- Fluoro
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- May 2024
May 2024
NOT US
📝 It’s AMC Report survey time baby!!!
🧛🩸 And still Vampire Cup too! Time to get in those final donation 🅾️🅰️🆎🅱️
Read on for an insight into Albury, some AMSA updates and a bit on a Queensland opportunity.
As always we’re always looking for regular and one-off contributions, including anything from research updates to movie recommendations. If you’re really keen and interested in joining fluoro as an editor (would love someone on the ground in Orange) please email [email protected] 😚
A word from CHARMS
Remember to fill out your relevant AMC Survey. If it has happened to slip your mind soar here are the links 👇️
Nominations are now open for the SRM and JPM Student Rep Committees! Check your chats for more details but noms close on the 24th so get in asap!
Support us to support you by letting us know your thoughts and what you want by chatting to us or emailing [email protected]
If you’ve already got your outfit sorted but not your ticket what are you playing at??? Buy your tix now @ https://charms.shop.csu.edu.au/ and vote in the awards here.
Vampire Cup
Don’t forget to follow us here for info on how to join our tertiary team (old but should still stand) and to tag us in all of your cute donation dates <3
we’re at least on the board now…
🍊 From AMSA 🍊
Medical students’ placement poverty remains unaddressed in the federal budget. Check out AMSAs latest media release on this hot topic here. We’ve had a bunch of success in the media but it’s not enough yet, let’s keep pushing!
The countdown to AMSA National Convention 2024 in Melbourne is on, and it's time to get excited! 🎉 Don't miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join over 800 medical students from across Australia and New Zealand for a week of inspiration, learning, and unforgettable social events.
To ensure we're fully prepared to make the most of con, you need you to secure your tickets ASAP! 🎟️ With outfits to coordinate, sports teams to assemble, and Emergency Medical Challenge (EMC) training to conquer, there's no time to waste.
MDANZ have approved leave for everyone regarding convention.
Please note this may take some time for policy changes to be enacted, however, everyone should receive leave for convention.
We have been trying to keep group chats and the normal facebook page clear of AMSA stuff. Please join the facebook group to stay up to date with all things AMSA (con, paid placement, events, updates, etc.)
We need to put together a National Policy Reviewing team to review the upcoming policies ( 👇️see below 👇️ ). Massive thank you to everyone that helped with council 1 policy reviews! To formally recognise our Policy Reviewers, we're going to create certificates. We'll distribute these to Council 1 reviewers once they're ready. These can be used as evidence in portfolio assessments, and attached to resumes.
Opportunities
AMSA NatCon M4
Melbourne July 26th-30th
tickets on sale now!
AMSA Policy Callouts (see above)
NSWMSC 3MT
RMA24 in Darwin, Oct 23-26
Student volunteer positions now open, as are applications for sponsored attendance and President’s Prize.
Women in Rural Health Leadership Conference June 20th
presented by RDN in Sydney
featuring some of our very own as speakers!
regos now open here!
RDN Bush Bursary and CWA Scholarships
Applications close July 1st
Exciting opportunity for those wanting to work in the country (hopefully all of you)
Some of our own students have been a part of this program, reach out to them for insights 🙂
More info here
Heart of Australia NextGen Medics
ready to ride in the truck with Lucy
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking part in the Heart of Australia NextGen Medics program. Essentially Heart of Australia let a bunch of health students tag along as they deliver cardiology outpatient services across rural Queensland. They’ve got 5 pimped out trucks that traverse the state carrying everything from stress test treadmills to CT scanners, and they then fly in cardiac sonographers and cardiologists to see patients regularly. They’ve existed for about 10 years or so, with the NextGen Medics program being a recent addition. As a student we helped out by performing ECGs and chatting to patients as they went from room to room, getting the chance to brush up on cardiac exams and learn heaps about echos.
I flew up to Brissie at my own expense, staying a night in the valley (fun) before heading to HQ where I met the rest of the team. There were seven of us plus a student alumni, mainly med students, and from all over Eastern Aus. We flew from Brisbane to Roma to Charleville, where we piled into a Hiace that would cart us around our further locations. We met the truck in Quilpie, where we also got to do some opal fossicking, and met patients who lived in the point furthest from any coastline in all of Australia. Our next town was Charleville where we visited the RFDS station and cosmos centre, and had a dip in some hot springs. I got to ride up front in the truck for part of this leg but sadly they didn’t let me drive (for the best; I’m a surprisingly bad driver for someone from Bathurst). Our last town was Theodore where we also got to shadow some amazing rural generalists, watch a working dog demo at a gorgoeus station, take a storytelling river cruise with a Stolen Generation descendant/Aboriginal health worker, ride in the ambulance and attend the Dawn Service.
Des, another one of our truck drivers <3
When it came to thanking Dr Rolf Gomes (the founder and a cardiologist) I recalled our univeristy’s ethos, “yindyamarra winhanganha.” What we’d seen over the last week echoed this sentiment for me. We’d been welcomed into communities, not only the towns we visited but their specific health workforces and least of all the Heart of Australia community. Our communities as health care providers aren’t just the patients we see, aren’t just our peers at work, but extend to everyone in town and in all of our spheres we should aim to foster community. Everyone we met is and continues to try and create a world worth living in, for themselves and for others. Addressing global needs and inequities at the local level, like the HoA trucks are doing, is so important and exemplifies how it can be practically achieved. And it was beautiful to see those involved be proud of their work too, and to be a small part of it.
In the words of bell hooks “The challenge these days, is to be somewhere, to belong to some particular place, invest oneself in it, draw strength and courage from it, to dwell in a community.” And although providing a mobile service, with fly-in-fly-out specialists, I think the HoA trucks aim for this belonging, and thus become a part of the huge community that is rural and remote Queensland.
I highly recommend applying for NextGen Medics, especially if you’re keen on becoming a specialist that does FIFO rural work, a rural generalist, or especially if you’re interested in working in Queensland (it really sold this). They run several trips a year but applications close once they’ve filled these spots (early on in the year). Applications involve an online form and an interview. Please don’t hesitate to message me with any q’s!
Heidi Annand MDIV
the team on the truck verandah
Flavour of the month: Albury
Voted 2023 Wotif Aussie Town of the Year, a solid 8 places above Orange, Albury has truly proven itself in the experience as a medical student here. Albury has offered countless breaks from medicine in the form of day trips to towns such as Bright and Beechworth, festivals and food in Albury and events run by the various medical associations residing on the border. It also helps that the train to Melbourne Southern Cross Station costs $7.
But in terms of medicine, this year's orientation started with a game of Padel in the warm weather with some of our clinical staff and tutors, introducing us to the chill vibe we had been hearing Albury had. We also attended/infiltrated (depending who you ask,) a meet-and-greet held by the Border Medical Association. Which proved a suitable opportunity to practise this ‘networking’ thing that I've been hearing a bit about. Frequently beginning with “yes, CSU does have a clinical school here now.”
To begin the 3rd Yr medicine experience I was really fortunate to do 2 weeks of GP placement out at Bright, a rural town at the bottom of Falls Creek, known for its food, beautiful autumns and for being the town at the bottom of Falls Creek. This placement was a swift introduction to rural medicine in the sense that I saw and did a bit of everything. I was thrown in the deep end in many ways, whether it be parallel consulting on my first day to spending a day with a GP Anaesthesist and being handed the ergonomic nightmare that is an Endoscopy control and told to try a J-manoeuvre.
Unsuprisingly, the experience at Albury Hospital has been nothing less than amazing as well. The diverse exposure we have been able to have in the wide range of specialties such as Gen Med, ED, General Surgery, GP, ENT and Radiology has truly been eye opening and helped gain some perspective when thinking about careers after finishing med school. We have also received tutorials inspired by the amazing study guide, delivered by experienced GPs in town and physicians. Ultimately giving us a decent mix of organised learning and good opportunities for self directed learning in or outside the hospital.
KJ Sandhu - MDIII
If you're interested in contributing for next month's edition get in touch with Heidi 💗
