On the last weekend of November in 2023, a group of lucky CSU students got to take part in the annual Rural Doctor’s Network conference in Coogee. We got to listen to some amazing rural generalists, interns, specialists, Indigenous clinicians and other health professionals speak about their journey into rural health. We were even lucky enough to witness our very own Heidi Annand moderate one of the panel discussions (after having less than her usual 8 hours of sleep!).

One of my favourite presentations was by 3 doctors who work in retrieval medicine for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. As part of their presentation, we worked through a scenario where a bystander had come across a person injured in a car accident. They were about 20 minutes from Menindee so it was great fun working through how to manage that kind of scenario. And of course, it wasn’t all learning, we got to meet and socialise with a number of medical students from all across the state. It was a fantastic weekend (Heidi and I even snuck in a few **early morning** swims) and I highly recommend it to anyone interested. It’s a fantastic way to meet other students and health professionals who (like all of us) are passionate about rural health.

After a big holiday, year 3s resided back to the homeland of Orange for conference week.

Our now year 3 students were excited to be back after year 2 which has been described as ‘challenging, exciting, palpitation inducing and quite possibly the hardest year of my life’. The week started quickly having to rewind our heads back to what an ECG is and how to interpret a blood gas which alone was enough to send many into tachycardia and respiratory alkalosis. We then refined our skills in basic life support and advanced life support, first accessing danger which was mainly the price of a muffin at the bloom field café.

After many interesting simulations and lectures our last day in the Orange office was spent reminiscing on the many hours in the library, the countless study sessions and all the laughs with Dr Cantwell- namely taunting him with a d-dimer order. All in all, it has been a great week of learning and meeting up with friends before we venture out to the many corners of rural NSW. The journey of clinical years although uncertain, is very exciting.

Thank you to the University for a great week of learning we will see you next year when we are hopefully more seasoned to the hospital life.

Uncovering the prevalence of multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in rural communities: the super catchy tagline of my MD project.

To address a pretty big gap in the literature, we’re conducting a pilot study on the frequency of MRSA carriage in a rural area. We’re essentially going to collect nasal swabs from as many kind volunteers as we can get and see if we can grow some methicillin-resistant S. aureus. We’ll then test any that we grow to see if there’s resistance to multiple antibiotics.

In September of last year, I wrote an abstract for this project and submitted it to the Western NSW Health Research Network (WHRN), and then was super lucky to be asked to make a poster presentation which was put on display at the 2023 Research Symposium. The writing and designing processes were a pretty interesting learning curve, as was figuring out how to frame the information to present to different kinds of audiences. I would really recommend taking this opportunity to anyone who can; it doesn’t have to be a huge task, and it gave me some good writing and presenting skills. If anyone is interested in some more information I’d be happy to chat about it!

Miss Universe Australia is more than a beauty pageant.… it is a program for advocacy and personal growth, both of which are important for my future career as a Doctor. 

I am so excited to have been selected as a Miss Universe Australia NSW finalist for 2024. But what does that actually mean ? Well it’s an opportunity to be involved in a self-development program offering once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and experiences where I can work closely with communities and charities to make a real difference to the lives of those experiencing hardship.

Up until the National Final selection in May, I will be fundraising for ToyBox Australia who are in partnership with incredible charities including Camp Quality and Ronald McDonald House. ToyBox Australia is a children’s charity dedicated to supporting sick and disadvantaged children nationally. 

If you would like to support this cause, you can donate through the link; https://toyboxaustralia.grassrootz.com/miss-universe-australia-2024/olivia-mosse?tab=donations&utm_source=gr-notification&utm_campaign=DonationNotification&utm_medium=email 

I was inspired by former Miss Universe Australia title holder, Dr Olivia Wells, who is now a Pediatric Oncology Fellow, proving a woman’s intelligence and beauty are not mutually exclusive. My motivation for entering the program is to use this platform to advocate for causes I am passionate about, particularly rural health. 

Wellington Caves

Only an hour away and still on Wiradjuri Country are these magical caves. Only $27 entry as a student gives you access to a bunch of different caves tours as well as a fossil trail. This is the “birthplace of paleontology” in Australia, the first place colonisers found megafauna fossils and notably where the mega chonk skink fossils were discovered just last year!