about
taking sick-leave
Initiatives such as Health and Wellbeing Week have helped to increase awareness of self care among
medical students. It has to be said; anything that involves free lunch will get people’s attention. September
the 15th was R U OK? day. This day encourages people to reach out to others who may need help,
although we should be looking out for people all the time, not just on a particular day.
Don’t forget that life is to be enjoyed and that we need to look after ourselves in order to help others.
To read more visit beyondblue’s page on Doctors’ Mental Health Program:
http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx?link_id=4.1262 (Plenty of good resources)
9
Putting social media
to work
a student perspective
By Jeremy Hill, AMSA Treasurer (2011)
If this then that or ifttt.com is a website I was linked to
recently. The premise is simple: if something happens
on the web, it will perform a specific, automated
action. These short logical recipes as they are called
allow users to arrange a wide variety of triggers that
interface directly with various online accounts, like
Facebook, dropbox, or Flickr. So for example, every time
I am tagged in a photo that someone has uploaded to
Facebook, ifttt.com will take that photo and put a copy
in my dropbox folder, which is then downloaded to my
computer and into my photo album.
This is not new. There are plenty of other services
offering ways to redirect, manipulate and record our
online activities and it is clear to me that everyone who
is active online (that is: pretty much all of us) absolutely
must take action to do this. However, the ease and
simplicity of ifttt.com brought into focus how social
media channels ought to be put to work to serve our
goals. But, this involves a shift in approach to social
media.
However, as we focus on mitigating the risks of social
media, it can be easy to miss the opportunities that
social media present to organisations such as AMSA.
The real benefits of social media lies in their ease of use.
For the technology generation who don't remember a
time before computers and the internet, it is a simple and
logical form of communication. This of course comprises
part of the risk; in that ill-considered comments posted
on Facebook become part of the permanent record.
However, with some thought and intention, this low bar
of entry means that anyone can start engaging in online
discussions in a way that propels and sustains your
online identity and reputation, in line with your real one.
At the end of last year, in partnership with AMA, NZMA
and NZMSA, AMSA released Social Media and the
Medical Profession: A guide to online professionalism
for medical practitioners and medical students.1
On a personal level, social media can be of great
benefit. Get a Twitter account, and start posting useful
links to positive health messages. Engage meaningfully
in online discussions (for example, comment streams
in newspaper articles), and link that back to your
Facebook profile or blog. Encourage your satisfied
patients to post to ratemds.com and link to that as well.
This way, our online identity will not just comprise of
the understandable but damaging frustrations, voiced
on the web, by the one patient that spent one or two or
three hours in a waiting room.
This guide provides thoughtful advice on ways to limit
liability and act appropriately with respect to patients
and colleagues while we are using social media. Horror
stories abound of serious breaches of confidentiality
and of defamatory comments being posted in publicly
available online forums, and the guide does some
excellent work in raising awareness of this.
From an organisational standpoint, social media poses
some exciting opportunities, which AMSA is actively
using and exploring. One opportunity is the role of social
media in managing internal communications. Basically,
taking the organisation beyond email. Based on the
premise of Facebook, internal social media can allow
for personnel to have open discussions, run straw polls,
upload documents and maintain their own personal
profile including contact details all in one secure place.
AMSA trialled this platform during our most recent
National Council, to resounding success. The softwareas-a-service offering we sampled, Yammer, allowed
for members of Council to pose questions, upload
documents for information, and to engage in policy
discussion before, during and after the meeting. The
convenience of having everything in one place, along
with a personalised interface, allowed for streamlining
of open discussion, and one of the most integrative
Councils yet. As the organisation expands, and AMSA
Council grows to over 100 people, this efficiency is
invaluable.
Likewise, social media provides AMSA with one of the
most productive, and easy, ways of connecting with
student members and with the mass media. Facebook,
which has the market-leading share of online social
engagement, really encourages comment, feedback and
collaboration on events, issues and promotions. People
are willing to comment on Facebook posts, which then
forms a conversation that can be managed and directed.
Twitter (the other service that is frequently categorised
as a social media channel) is much more unilateral.
It's more like a personally directed broadcast medium,
where subscribers seek snippets of useful information
for their own information and use. So, instead of
expecting Twitter to provide a platform for discussion,
AMSA has successfully used this medium to broadcast
our activities.
On the delivery side, the social media can work really
well as an easy surveillance and notification system that
keeps us connected to current discussions. While the
unfiltered feed of Twitter posts and Facebook updates
is definitely a surfeit of time-wasting trivia, if you really
filter down to the sources you want to hear from, there is
plenty of valuable information. For example, the Twitter
feed from the Australian House of Representatives
recently let me know that the inquiry into mental health
and jobs was hearing submissions in Perth this week.
While it is important to beware of the dangers presented
by unwitting and haphazard engagement with the social
media, it is equally important to acknowledge the ways
these tools can be made to work for us. Once the risks
have been addressed, the next step is to think about how
we can make use of this. By looking at ways to shape our
online identity, perceiving the marketing opportunities,
and by putting our own interests front and centre, the
social media can become a reliable means of achieving
our goals and aims. Enough from me though. Ifttt.
com just called me on skype, to let me know that the
Australian Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport
has tweeted for registrations of their annual meeting in
Freo. Better be off.
1. Mansfield S, Perry A, Morrison S, et al. Social media and the medical profession: a guide to online
professionalism for medical practitioners and medical students. A joint initiative of the Australian Medical
Association Council of Doctors-in-Training, the New Zealand Medical Association Doctors-in-Training
Council, the New Zealand Medical Students' Association and the Australian Medical Students' Association.
Canberra: AMA, 2010. http://www.amsa.org.au/content/documents
Luck
Andrew Mamo (USYD)
The undertaking of a career in Medicine is no
small feat. It requires a complex measure of
personality and perseverance, ingenuity and
integrity and in select cases a dash of serendipity
to point us in the right direction. As a student of
the MBBS Program I have come to understand
all of these qualities (and a great deal more)
within the context of not only Medical Students,
but academics, tutors and practitioners alike. In
that regard it would be very easy to sit here and
speak testament to that, but if you wanted to read
something you know about yourself already, you’d
check your Facebook.
What really brought me to where I am
today was for someone to say the right
thing at the right time to me. It wasn’t
my family, nor was it one of my closest
friends. It was a co-worker. To be as
succinct as possible, we were in the car
together, driving back from the coast.
When I got in the car I thought Medicine
was an elitist inner sanctum of trust-fund
babies with perfect grades; unattainable to
me. By the end of the car trip I had resolved
to sit the GAMSAT and apply. I could take you
to the exact spot of road where I came to that
conclusion. It was the beginning. I had had the
same conversation with dozens of people prior
to this one, none of which ended in me making
a life altering decision. The words sounded right
coming from this guy; lucky he was in the car.
Again, not wishing to bore you, it was a quick
hop, skip and a jump through the admissions
process (we’ve all been there) and a magnificent
denial from Griffith for admission in 2010 I found
myself reapplying for admission in 2011 with my
cursor hovering over Sydney University or Griffith
as my first preference. The events that followed
are testament to this piece’s theme on luck,
happenstance (and, dare I say, kismet) but the
catalysis for this was spite.
With Griffith having turned me down already I
was too proud to reapply. I thought the interview
went well (which it obviously didn’t) and that
my GAMSAT score was competitive (which it
obviously wasn’t). I decided that I didn’t want
much to do with Griffith on that basis. I noticed,
also, that Sydney University offered a “Rural”
application. All I needed to do was prove that I
lived in an outer metropolitan area. Fortunately
for me I did; by 700 metres. So even more
quickly than I had decided to study Medicine, I
had decided to move to Sydney, from Brisbane,
if need be. I really wanted to stay in Queensland,
but spite drove me away. When the interview
offers came out and I found that Griffiths cut off
had jumped to one point greater than my
score I felt I had dodged a bullet. It was
very close to being another year in
hospitality. My mind went back to the
green couch I was sitting on, on the
4th of June 2010 with my parents
when I silently decided to apply for
Sydney. Lucky.
So to all my peers, regardless of where
you are studying, let it be known that you are
all brilliant. You’ve made it this far, and we have
that much in common. I suggest, however,
asking how some people came to be where they
are now. So many of you have had previous
careers, completely different lives, incredible
achievements to your name or have even
overcome incredible hardship and adversity to be
where you are. I implore you to stay true to your
story. In some ways, it is the only thing that really
separates you from the rest of your cohort, once
all the nuances and details of your personalities
consolidate and you become a syncytium. The
only thing that allows me to stand out from my
brilliant cohort is the fact that I am a raconteur.
My story is about luck, and I promise it is a damn
sight more boring than others out there.
The RACGP journey
towards general practice
(via the vocational training route)
Medical school (4-6 years)
Postgraduate resident years (PGY2)
(this can be completed before or during
general practice training)
Internship year (PGY1)
If you decide that a career in general practice
is the career for you, then you can apply
for general practice training in this year and
commence your first year of training in the
second year after graduation.
General practice training (3 years)
Vocational training towards RACGP Fellowship
is 3 years full time (or part time equivalent),
comprising hospital training (12 months),
general practice placements (18 months)
and extended skills (6 months).
RACGP Fellowship examination
The RACGP assessment is comprised of two
written segments – the applied knowledge test
(AKT) and key feature problems (KFP),
and a clinical segment – the objective
structured clinical examination (OSCE).
Successful completion of RACGP
training and assessment
RACGP Fellowship
Continuing professional development
The RACGP Quality Improvement and
Continuing Professional Development
(QI&CPD) Program assists GPs to fulfil their
personal and vocational continuing professional
development (CPD) needs.
While there is no requirement to complete hospital
residency (PGY2) prior to entry into general
practice training, you can choose to undertake
1 or more years of hospital residency before
committing to a specialist training program.
PGPPP (optional)
The PGPPP is a great way for you to get a
real taste for general practice and is available
for junior doctors who are not yet
enrolled in a specialist training program.
4th year additional training in
advanced rural skills or advanced
academic skills (optional)
If you decide that you want to become a
rural GP or have a strong interest in rural
general practice and want to take your training
and education further, you have the option
to complete an additional 12 months of
advanced rural skills training (ARST).
You can also apply for an academic term
under the RACGP pathway and work part time
in a university department and part time in
clinical general practice.
Fellowship in Advanced Rural
General Practice (FARGP) (optional)
You can work towards an additional RACGP
Fellowship – the FARGP – by completing
advanced rural skills training, rural general practice
placements, core competence modules and
learning activities. The FARGP can be completed
with or after the FRACGP.
To find out more visit
www.racgp.org.au/gpcareer
The Subconscious
Stethoscope
by Hamish Gunn (UTAS)
There is a lot to be said about the humble stethoscope. Nothing
screams DOCTOR (or physiotherapist) louder than a set of tubes
around your neck! In fact, I often wear mine to the supermarket,
restaurants and social occasions just so people are aware of my
tertiary education status. It could be argued that I should spend
more time learning how to use my stethoscope and less time talking
about it, but frankly I am sick of studying, so instead I thought I
would explore the different ways of wearing this status symbol and
what it says about you.
The Sheep
This the most basic, and arguably the most
boring way to transport your stethoscope. Yes,
it allows you to access it easily, but by wearing
a stethoscope around your neck you do imply
a level of academic and clinical competence
and as a result you may be giving patients a
false sense of security. Wearing a stethoscope
like this, or actually carrying one at all, is considered inappropriate
for those in Med I, II & III.
The Eye Catcher
Nothing encourages a wandering eye more
than a stethoscope linked together to form
some sort of necklace and placed to rest on
the heaving bosom of a female healthcare
professional. While these crafty women may
deny their intentions, claiming they simply
14
didn't want it flapping around", I refuse to believe that it is
anything more than an invitation to stare! Who can blame
them though? If I got asked by every second patient if I was
studying nursing just because I was female, I would certainly
try something to distract the creepy old male patients from
taking, and nothing says distractions like breasts (well so I've
heard)!
The Ego Booster
This is a position donned by those men
with nothing to hide, or literally nothing
at all! Wearing your stethoscope like
this allows for subtle and ongoing
penile auscultation throughout the
day. Nothing boosts the ego more
than a reassuring dorsal artery bruit,
because if it's big enough to have a bruit then it must be
big, right? Manliness comes at a price though! The slightest
head movement can result in pendulum like trauma and a
haematocele. Stethoscopes worn in this position should be
disinfected on a regular basis as the incidence of stethoscope
related Chlamydia infections is on the rise.
The Power Trooper
If you see a girl on the wards with a
little bag and a stethoscope attached
you know she means business. She is
to medicine what Beyonce is to music...
fierce! She is doing what she needs to
do to get it done, so do not get in her
way! Although ease of access might
seem like a problem, in an auscultation
emergency her lightening quick hands
will have untied the stethoscope,
diagnosed the tension pneumothorax
and begun immediate decompression,
while the rest of us are left fumbling with our necks/
pockets/bags/groins. This is a favourite position with strong,
independent and non-cleavage reliant medical professionals.
The Belt
Utterly ridiculous, this position provides
nothing more than chronic pain, as the
stethoscope smacks down on the thigh
with each step. For this reason such a
position is really only best suited to a
sedentary physician, but why would
you need such secure stethoscope
unless you were running all over the place? Like an insulin
injection, the site of attachment must be alternated each
day to prevent ongoing injury. Given that you must allow at
least 10 minutes to remove from the belt, this position is
deemed impractical and should be avoided.
The Head Torch
Bold and cutting edge, the Head Torch
is engineering genius, combining both
the penlight and the stethoscope. Every
medical consultant turns to his junior
doctor when in search of a penlight
and this position allows you to further
impress and excel by giving you the
first opportunity to auscultate the patient. This is the junior
doctor's best friend to avoid the embarrassment of lacking a
light. Much like the iPhone it will allow you to multitask, be
customisable and convenient. Pre-order today!
Alternative Positions Include:
The Pseudohandbag and The Tourniquet
The 'Are They / Aren't They?'
This doctor likes to keep them guessing.
Is he actually a doctor or did he just
steal that off someone? The advantage
of pocket storage is that you are less
likely to look like an arrogant student,
plus if you ever come across a situation
in the hospital where you don't want
people to know you are a doctor (Code Blue for example),
you can just stick it deeper in your pocket and walk-on-by
guilt free! Disadvantages include having to keep one pocket
free exclusively for storage. It is never a good look when
you are asked to examine a patient and you pull out your
stethoscope along with all your pens, a soon to be smashed
iPhone and a weeks worth of ward lists (which you were
going to shred later?).
15
10 Reasons Medical Students Should Join
A Gym
By Samantha Stott (The University of Newcastle)
Let me set the record straight. I’m pretty uncoordinated. Totally & utterly hopeless at aerobics, gymnastics, the
grape-vine, dancing & synchronised swimming. So why would someone with such a poorly wired basal ganglia
be such a massive gym advocate? Well here’s why I think you should join a gym:
1. You may end up in the public eye 7. You’ll beat the Law Society by a
greater margin in rugby
(like Dr Phil)
It’s true. One day, you could be repping a big mo on a
HARPO Studios television show. It’s time to put in the leg
work now. Trim that tummy, tone that gluteus maximus
ready for that big time show. It will happen, you are going
to be famous, don’t let your cellulite be the next headline.
Maria Robinson (a prolific blogger) once said, “Nobody
can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can
start today and make a new ending.” Fortunately, nobody
has told the Law Society this, which is why the Newcastle
Medical Society is currently in possession of the cup.
2. It’s not procrastination
8. It is so much fun
As a medical student if you aren’t studying, you are
procrastinating. Unless you are doing genuinely beneficial
things. This can be boiled down into charity work, spending
time with family/friends & forms of self-improvement.
Gymming-it is definitely self-improvement – a guilt free way
to not memorise the differential diagnoses for diarrhoea.
3. You meet people there
FACT: There are other people on campus besides medical
students. There are Business students, Law students &
almost every degree imaginable! These people are nice.
If you don’t know students from other degrees, you are
definitely missing out. You should get to know them over
a protein shake & discussion of the circumference of your
bicep.
4. Members of the opposite sex
squat & bench press there
A shallow yet noteworthy point. If you are a little bit pervy,
you will love the gym. Here body parts bounce, sweat,
wobble & pump. Disturbing for some, delectable for others.
Is it time you studied some more anatomy?
5. You’re less likely to end up as
that old person with lots of cats
Whilst there’s no research paper in the Lancet or JAMA, I’m
99% sure the statement I just made is legit. If your bod’ is
bangin’ & you are out meeting people, you have less time to
collate a collection of cats. True Story.
6. You can eat more cake
Well really, who doesn’t love cake? But no one loves
diabetes. When you attend the gym, you can have your
cake AND eat it too.
Grab a friend, grab a mat & go to that pump class. The
instructor will be upbeat, the music will be uplifting and
your endorphins will lift your mood sky high. Smile, get
amongst it and be thankful for your body.
9. It annoys other people
Not a personal motivator of mine, but I know I do get
irritated when my brother beats me time & time again at
every sport. “Argh, you are so fit”, “Argh, why do you do so
much exercise?”, “Argh, I wish I had brought my gym gear”
are common catch-cries of the people you can perplex if
you gym it. What are you waiting for?
10. It improves your health
Most importantly, as medical students we are advocates
for health & wellbeing. Whilst looking bangin’, eating cake &
beating other faculties in sport are all enjoyable perks, you
should be fit for your own health. Just remember, salt water
is the cure for anything: sweat, tears or the sea.
Totipotency
The
of the
Medical Student Body
Molly Kehoe (UNDA Fremantle)
W
e’ve all see the flow charts that show you what
specialty your personality will lead you into:
the jocks head into ortho; those lacking an attention
span will be suitable for emergency;but what about
while we are medical students? This year I’ve started
to see medical students functioning - and often
dysfunctioning - as different cells of the body: there
are macrophages, melanocytes, osteoblasts and
endometrial cells (bear with me as I explain).
There’s at least one macrophage in each Pbl, they’re
a loyal friend and ally. Impressively you’re average
macrophage will always manage, without fail, to have
a circle of food around themselves during every tute/
lecture/anatomy prac… Furthermore macrophages are
often seen getting friendly with the Schwann cells, not
in a Day’s of Our Lives type setting, the macrophages
are merely on the lookout for their number one desire.
You see, Schwann cells are the Mummy types, the ones
that support and most importantly nourish the other
cells. Schwann cells always bring home cooked goodies
to Pbl - even when its not their turn. If a Schwann cell
is asked to bring a birthday cake they’ll rock up with a
three tired, cream filled masterpiece that Donna Hay
would be in awe of.
Over-achieving, over-involved and still able to have
everyone love you? Oh yeah, you’re a hepatocyte. These
extraordinary individuals manage the unmanageable:
process toxins, store glycogen and produce bile?
The med student hepatocyte can get the marks, be
everyone’s best friend, fly black-hawk helicopters and
win state-championship medals for rowing…. They’re
just that good. Personally I’m convinced they don’t
sleep, but I’m still impressed.
All medical students are prone to getting a bit bi-polar,
one day we are on top of the world loving everything
medicine throws at us, the next we are banging our
heads against a brick wall wondering why we ever
gave-up being a professional Bear Grylls stalker in the
first place. But endometrial cells take this bi-polar
nature to the next level, endometrial students float
along under the radar for the most part, until like
clockwork they hit that week where everything turns
them on, their basal body temperature peaks and they
become annoyingly obsessed with tenuous things like
Fox-Fordyce Disease or ribose-5-phosphate isomerase
deficiency. Fittingly those with endometrial tendencies
will also come down, complaining and whining to the
point where you become momentarily concerned that
they may end it all. Typically, after the weekend, they
usually manage to slough off the negativity and return
to their normal selves… until the cycle starts again.
Whats that I hear you say? What about sperm? A
question that often comes up in day to day life and I’m
here to answer if for you. Sperm cells are the ones that
are turned on by everything, and remain enthusiastic
about medicine. These students read about rare
diseases and get so animated they post vivid details
on Facebook. I know what your thinking, and well I’ve
thought it a few times too: there truly is a little bit of
sperm in all of us… Consequently, if all med students
are sperm, lecturers and tutors are of course Sertoli
cells: there to encourage and inspire you along your
med school journey from spermatozoon to a fully
flagellated sperm ready to spearhead into the uterus
that is the hospital system.
So whether you’re an endometrial cell, a melanocyte,
a hepatocyte or a mixture of a few remember to
embrace you’re attributes and those of the students
around you, for it truly takes many specialized cells to
make a student body!
Excerpts
from
lectures,
seminars
and
workshops
attended
during
AMSA
GHC
Sydney
2011
By
Jasmine
O’Neill
Thanks
to
Rural
Health
West
for
sponsoring
my
attendance
at
the
conference!
The AMSA Global Health Conference (GHC) this year held in Sydney united University Global Health Groups, NGOs, the
AMSA Global Health Committee and globally minded medical students. GHC packed in 4 days of workshops, seminars,
lectures and social events helping to show all that attended that our endeavors as medical students and global health
advocates can make a difference and positively impact on global health outcomes and policy at home and abroad.
The conference was centered around education and practical activities in achieving the UN Millennium Development
Goals, Indigenous health, refugee health, chronic disease, advancing health care systems, and social and environmental
determinants of health.
Read on for some of the highlights & bring on AMSA GHC Cairns in 2012!
Working in Refugee Health
Poverty and discrimination are interlinked
In Australia, 1-2% of our migrants come by boat. Australia receives
14000 refugees per year & 180000 migrants per year. As up and
coming medics we were asked to think about - How do you know if a
patient has a torture or trauma background?
The first MDG is to eradicate income poverty by 2015. In Papua New Guinea (PNG),
Australia’s closest neighbour 25% of the population live below the poverty line with 45% of
their population under the age of 15. Due to the lack of human rights, PNG is one of the more
difficult areas to reach. With little done to change the hunger statistics the number of people
hungry is increasing. This results in drastic measures of pulling kids out of school to go to
work.
Pointers we were given were to be aware, and if you aren't aware to go
home do your research.
Tips for approaching the issues were along the lines of these 2
vignettes- a) I understand that your people experienced many
difficulties in your home country- was your family affected in this way?
b) Sometimes people who have been through war or fighting have
strong memories and difficulty sleeping....
With 18 out of 20 of Australia’s closest countries being developing countries, it is important
that we look at our own lives and ensure we are living ethically.
Notes on Cultural Awareness
The top 5 causes of death for refugee children are - malaria,
malnutrition, measles, diarrhoea & respiratory tract infections.
Immunizations can present cultural issues and often require a lot of
community education surrounding them. In emergency situations
nutritional support, measles immunization, control of communicable
diseases, reproductive health and public health surveillance are the
focus. This in turn means that up until now, mental health issues have
largely been neglected.
We were prompted to take into consideration a number of things when speaking with
and thinking about indigenous patients. Looking at whether they are internally
displaced people, whether they are on their own land, whether they were from the
stolen generation. Have an understanding of your own cultural background & beliefs.
Ask the patient what they believe about their disease using the cultural awareness
tool. Research the culture and the problems faced by the patients you are seeing.
Problems and barriers. Use interpreters. Big on the agenda - Find a cultural mentor!
The take home message from Naomi Steer's lecture was - Giving
people the resources, often very basic resources, refugees take up the
opportunities to be involved in their communities.
Take care of yourself- If you are experiencing burnout and compassion fatigue
talk to someone. Talk to each other. Watch out for each other.
Meditation, music, sex, exercise, laughter all release endorphins, so ensure you
get 30 minutes each day.
To learn more or to get involved, head to unrefugees.org.au
Take home message from Jill Benson - Every encounter is an opportunity to heal the
past and bring hope for the future.
Closing the gap in Indigenous Health
Closing the gap in Indigenous health is a more difficult task than many people
expect or understand. Social factors that contribute take a long time to change
in order to close the gap in Indigenous health. Clive Aspin proposed that the life
expectancy of Indigenous Australians was higher than that of the English that
arrived on the shores of Australia. Obviously, as a broad generalization, this
has been reversed now. Clive spoke of, If social factors that contribute to the
gap in health can be improved, then improving life expectancy and improving
quality of life will go hand in hand.
He put forward that the way to solve the problem is to talk to communities.
Indigenous people have tremendous resources at their fingertips. The general
top down approach is counter-productive and never works for public health.
The government has a poor track record - talking to the wrong people,
consulting about the wrong things, with most of the money spent in
administering the programs rather than on the ground.
Tips I took from Clive were 1. To listen to Indigenous people. This promotes a
stronger bond with awareness and culture with the people in the community. 2.
For people working in mainstream services to engage in cultural competence
training, & to understand facts surrounding the social, historical and political
constructs on which out society was founded. 3. Perhaps most significantly - To
be aware that those who are marginalised provide a different view of the world.
It is important to enable them to be heard from the margins.
Australia's Aid Budget
What is the national interest? What is included in our aid budget? How do we
spend our aid budget?
As global health advocates there is scope for us as medical students to
promote a culture of giving in Australia. To foster philanthropy, and advocate
through raising awareness of the need for giving. In providing aid, it is important
to ask our partners what they need, rather than deciding for ourselves. If we
base everything on economics we miss out on the most important things of
what aid is about. It is important for Australia and other countries to base aid on
need and value, rather than politics and economic interest.
You may not be aware but a lot of the aid budget goes into paying the donating
countries own people, rather than funding initiatives in country, which could
greatly reduce the expenditure of taxpayers money. The flipside is that this
wouldn't be funding our own economy. But really, what is aid about.
I really enjoyed this quote from the lecture
- Assistance is about listening, listening
some more, talking and planning together,
then doing. For aid delivery and aid
effectiveness!
’
Mentoring Matters
Prashanti Manchikanti and Stefanie Pender (Monash)
Over several years AMSA has focused our attention to pertinent issues for medical students including
wellbeing, personal and career development. Achieving a balance between a busy, successful career trajectory
and maintaining personal wellbeing can pose difficulties for medical students. However, embarking upon a
mentoring relationship may enable medical students to understand the decisions and compromises required
to develop this balance.
20
What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is a means for shared reflection on the values which
guide personal and career decisions. It has been described
as a “dynamic and non-competitive nurturing process…that
promotes independence, autonomy, and self-actualization in
the protégé while fostering a sense of pride and fulfilment,
support and continuity in the mentor” [1]. It is this process that
enables medical students to develop their career pathways in a
manner suited to their needs.
Global Health: an example
Whilst the importance of mentors has been recognised in
many medical fields, the growing discipline of global health is
recognised as a key area where the role of mentors is critical.
1. Complex field
Not unlike other medical specialities, global health is a complex
field. However, the political, economic, environmental and
social forces that transcend national boundaries and affect
health extend greatly beyond the traditional health-specific
issues. Medical students should have an understanding of
these matters to develop personal, social and political values
which inform their global health practice. Yet, the complexity
of these transnational issues often renders students unable to
navigate the quagmire of global health problems.
Furthermore, maintaining personal wellbeing with a global
health career may raise challenges as professionals confront
global inequities and spend extended periods away from home.
2. Growing enthusiasm
Australian medical students have displayed increasing interest
in global health. This has been seen through; the growth of global
health groups (GHG) and AMSA’s Global Health Committee,
the growing participation in Global Health Conferences and
AMSA’s increasing role in the International Federation of
Medical Student Associations (IFMSA). This is not limited
to medical students as seen through the development of
numerous junior doctor global health initiatives including the
Global Health Gateway and AMA D-i-T’s increasing global
health focus.
3. Gap in global health education
Despite the mounting enthusiasm of Australian medical
students to learn about global health issues, there
continues to remain limited global health education
within Australian medical curricula. Subsequently,
students may be limited in their ability to translate global
health knowledge into practical action, both as a student
and future medical practitioner.
The Global Health Mentoring Program
In response to these needs, Ignite, Monash University’s GHG, launched a Global Health Mentoring Program (GHMP). This program
pairs selected students with active global health professionals in Melbourne for a year-long mentoring partnership. Students are
encouraged to meet monthly with their mentors and to establish mutually beneficial goals for the year.
To provide a conceptual understanding of global health complexities, the GHMP committee developed four modules concerning core
issues to facilitate discussion between mentors and students.
Although only in its infancy, great interest has surrounded Ignite’s GHMP. The inaugural program received an overwhelming
number of student applications. Mentors have been hugely enthusiastic in their participation despite their frequently high profile
and busy careers. Students have been presented with a variety of opportunities including summer internships, research projects and
exposure to global health events and workplaces.
Where to from here?
Through this program, Ignite aims to increase student engagement with global health issues, based upon well-considered personal
values. Participating students will be empowered to contribute towards achieving global health equity throughout their medical
career.
The GHMP program is expected to grow and extend beyond Monash to other medical schools in the coming years.
All medical students should consider seeking mentors as the personal and career benefits for both student and mentor, will translate
into benefits for the broader community.
Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.
John Crosby
[1] Valadez A, Lund C. Mentorship: Maslow and me. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing 1993;24(6):259-63.
For further information: www.ignitehealth.org.au/ghmp
21
Australians pay inflated
textbook prices to
overseas publishers
Grant Ross (Melbourne)
Education is the greatest tool
we have for social justice. Yet,
Australians are paying inflated
costs for textbooks owing to
legislation that prioritizes the profits
of overseas publishing companies
against customer savings.
Textbooks overseas are on average
35, often to 50%, cheaper than
the cost in Australia in real terms .
These costs are the result of price
discrimination practices: where
a company that sells the same
product in many countries will
increase the price in one country
while protected from imports from
markets where lower prices are
charged.
This is all possible owing to Parallel
Import Restrictions. PIR are a part
of the copyright Act 1968. The act
provides that where an Australian
copyright holder, usually the
publisher, is able to produce a work
within 30 days of this same work
hitting the market in any country,
any import into Australia of the
copyrighted work from an overseas
market is a breach of copyright and
thus prohibited .
Whilst the aim of the copyright
act is to balance the propagation
of creative materials to the public
versus the incentive of the creator
to produce it , parallel import
restrictions act more as market
protection for overseas publishing
companies who want to set high
22
prices for any book they produce
in Australia knowing that it cannot
be undercut at the sale point from
cheaper overseas editions.
This is a cause for concern because
it is the mechanism behind the high
cost of books in Australia.
In response to reviews of PIR
undertaken in 1991, 1995, 2001,
2005 and 2009 the Australian
Consumer
and
Competition
Commission
has
provided
recommendations
on
every
occasion that Australian textbooks
prices are markedly higher for the
same product compared with
overseas. The chief watchdog for
price fixing has never produced a
report that does not suggest we
pay too much for textbooks in
Australia and called for the repeal
of these laws in every review since
1991.
New Zealand has seen an
expansion in business in publishing
following the cessation of PIR .
Since the repeal, more people
are enjoying more books at lower
prices with increased business,
increased sales for authors and
fundamentally, without significant
job losses . For all the talk of the
industry folding, it has become
more efficient and retained jobs
in the sector. The conclusion is
simply this: profits may go down,
but industry and jobs/hiring will
actually expand as book demand
increases. The same was seen in
the Compact Disc PIR removals in
Australia .
The most ardent defense of PIRs
come from authors who are
worried that lower book prices will
force them out of their livelihoods
and destroy the Australian creative
industry. This is a hard argument to
believe for a number of reasons.
Firstly, most Australian authors
write for Australian audiences and
do not publish overseas editions
of their books . By definition, PIRs
are not enacted unless there is an
import available.
Secondly, this position argues that
PIRs are important in maintaining
our cultural heritage. They are not.
PIRs are a poor form of cultural
protection because they do not
discriminate between items of high
or low cultural value. A foreign
desert rat cook book gets the
same protection as any of Tim
Winton’s works and further, PIRs
make books more expensive and
less available to the citizens who
own this cultural heritage.
Thirdly, it is alarming to hear an
argument that Australians should be
told by the artistic community what
is good for them culturally and then
to safeguard a so called cultural elite
by using trade protectionist profits
to buoy an artistic community. Most
of the cultural benefit of reading a
book occurs for the reader. Any
legislation that aims to transfer
money from everyday Australians
to a self-styled artistic community is
a marked breach of peoples’ rights
and not in keeping with the ethos of
the copyright legislation.
Textbooks
are
particularly
vulnerable to price discrimination.
If Tim Winton’s novels are too
expensive, then we can simply
choose not to buy them. This is
not the case for textbooks; which
are often an outright necessity and
furthermore, designated by the
University or course requirements.
Everybody is paying for this
excess. Students cop higher
prices for textbooks to line the
pockets of publishers. Doctors in
practice are paying higher prices
for these textbooks. The Australian
government is paying higher prices
through the various tax deduction
schemes operating for textbook
purchases not to mention grants
and subsidies for numerous
categories of workers. All of us are
paying that extra bit at the bookshop
just so that we can appease a law
that prioritises the excessive profits
of a single industry in this country.
As the New Zealand’s experience
shows, there is no threat to printing
jobs should PIR be removed. It
is the profits that are at threat.
Clearly, with cheaper book prices,
sales increase and if anything jobs
will increase; particularly in the
retail sector which is particularly
discriminated against by these
laws and will do so further in the
future as they struggle desperately
to keep afloat in the age of internet
book purchases. Purchases, it
should be said, that do not create
Australian jobs or pay GST to the
commonwealth.
Trade Restrictions exist purely
to prioritise the profits of one
industry over another. They are a
perverse way to serve the millions
of Australians by making their lives
harder.
The ALP have expressed no interest
in repealing a protectionist policy,
with Kevin Rudd’s cabinet failing
to heed the recommendations of
the PIR report of 2009 . Naturally,
considerable sections of the
Coalition are ardently seeking to
remove these laws.
by lending their considered support
to changing this legislation.
We must lead the community in
the responsible advocacy of fair
trade effects on academic and
health outcomes. Education is the
greatest tool we have for social
justice. Fair priced textbooks mean
better-educated, up to date doctors
and better patient outcomes for the
most vulnerable in society.
John Shipp, President of the
Australian
Liberal
Students’
Federation has said that: “This
Labor government is obviously too
reform averse to do what must be
done to bring down the price of
textbooks. It will be up to the next
Coalition government to lift parallel
import restrictions on books for
the benefit of students, medical
practitioners, book retailers and
the Australian community more
broadly.”
I invite the Australian Medical
Students Association and the
Australian Medical Association
to consider its position on the
PIRs and the effect that inflated,
unnecessary textbook prices have
on their membership and come to a
decision about publicly supporting
efforts the remove this legislation
for the Australian community. These
notable organizations have a vital
opportunity to makes things better
for all doctors and medical students
Productivity commission 2009, restrictions on the parallel importation of books, research report, canberra. P xviii
Copyright amendment (parallel importation) bill 2001. Australian lower house. Published by the department of the parliamentary library, 2000.
World intellectual property organisation copyright treaty 1996: geneva. Signed by australia. Preamble.
Network economics consulting group for the ministry of economic development in 2004 ‘the impact of parallel imports on new zealand’s creative
industries’ pages 41 and 53
Network economics consulting group for the ministry of economic development in 2004 ‘the impact of parallel imports on new zealand’s creative
industries’
Accc press release april 3 2001; 2001, summary of the commission’s march 1999 report on the potential consumer benefits of repealing the
importation provisions of the copyright act 1968 as they apply to books and computer software – including price updates for books, computer
software and sound recording, agps, canberra.
Nielsen bookscan (database), the nielsen company. 2008A, australian panel. As quoted in the item i, appendix e.
Regulatory regime for books to remain unchanged. Media release for innnovation minister the hon dr. Craig emerson. 11 November, 2009
23
Elective Report
Sozialmedizinisches Zentrum Ost – Donauspital (Social Medicine Centre East Donauspital) - Vienna, Austria
On the 29th of November I arrived to a very cold and snowy
Vienna, Austria to begin my four week paediatric elective
rotation at SMZ-Ost Donauspital. ‘Donauspital’ is the
second-largest inner city hospital in Vienna and services
the East side of the city. I commenced my first working
in the general paediatric outpatient and emergency
department (Kinderambulanz). This department is open
twenty-four hours and manages both referrals from
general practitioners and after hours care. Each day there
is a general clinic as well as specialty outpatients such as
cardiology, neurology, respiratory, endocrine and renal.
At these clinics I worked in with other Medical students
and doctors seeing patients and referring them for further
investigations and management. I had the opportunity
to learn paediatric cannulation and venepuncture as
well as assisting with cardiac echocardiograms. Medical
students had teaching sessions organised with the
radiology department during this time and interesting
clinical paediatric cases from patients we had seen in
outpatients or the wards were discussed. Wednesday
morning also consisted of lectures and teaching on
various different paediatric topics from both allied health
staff and Doctors.
My second week involved working in the Neonatology
Intensive Care Unit. This was a phenomenal experience
and I learned so much and was involved in a wide
24
range of procedures during this week. The Neo-ICU at
Donauspital is a 14 bed, high dependency unit. Each
day would begin with a handover meeting to discuss
current patients in the unit and possibly deliveries or
admissions for the next 24-hour period. Following this
ward round would be commenced with the main duties
of adjusting and calculating parenteral feed requirements
and intubation and respiratory status. It was also the
responsibility of the NICU Doctors to perform the
discharge physical examination of all newborns on the
general maternity ward. It was interesting to observe the
differences in the newborn checks and health program
in comparison to what I have learnt as the Queensland
Health system. The Doctors were quite proud to be able
to explain to me the changes they had implemented to
sleeping safety following Australian research into Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome. During my time on the NICU I
was fortunate enough to be involved with the investigation
and diagnosis of a child born with dysmorphic features.
This was a worthwhile procedure to be involved with. I
also attended the emergency caesarean birth of 24 week
old twins who required full resuscitation, surfactant and
intubation at the time of delivery. Unfortunately they were
very unwell and remained in a critical condition at the end
of my elective period.
The final two weeks of my time at Donauspital was spent
between the general paediatric ward and paediatric ICU.
These wards were large and consisted of four paediatric
wards with approximately 35 patients in each. I was
involved in the general day-to-day running of the ward
including hand-over, ward round, consultations and
discharge planning. I had the opportunity to interact with
patients and their families and to practice my history and
examination skills. Being the middle of winter in Austria, it
was interesting for me to see a number of cases of carbon
monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation from faulty
home heating systems – not something we really see
in hot Queensland. I also saw a case of meningococcal
meningitis and Kawasaki Disease. All medical students
were expected to present a case report at the end of
each week.
During my time at Donauspital I was accommodated at
the staff housing quarters for a very economical price
of 5 Euro/day making travel to and from the hospital
only a short covered walk. Accommodation included
own bathroom, cooking and shared washing facilities.
Students are able to cook for themselves or dine in the
staff dining room in the main hospital building, also at a
very reasonable price. The hospital itself was accessed
by its own underground-subway station and made travel
and sightseeing around Vienna city very easy. Christmas
time in Austria is beautiful with the city decorated
and filled with Christmas markets selling crafted gifts
and Austrian specialities such as Gluhwein.
The weather is bitterly cold and there was
often snowfall in and around the city with
the opportunity to go snow skiing/boarding nearby. As I
spent a year living in Austria in 2006 (prior to commencing
my medical studies) I enjoyed the opportunity to catchup with friends and family during my time off from hospital
work.
There are many other medical students working in
the hospital which provided a good opportunity for
socialising. Work at the hospital commenced each
day with morning hand-over at 8am and finished early
afternoon around 2pm when most Doctors would attend
to their own out of hospital private clinics. Students were
expected to adhere to the staff uniform which will be
provided to students with a bond payed to the hospital
clothing department (and refunded on return of uniform).
Dress consisted of a long, white hospital embodied coat
and white pants or dress. A knowledge of German is not
essential for spending time in Vienna or for interacting
with the Doctors as many speak good English, however
I believe it would be of benefit for students to be mostly
fluent in German if they intend to undertake this elective
rotation as all consultations, hand-overs, ward-rounds
and patient interactions will be undertaken in German
and it would be difficult follow
without understanding of
the language.
Jessica McDonald (Bond)
25
Christchurch 198 Youth Health Centre
Charity Event by Aysha Al-Ani (Deakin)
Tuesday, the 22nd of February 2011, was
marked in history as New Zealand’s darkest day.
At 12:51 pm, the beautiful city of Christchurch
was rocked by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, five
months after the first earthquake in September
of the previous year. The difference was that,
this time, the lives of 181 people were taken.
My father, Husam
Al-Ani, was amongst
those individuals.
On that day, like
any other, he was
performing his duty
as a doctor, servicing
and helping his
patients, something
he did best and
loved most.
Dr Husam Al-Ani
As the primary doctor of Christchurch’s 198
Youth Health Centre, Dr Al-Ani had volunteered
in the Centre until its closure in 2010. In spite of
this, he continued to provide free consultations
to those same youth in his other workplace,
The Clinic. My father was simultaneously
working alongside the founder of the 198 Youth
Health Centre, Dr Sue Bagshaw, to reopen
the youth facility. It was following the Boxing
Day earthquake that The Clinic building was
deemed unsafe and so was instead moved to the
fourth floor of the Canterbury Television (CTV)
building. Unfortunately, it is this structure that
collapsed so disastrously, unable to withstand
the 6.3 magnitude quake and killing over 100
people.
As tragic as that day was for so many, the only
way is forward. So, for my family, emulating and
continuing the passion and positivity that my
father had lived and breathed was the obvious
solution. Since the devastating outcomes of the
26
earthquake, it has become our mission to realise
this ambition and help recreate the new Youth
Health Centre as a dedication to my father.
The 198 Youth Health Centre was a free
multidisciplinary health service providing
physical, sexual, social, and mental health
care prior to its closure. Despite attempts to
continue this care in The Clinic, youth resources
remained significantly limited. Consequently,
the Korowai Trust was established as a means
of alternative funding for a new youth one
stop shop. Through improving the wellbeing,
health, and social inclusion of vulnerable people
struggling in the Canterbury community, the
Trust endeavours to bridge the gap between
young people and health professionals, and in
doing so educate and empower youth.
The collapse and red-zoning of several proposed
premises have delayed the availability of health
services to young people. With over 7500
aftershocks having shaken the city since the
first earthquake on 4 September 2010 and as
the only facility of its kind in Christchurch, the
need for a youth centre has never been greater.
The unpredictable nature of these ongoing
aftershocks is feared to result in increased drug
intake, alcohol and binge drinking, in addition
to the post-traumatic stress and depression
that is only now becoming more evident.
Fortunately, there is currently a new premise
on which to reopen, however equipment and
many building developments are still required.
It is ultimately my father’s aspirations and
love of medicine and youth that motivated me
to organize the charity event on behalf of the
Christchurch 198 Youth Health Centre. This
seemed the natural path for me to both honour
my father’s memory and pay tribute to the city
that has been my home for the past 14 years. It
My Dad and me
was an impromptu decision, but one to which
I became committed. The February earthquake
was a massive event, but for me, my Dad was
just as extraordinary and so I hoped that by
holding such an event, he would instead be
remembered for the positive person he was and
the values he inspired.
I wished to raise awareness and funds for the
cause and consequently arranged to host the
function as a three-course dinner in Geelong’s
elegant Empire Grill. The evening involved
an educational presentation from renowned
Paediatrician and Adolescent Physician,
Professor Susan Sawyer from the University
of Melbourne and Royal Children’s Hospital.
There was also an ongoing silent auction,
raffle, and a live auction at the end of the night
to encourage further charity. Amazing prizes
were also obtained for this occasion, including
an iPad2; luxury weekend accommodation
in Lorne; student sessions with surgeons
in theatre; manual labour from 3 almosttradesmen; yoga and gym terms; beauty, gift,
and spa packages; home appliances; dinner
vouchers; and multiple electrical toothbrushes
and many others.
A total of 104 guests attended the event,
predominantly staff, students, and medical
practitioners from the Deakin Medical and
Clinical Schools, as well as other members of the
Geelong community. We were also privileged to
have Drs Sue and Phil Bagshaw who traveled
from Christchurch just for this function.
Christchurch 198 Youth Health Centre Charity Dinner.
Photograph: Zhen Ti Yong
What resulted from that night surpassed
anything I had previously envisioned. The
weeks of arduous planning, coordination,
invitation-, ticket-, and letter-writing and
prize-collecting came to fruition, raising an
incredible $9,550 AUD ($12,323 NZD).
It is the overwhelming and invaluable
generosity, support, and assistance of family,
friends, and sponsors that made this night
truly special. Without this wonderful team of
people who believed in me and the cause, such
a successful outcome would not have been
Aysha with Drs Phil and Sue Bagshaw.
Photograph: Zhen Ti Yong
accomplished. Therefore it is to them that I
owe my complete gratitude and thanks.
27
d
o
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a
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’
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By
Medicine is serious business,
there is no doubting that.
This historically rich and
proud profession gives you
the opportunity to change
a person’s life in the most
meaningful way and influence
their future; you also witness
the absolute pits of human
despair, when life and dignity
crumbles down to reveal the
true pain and suffering that
suffocates the fading whim
of existence. The realisation
of not only this responsibility,
but the experience of such a
constricting emotional burden
upon the person of the doctor
is enough to force one to the
28
t
o
i
l
El
v
E
an
l
o
D
brink of agony - consumed by
the ferocity of the pain faced.
However, there are many
things we do to cope and
protect ourselves from the
ugly truth of the lives we face.
Indeed, this author’s favourite
is that defence of humour
- the armour one wears by
releasing a boisterous chuckle
in a usually appropriate social
context. Though early in my
studies, I have utilised such
an apt and powerful weapon
on many occasions, to relieve
stress, to centre myself
on which ever chakras are
currently ‘chic’, and to just do it
for the ‘lulz’ - which is the only
reason anyone does anything
really. I mean, laughter is
the only reason I went into
medicine to be honest - that
and the ladies, but they dried
up nine months ago if you
pardon the expression.
As I am new to the OSCE, I have
enjoyed applying my witty and
well-rounded humour to this
format - offending patients,
repulsing examiners, and
earning the ire of my peers.
You see, at Griffith each of
our OSCE stations are in
separate rooms, whereby we
enter the said room to begin
addressing the scenario. This
seemingly un-funny situation
is only conceivably made to
be humorous due to my own
very recent acquaintance with
the TV programme ‘Thank God
You’re Here’, as I now imagine
every OSCE scenarios to be a
hilarious interchange between
myself and Shaun Micallef,
watched on by hundreds in
the studio audience. Although
I’m sure many of my peers
have long since made such
an association, my inability
to ever be ‘hip’ has cursed me
once more, and I only have
found out about this now so please bare with me (as
an aside, my entire cohort
loathes me for being the only
person without an iPhone,
especially as I call many of
them asking for directions on
their portable Google Maps,
but I digress).
e
r
For instance, my latest OSCE
charade last week yonder has
left me facing an early exile
from medical school, or my
own comedy programme on
late night SBS - with all the
nudity of myself as required
by that timeslot, which will no
doubt add to the hilarity. After
bursting into the room on this
particular occasion, I was
faced with a limp and lifeless
body lying on the floor, next to
a broken power cord that was
flicking back and forth like
a snake pouncing blindly in
every direction with electrical
ferocity. This man was an
electrician, the briefing told
me, who was trying to fix a
power cord. What a scenario,
I thought to myself, this is
what I call drama - this is
what I call an OSCE. After not
receiving a ‘Thank God You’re
Here’ line from the examiner (I
lodged a mental complaint), I
proceeded to do exactly what
was required from a medical
student in this scenario - ‘It
seems like this particular
electrician did a SHOCKING
job!’ I said prior to raising one
eyebrow to the cameras - a
chorus of laughter boomed
from the studio audience. ‘But
I’m sure I can still revive him,
as there is still a SPARKle
in his eye!’ I elaborated to
hammer the joke home, which
was met with a small chuckle
from the crowd - not quite a
hit.
Now
under
significant
pressure to perform CPR,
and to get the audience back
on side, I launched into the
‘C’ component of whatever
mnemonic I was suppose to
remember. I felt for the centre
of his chest gently with one
hand, and finding it I used
my other hand to pound the
spot - to the tempo of a club
remix of the Bee Gees ‘Stayin’
Alive’, as this was all I got out
of the last CPR certification
I did..... ‘Whether you’re a
brother or whether you’re a
mother, you’re stayin’ alive,
stayin’ alive!!’ I sung in perfect
harmony whilst pounding the
chest - the sweet crackles
that resonated upon each
blow gave me hope that his
heart was crackling back to
life. I jumped up and lead
the audience to perform a
rendition of this hit song,
amidst laughter and applause.
From this brief patient-free
interlude, I turned my attention
again to the electrician. He
really was not looking good
at all; the singing did not
help! Sensing impending
doom on this OSCE station,
compounded by the growing
pool of blood at my feet, I
turned to the audience and
asked: ‘What is the definition
of a shock absorber?’ silence
ensued from the crowd,
all in deep contemplation.
After a moment I replied in
a rapturous voice ready to
break into laughter ‘a careless
electrician!!’ The stage shook
with the uproar of booming
laughter. My job here was
done; I was the winner of this
night’s ‘Thank God You’re
Here’. I strolled out of the
room back into the hallway
with a dreamy chuckle. What
an experience, what drama,
what an OSCE station. Maybe
I’ll write an article in Panacea
about this day if my AMSA
representative ever asks me
to contribute.
Before this recollection, I
asserted that humour was
my essential method to cope
with the horror. With this
un-original, un-funny, and
disappointingly crude recap
of a genuinely failed OSCE
station, this author wanted to
demonstrate to the reader that
you must find your own way
to cope in the harsh realm of
medicine - whether that be
with friends, hobbies, sport,
a life-like blow-up doll of Katy
Perry, or going to church; you
must find something. Not
everyone will have a unique
sense of humour such as
mine, blindly ignorant of its
own baseness. However, the
laughter can never trivialise
the profession, or its practice
of genuinely helping those
who need it most - it must
be utilised for the power of
good, to help those in their
darkest times, and to help the
physician through theirs.
29
Liberal Market Values
have a lot to offer
patients.
Written by Grant Ross (Melb)
Janet Albrechtsen argued in Peter van Onselen’s
2008 book, Liberals and Power: The Road Ahead,
that the Liberal party has surrendered the moral
high ground to the left. This is particularly the
case for education, health and issues of civic
morality such as the boat people and industrial
relations.
money. In one consultation with a general
medical practitioner or GP, you get a one-stop
shop for your ills and the patient is satisfied
enough to come back and generally to pay for
it. Any GP knows that you can’t keep milking
the one cow and so the view is towards being
efficient with your patient’s resources.
For example, Bob Brown is praised as a saint
with his sympathetic pleas for the plight of
refugee children. However, no matter how much
altruism this evokes, there is nothing saintly
about driving thousands of innocent refugees
each year to mercilessly lose their lives by
drowning in the high seas.
The Roxon reign has not introduced a single
reform that worked towards health care efficiency.
Publicly funded Health is a good thing but there
is a point where the health stops and the public
institution largesse and inefficiency supersedes.
We must be honest about this reality.
‘Nurse on call’ proved to do nothing to ameliorate
the doctor workload as the nurses generally had
little more clout on whether a patient needed to
see a doctor than the patients themselves.
There is a sentiment among doctors lately that
the government is bending towards special
interest groups who want to usurp doctors’
autonomy, money and power. These include
Federal, State and Hospital bureaucrats,
allied health professions, Nurse
Practitioners and drug companies.
This is a misuse of government
power to steal market ground from
doctors and exercise the politics
of envy. This mechanism has
potential to hinder the ability
of the individual to decide
which practitioner they
want to go to, as per
market practice.
I learnt very early
on in my career that
doctors are good
value for
The e-health records involved inadequate
medical input such that they are a useless
diversion that actually increases doctor
workload for no appreciable gain.
The Nurse Practitioner scheme, designed to
create a new breed of ‘health professional’ to take
over in General Practice proved so financially
ridiculous that the scheme was shelved. Not
only did a patient now have to pay to see a nurse
practitioner, but then had to pay twice once they
realized that the Nurse Practitioner had little
ability to treat any of their presenting complaints
and they still had to present to their doctor.
Then there was the push for prescribing rights
and Medicare billing rights for allied health.
Pharmacists wanted to be able to prescribe
drugs. Psychologists wanted to bill Medicare.
Who was going to pay for all this?
Most doctors know that free health care is wasted
health care from over-servicing. Medicare is not
there to drum up business for allied health. I am
all for providing state dollars to get services
when and where needed; but this model has no
believable provision for rationalization of those
services. Fee for service and GP referral does.
Ideologically, the widening of prescribing rights
is just plain dangerous. It makes a mockery
of medicine as a craft and brings danger and
higher costs to the health industry.
Kevin Rudd’s federal takeover of health excites
me as a doctor, but scares me as a Liberal. On
one hand, I love the idea of the fragmented
state funding being taken out of the equation.
Less fighting and blame shifting between
governments, less complexity, less delay
in approvals and policy change and greater
concordance of workforce planning.
On the other hand, one sprawling enormous
bureaucracy with eyes to taking jurisdiction over
every patient, health record, nurse, doctor and
hospital in the country is a recipe for inefficiency
and complexity. I have a concern that this would
make it easier for special interests to capture
policy making when they only have to do so with
a single government, i.e. the federal government.
Medicare Locals were a bad idea from
the outset. They take a reasonably
well functioning private and
independent industry group
and more or less nationalise
it in order to ‘make it better’;
without any extant support or
endorsement from the AMA.
This has failure written all over it.
First of all, none of these models worked overseas
and we knew that well back when this sorry
saga started . Secondly, the Medicare Locals
aim to replace the doctor to patient care model
by creating schemes and incentives to control
chronic disease and use other peoples’ money
to do so. This is not about ‘patient care’; it’s
about arrogant governments holding the belief
that they can get ‘better results than doctors’.
Once you open up this ground to any purpose,
you open it to all purposes and I disagree with
the replacement of the doctor patient primacy
on every level.
Every single doctor I speak to is against the
changes to healthcare. This is particularly
the case in General Practice. Allowing vocal
special interests to manipulate health policy is
a perversion of the intention of publicly funded
health and is amount to theft from patients.
Consistent in the heart of all recent ALP policies
is that there is no distinction between high
quality output and low quality output. This will
only work to increase bureaucratic inefficiencies,
increase political pressure on hiding clinical
outcomes such as bed pressure, make rhetoric
more valuable than performance and worst of
all, is a colossal waste of tax payer dollars which
will only rob funds from other desperate health
needs.
We should never forget Margaret Thatcher’s
dictum: ‘There is no such thing as public money.
There is only tax payers’ money’ .
If you want quality, effective and rationalised
medical services in Australia; the General
Practice fee for service primacy model is the
only one worth supporting. And we won’t see
that with Roxon.
References:
1. Australian Doctor October edition 1 (page 2) 2011.
2. Dunbar JA. When big isn’t beautiful: lessons from England
and Scotland on primary health care organisations. Med J
Aust. 2011 Aug 15;195(4):219-21.
3. Margaret Thatcher addresses the Conservative Party
conference in 1983
31
Exhausted all 181 episodes of Scrubs? Sick of the Derek and Meredith saga? Ready to toss Talley1 through a window... here are some
alternatives when looking for ways to while away the hours at med school.
Bloodletting
and Miraculous Cures
Vincent Lam
Touted ‘International Best Seller’, who could go past the title? This apparent work of fiction interweaves
the tales of four doctors beginning at the time they attempt to enter medical school. From the descriptions
of early dissection days in the anatomy lab to the perfectly proportioned multicultural foursome we
follow: two Asians, an Indian, and a token (alcoholic) white guy, this is a piece many of us will identify with.
(Although, the idea of an anatomy professor getting students to create origami from the pages of her
beloved Cunningham’s might be just a little too far fetched for UNE students!) It is a perfect combination
of fact and fiction. It also contains just enough medical jargon to justify the procrastination.
3.5 scalpels out of 5 (whether the half is the blade or handle is for you to decide.)
House
of God
Samuel Shem
Given to me by my dad when I finally decided to apply for med, my copy is a well-thumbed original missing
its cover. (I think dad heeded the advice of ‘reading this every year of your career.’) Numerous lecturers
have told us that this is the must-read medical novel. It is highly amusing in places and utterly filthy in others.
(Funnily enough, the aforementioned anatomy professor includes this in her list of personal favourites).
Scrubs has taken many of the House of God themes and applied them to the next generation of medicos
(the generation who have been screened, by interview, before they can enter medical school in an effort to
prevent most of what happens in this book!). “Gomers”, “turfing”, and “zebras” – so many references now
make sense… I even now know where the elusive “St Elsewhere’s” is.
3 scalpels. (5 if you ask my dad but he’s a pathologist so I’m not sure his opinion counts for much.)
32
Life In His Hands: The true story of a neurosurgeon
and a pianist
Susan Wyndham
There are some medical biographies/novels/textbooks (mainly textbooks)2 out there that should be
burned for the mockery they make of the English language. Writing really should be left to those who are
good at it, those who are paid to put the words together on a page, those who put words together in such
a way you can’t put the book down3. Susan Wyndham tells Charlie Teo’s story in a way even one of the
world’s most gifted neurosurgeons could not. In combining Teo’s biography with that of a promising young
concert pianist, the story finds balance in its opposition – the doctor and the patient drawn together by
differences that are more similar than they may superficially appear. Wyndham sticks to her trade, Teo to
his, and Aaron McMillan (the pianist) with his. It works.
4 scalpels (but be careful not to roger a cranial nerve.)
Every
Patient Tells A Story
Lisa Sanders (MD)
4
If they gave us this book to read for Professional Practice 1 (or whatever your uni equivalent of “How to
interact/empathise/communicate/not-get-sued-for-unethical-behaviour with patients 101” is), I think
we’d all be better off. It beautifully navigates what they keep trying to tell us: we must learn to listen to our
patients (although we were most likely texting/You-Tube-ing/Face-stalking during these mind-numbing
lectures and, paradoxically (but maybe not ironically), not listening). As the Australian healthcare system
becomes increasingly like the failing American one – and one in which doctors order a bunch of tests in
the hope of conjuring a diagnosis – this is a ‘based on true stories’ account of one (mature-aged!) student’s
experiences. The book endeavours to remind us that computers cannot replace the human ability to
communicate. Engaging from start to finish.
5 scalpels (not to be used for exploratory surgery!)
( and for those of you who would rather tube-time instead of yet more text)
Junior
Doctors
BBC Version
A wise man once said: “They be brave souls who bare their souls on international
television.”5 These young doctors risked developing the reputation of w**nker for
the entirety of their career by appearing on this show, and some certainly came off
better than others. Stereotyping did the show a disservice and has probably served
to further ingrain some public perceptions of medicos, however, the also show
reinforced the fact that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. One day we will
graduate from our respective universities and realise that the Goldmann-HodgkinKatz equation and being able to sing the Citric Acid Cycle to the tune of Waltzing Matilda probably won’t save the cardiac arrest patient
whose life lies in OUR hands. I know. This shocked me too. I can hear the panic in your eyes from here.
4 scalpels (I’m looking forward to the perfectly-timed Australian version – did the programmers know we’ll all be stu-vacation-ing/examing?)
1. The book, not the man.
2. For the record, Talley and O’Connor is not one of these.
3. Did someone say irony? Congratulations are in order: you have just used the word correctly! (Ahem, Alanis Morissett, cough.)
4. No comment on the inclusion of the title “MD”. Ahem, cough.
5. Nah, that was just me.
33
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University of Adelaide
Report by Daina Rudaks
Latest News from Adelaide: 200+ delegates
descended upon sydney for convention. 3 Cups,
1 state. 120+ 4Th years celebrating at the annual perks halfway
dinner. First ever med v dinner (after a large group booking totally
unrelated to us in the preceding weeks, warned that if we need to
vomit to relieve ourselves we should do so in the toilets and not the
carpet). Call to arms - newest med-run uni-wide party. Pre-clinical
pubcrawl. A journey through the circle of life for our medrevue - Hakuna-Ma-Doctor.
South Australian Leadership Development Seminar. Third year rural week. Red week.
Red party. Red cocktails. Red bake sale. Inaugural great debate.
Something funny which has happened at your uni: fraud accusations
at the pancake kitchen post-medball.
Big news for your uni: 3 cups, 1 state. And a new hospital.
Australian National University
No Report Received
Bond University
Report by Greg Leeb
Latest News from Bond: The semester started with a gathering of the years at our triennial med eagle. Bond met up
with fellow queensland meddies from uq and griffith for tri-uni cocktails. The 3rd years began to see the light at the end
of the tunnel while getting slightly plastered at their half way dinner. Mssbu had our big handover to welcome in the new
medsoc for 2011-2012.
Something amusing:
Some unlucky 2nd years had an incident of perforated bowels during their dissection week – leading to flying faeces and
wild exclamations. No one dared to clean it, leaving it to a disgruntled, yet professional member of the anatomy team to
scoop out every bit of sh*t out of the abdominal cavity. Kudos to one of the best anatomy lecturers we have.
Other news:
Congratulations to the medsoc who have just begun their term and a big thank you to the previous medsoc, who have done
an amazing job and we hope we will be able to follow in their footsteps.
35
Deakin University
Report by Amy Wong
Latest News from Deakin: oh mighty a-ma-zing convention, royal gala ball, christchurch charity dinner, careers night,
sports day, mscv academic, wellbeing week, indigenous story telling night, afl game, paintball, transition cocktail night,
life in a claim night, movember bbq.
Upcoming events: eox pub crawl, grad ball
Something funny which has happened at your uni: Big news for your uni: our first lot of interns will be out and about next
year so watch out for them! Also, deakin is proud to be this year's vampire cup winner!!!!
Flinders University
No Report Received
Griffith University
Report by Justine Cain
Latest News from Griffith: The largest
ever cohort of harry's descended to sydney
for convention 2011, for an amazing week of
awesomeness. We clearly were the best dressed university by day
(griffindor scarves, wand, glasses, and scar) and were the most
incredible and synchronised by night (i'm not biased at all!). After
eventually recovering from conventionitis, griffith donated blood
for vampire cup, taking out bronze position. Even more rewarding, was receiving
an email from the red cross mentioning that we helped keep the southport donation
centre afloat during the quiet winter months, compounded by recent roadworks in
the area. We celebrated tri-uni cocktails in fine style on the gold coast, and were
set to smash bond in our annual debate, but they couldn't get a team together. Poor
form! Our annual trivia night was enjoyed by all and our premier academic event
(futures evening) was a resounding success. We are now at the end of the year, where
we celebrate finishing exams, congratulating our final years and wishing them the
best of luck for next year, before we welcome a fresh lot of newbies.
Something funny
Many students from griffith are proud to support movember, but were concerned about how a dirty mo may potentially
affect their osce professionalism marks. So we sought clarification from our osce co-ordinator: provided the facial hair
does not interfere with the candidates professionalism during the examination or cause anxiety regarding appearance
prior to the examination, students with facial hair will not be disadvantaged. Hmmm there are some mo's out there that
would definitely cause anxiety - all for a good cause though!
36
Big news for your uni
Massive win for griffith in changing the 2012 academic calendar. In its original form, it allowed no break for final year
students after exams, no travel time to get to electives and (shockingly) placed final year exams on the week of Perth 2012.
Clearly this needed to be changed - fortunately it was and we will see you all in Perth next year! Speaking of convention...
We are so excited that members of Griffith are part of the gold coast executive for convention 2013 - well done on bringing
convention to the goldie. It will be incredible!
James Cook University
Report by Laura McAulay
Latest News from Tropical North Queensland: JCUMSA has recently elected their new executive for 2012 - introducing
Alexandra Hanson as the new AMSA liaison officer! We would like to congratulate and thank all of our graduating 6th years,
especially departing President (Dr) Christine Pirrone for all of their hard work and support over the course of their degree
- medical school wouldn't be anything without the students!
JCUMSA also held their annual medical revue with astounding success as well as introducing new and improved clinical
skills nights which were over 100% capacity! This year will also see the first year of our larger cohorts enter into clinical
years - congratulations guys!
Make sure you get on up here for GHC - Cairns is hosting in 2012, and JCUMSA are so excited that you will all get to see how
beautiful the tropics are!
Only in North Queensland...
Does your coroner boast about doing an autopsy on a 6m crocodile he found dead on the beach... Including pictures of the
procedure.
University of Melbourne
No Report Received
Monash University
Report by Catherine Pendrey
Latest News from Monash: Since the last edition of Panacea
Monash students have had an exceptionally busy time. Monash
students arrived in droves to convention and, in particular, GHC
where we exceeded all but a few of the host state's universities. Students have returned inspired and
are actively working to assist the asylum seekers and refugees through the crossing boarders project,
brought back to australia from the international federation of medical students' associations. We had
an absolute whale of a time at medball hosted at the melbourne aquarian. The inaugural medorchestra
performance gave all a chance to make contact with our cultured side and relish a stunning orchestral
version of the pirates of the caribbean theme. Students diligently knuckled down for the enormously
popular mumus revision series and eagerly await a host of fun days, end of year barbeques and
graduation celebrations. Our new committee has been elected and are preparing to steer mumus to a
bigger, better and more environmentally friendly year than ever - under the guidance of our new green
charter and sustainability officer.
37
Something funny which has happened at your uni: Anatomically iced cupcakes - the latest trend that is sweeping Monash
med on facebook!
Big news for your uni: In 2012 Monash students look forward to an even more holistic sense of oneness than ever before as
for the first time all postgraduate gippsland and undergraduate central students will share all clinical sites.
University of Notre Dame (Fremantle)
Report by Kate Hooper
Latest News from NDF: AMSA global health
conference, AMSA national convention, MSAND
med ball (social), Laproscopic skills night (surgical
interest group), Wa leadership development
workshop (AMSA), MSAND sig lecture night
(surgical interest group), 2Nd semester inter-year
mentoring program launch (year reps), Clinical vs pre-clinical soccer
game (sports and recreation), Interfaculty touch rugby and football
games (sports and recreation), MSAND/wamss touch rugby and
football games (sports and recreation), Live well, study well program
(sports and recreation), MSAND AMSA thinktank meetings (AMSA),
MSAND teddy bear hospital school visits (tbh/social justice), Trivia
night (social justice), Gp procedural skills night (education), MSAND
emergency medicine interest night (emergency medicine interest
group).
News: After attending Sydney 2011 with our largest convention delegation to date,
it's fair to say, the convention bug has well and truly bitten undf. There's plenty of
excitement building for perth 2012. Many UNDF students are involved in organising
the event and looking forward to putting on an incredible week for delegates in 2012.
MSAND continues to grow and add quality events to its calendar for its members. The eagerly awaited MSAND emergency
medicine interest group (MSAND emig) was launched this semester. MSAND emig joins the MSAND surgical interest group,
MSAND teddy bear hospital and MSAND global health group as official MSAND special interest groups. With murmurs of a
physician's interest group keen to enter the fold, you could say that interest is +++++ at UNDF.
Finally, we have just graduated our 4th class of students. To the graduating class of 2011; congratulations, we are so, so
jealous and we wish you all the best for the years to come!
Overheard at Notre Dame...
Student: "what's castration? Is that a type of car?
Student: "can vegans breastfeed?"
Student after clinical skills: "i didn't let anyone cannulate me because i didn't want to risk becoming septic so close to exams"
Student: "i wish i had erectile dysfunction, because then i'd have more time to study"
Student 1: "i'm worried that i have sleep apnoea"
Student 2: "what's wrong with that?"
38
Student 1: "it's really dangerous!!"
Student 2: "yeah, but so is cancer.."
(Gotta keep things in perspective...)
University of Notre Dame (Sydney)
No Report Received
University of Newcastle
Report by Samantha Stott
Latest News from Newcastle: AMSA national convention, half-way party (80s prom themed), city2surf charity run,
charity masquerade cocktail party, medical leadership seminar,
las vegas pub-crawl, med revue (glee-p), specialties night, surgical
skills night, er party, med v law rugby match
Something funny that has happened at your uni: the newcastle
medical society had to challenge the law society to this year's rugby
match after rumoured cancellations of the traditional event.
Big news for your uni: a new anatomy and cadaver storage building is on the cards!
This is a very exciting addition to newcastle university including main teaching areas,
wash-down areas, dissection rooms, a pharmacy teaching laboratory, cadaver storage
& hearse reception areas.
The building will also include a pharmacy teaching laboratory, preparation and cold rooms.
University of New England
No Report Received
39
University of New South Wales
Report by Henry Ainge Allen
Latest News from UNSW: Hopefully by the time everyone is
reading this exams will fall into this category, though at the moment
things like sunlight and "life" appear a distant, almost forgotten legend. But the end
of year parties coming up should remedy that and foreshadow all the fun that we'll be
having next year. We had our largest delegation to convention (so far) this year, with
over a 100 full delegates, and thanks go out to all the people whose hard work made
it possible. On the social scene we've all been exceptionally classy at medball, and
equally refined at our pubcrawl, end of session and integration parties. Our academics
have been extremely busy, running exam surviva nights and practice osce's as well
as the weekly grand rounds. Our incoming medsoc exec and council are full of great
ideas and i'm sure they'll give us a fantastic year.
What's new: this year we started our highly succesful weekly medsoc grand rounds
every wednesday night, with clinicians from all around sydney presenting exciting
cases around different specialities, and we will be continuing these next year.
University of Queensland
No Report Received
University of Sydney
Report by Jessica McEwan
Latest News from Sydney: So much! - Medrevue - beauty and
deceased, Msc sports day, Indigenous health forum, Sums 125th
anniversary, Women in medicine dinner, Pilates for med students,
Lambie dew oration, Annual sums dinner, Rural health night, NAMSA
halloween party, Half-way dinner, Graduation dinner, Oh yeah and
only the most amazing convention ever!!
Something funny which has happened at your uni:
As always there were many memorable moments during convention including
members of the usyd delegation tackling rubbish bins along the main street of sydney
after chicken and champagne breakfast.
Also to note was the events of the finale scene during the 2nd night of revue. During the end act there
is a show down between the zombies and orthapods of the hospital (don't ask - you had to watch the
40
whole show to understand!) Where two of our very talented first years show off their karate skills with some mock fighting.
However, on this night they got a little too excited and managed to take each other out. One ended up with a dislocated
shoulder and the other with a broken wrist that required surgery and some serious wiring!
Big news for your uni:
Sums turned 125! We are officially the oldest society in australia and we celebrated in style with a weeklong series of
events. Also i am extremely pleased to say that this year the 1st year upped the anti again with a spectacular medrevue
that raised over $65, 000 for charity.
University of Tasmania
Report by Golsa Adabi
Latest News from Tasmania: What a year 2011 has been for TUMSS. As we approached the second half of the year, 23
delegates got out of this world and into Syndey2011. We represented and fell just short of returning the Cascade and Pipps
trophies back to their homeland. Instead we bled for the nation and placed a record 5th on the AMSA Blood Drive tally. The
TUMSS Health and Wellbeing month of September once again raised awareness about the importance of student health
and wellbeing, not to mention making disco ice-skating the new cool thing to do! The biggest event for the year, TUMSS
MedBall2011 sold out in record time and enchanted all who attended. See you in 2012 and let’s do it all again!
Something funny which has happened at your Uni:
To glove or not to glove? Who would have thought the hardest part of a scrotal examination would be answering this
question. In true form, Australia's finest fourth year medical students pondered the necessity to qear gloves when faced
with the idea of performing this sensitive male examination. Apparently "you don't need gloves when it looks clean" right?
Big News For Your Uni:
As a new event in 2011, the TUMSS-AMSA Leadership Development Seminar attracted some big name speakers this year.
Speakers included Senator Eric Abetz, President of AMA TAS and CEO of AMA Federal. With an overwhelming response
from students the TLDS will return in 2012 bigger and better than ever. Watch this space medlets!
University of Western Sydney
Report by Samuel Rajadurai
Latest News from Western Sydney: The uws medical society (uwsms) kick started the year 2011 with an edition of
emuws (muws blast), one of our major publications, which is being delivered to all students on a three-weekly basis to
keep them "up-to-date with the need-to-know-now". Another publication, "neoplasm" was released to the new first years
before they commenced med school - it is in effect a useful guide containing relevant information about our executive,
AMSA, medcamp etc.
After taking over the reins from the previous uwsms exec, the 2011 exec have held a number of successful events: O week
2011, Welcome back bbq's for each year, Med camp 2011 - pirates of campbelltown + "sailing the 7 seas" party, Pbl games
+ movie nights, Blue moon party, Twilight festival, Uwsms electives night, Uws inter-year sports night, Half way dinner
41
for 2013 graduation, Uwsms AMSA leadership
development seminar, Medsoc handover for
incoming 2012 exec, Uwsms medball: spring fling
In 2011-2012 the uwsms is interested in further
increasing its services to members via the
development of our membership benefits scheme (mbs) and the
companion membership benefits card. Experiencing great success
in its inaugural year 2010, the mbs established partnerships with
many local businesses – allowing students to present their cards
and receive a discount on certain goods or services; this attracted
students to stores and increased their businesses.
Uwsms looks forward to its first ever 2011 uwsms graduation event!
Most amusing anecdote:
It was during the winter of 2009 that a friend went missing for one of the nights of
brisbane's AMSA convention, and couldn't recall anything from the night. On the flight back to sydney the next day, he
noticed an aching pain in his gluteal region. A little concerned and now curious to find out what was causing the pain,
he went to check out this painful region of his body. What he discovered cleared up some of the haziness left from the
‘unrecallable night'. To his surprise, and shock, was a large tattoo of the name of an unfamiliar person (of the female
variety)...
Big news for uws med: 2011 has definitely been a well anticipated and exciting year as this is the first time our med school
has a full house, with students from years 1 to 5. Especially important is that we will be producing our first ever uws
medical graduates – marking the start of a new era! We wish them the best of luck as they tackle life in the real world!
University of Western Australia
No Report Received
42
University of Wollongong
Report by Nishan Yogendran
Latest News from the Gong: Shufflevention 2011, MedRevue (E.C.Glee), Red Week, WUMSS Executive Committee
Elections, Med Ball
Med Revue - The UOW Med Revue, "E.C. Glee" was a very successful show held
on the 12th & 13th august at the illawarra performing arts centre (ipac) in
wollongong. Both shows had great positive feedback & were well attended
Red week - Red week was held Aug 29 - Sept 2nd 2011, concluding with the official red party
at uow unibar. Events included a red bake sale, a guest speaker from positive life nsw and
information session with dinner, a bbq with red bull, followed by red party. It was a hugely
successful event.
WUMSS Executive Committee Elections
An online election was held from Aug 29 - Sept 4th for the new 2011 wumss executive committee elections. We
particularly welcome Zach Pancer as the new WUMSS President.
Med Ball - WUMSS Med Ball 2011 was held on sep 9th at portofino function centre, Wollongong
Big news for UOW GSM: Prof Nicky Hudson is resigning from phase 3 chair and taking up a position at UNE
Our second cohort of graduates will be making their mark in 2012, but in the meantime will fsu gong-style during grad week
Panacea is proudly produced by the Australian Medical Students’ Association
for all medical students around Australia.
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