COOEE! October 2009

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• Rural Health Club Reports• Members Story• Indigenous Festivals• Multi-Club events• Rural Placement Reports • NRHSN Alumni Interviews• Portfolio Reports• Quiz• NURHC ‘09

2009 Co-Chair Report2009 has been an extremely busy year and has absolutely flown

by! It seems like only yesterday that the first 2009 Cooee! was

being put together and here we are again.

The NRHSN has had a hugely successful year and our 29 Rural

Health Clubs across Australia seem to be going from strength to

strength. On a national level, the NRHSN held the 11th National

Universities Rural Health Conference in Cairns which was attended

by over 300 students from a variety of disciplines and from

almost every corner of Australia. Students were inspired by guest

speakers, learnt relevant skills during workshops and got to know

other students through a variety of social activities.

The Rural High School Visits Program and Indigenous Festivals

Program have been hugely successful this year, and the addition

of two Rural High School Visits Internal Officers and two

Indigenous Festivals Internal Officers at the national level has no

doubt played a large role in this success.

The Conferences of National Significance Program has continued

strongly this year and the demand for places at conferences has

increased. There have been some changes to the program and

we encourage all members to consider applying for funding to

attend a conference of interest. Further details, including available

conferences and application details, are available on our website.

www.nrhsn.org.au

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2009 Co-Chair Report

Welcometo Cooee!...Continued from page 1

Ma

The National Rural Health Students’

Network is supported by financial

assistance from the

Australian Government.

Matt Cane, Fiona Langelaan, Luke Smith

NRHSN Secretary and Co-Chairs 2009

Our second F2F meeting was held in

Melbourne in September and was attended

by our Portfolio Liaison Officers as well as the

Senior and Junior NRHSN Representatives.

Attendees heard from a number of keynote

speakers, participated in workshops,

participated in planning for 2010 and dealt

with Council business. A large number of

Council members are graduating this year

and we wish them the best of luck. A number

of Council positions will again be available

for election in March 2010, and we strongly

encourage you to consider applying for one of

these positions.

There have been some staff changes since the

last edition of Cooee! Our Senior Project Officer

Linda Nink, is now on maternity leave and

has welcomed the arrival of a daughter Emma

Grace, congratulations to Colin and Linda! We

have welcomed our new National Program

Manager Kristen Harrison who commenced

in July, our new Director of Student Initiatives

Louise Lawler who commenced in September

and our new Project Officer Kate Nakic

who commenced in October. The new staff

members bring a wealth of experience with

them and all have a number of great ideas for

the future of the NRHSN.

The election of the 2010 Executive took place

at the recent September F2F Meeting and we

were fortunate to hear from two very qualified

teams of applicants. We’d like to congratulate

and welcome on board the Executive Team for

2010. With Matt Cane and Shannon Nott as

Co-Chairs and Jasmine Banner as Secretary they

are sure to have a great year working with

Kristen Harrison the National Program Manager.

Executive Handover will likely take place in late

November with the official handover of duties

occurring on 1 January 2010, we wish the new

Executive the best of luck.

And finally, we’d like to take this opportunity

to thank the many of you who have made this

such a great year for us. Being involved in the

NRHSN reminds us how powerful the student

voice can be, and how passionate our members

are about improving rural and remote health

provision. We wish you the best of luck with

your continued studies, we encourage you to

join the Alumni upon graduation and we hope

to see you somewhere in rural and remote

Australia!

Yours in rural health,

Fiona Langelaan and Luke Smith

NRHSN Co-Chairs 2009

September F2F meeting

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Get Connected! Editorial

NRHSN & Rural Health Workforce Australia

Dr Kim Webber, CEO

New Direction – Renewed Focus

Following on from the strategic priorities reported in the last issue I am happy to report that RHWA has expanded our Future Workforce section through the appointment of Kristen Harrison, National Program Manager for the NRHSN and Louise Lawler, Director of the Future Workforce Team as well as Kate Nakic our new Project Officer.

To date Kristen, Program Manager, has been evaluating the structure and function of the NRHSN and how it compliments the broader agenda of RHWA and the Future Workforce Team. We welcome, with the new executive for

2010, a ‘tightening’ of processes and developing solid strategies for the future. Louise, Program Director, has been coming to terms with the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission and National Primary Health Care Strategy. Both of these should give us foundations to work on with NRHSN to competently inform policy.

National Policy News

Your submission to the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission made very clear the environment, conditions and expectations that you, as the future health workforce, need in place to support you in working in the bush.

Keep an eye on the National Primary Health Care Strategy as this seems to be the way things will move. The student view is eagerly sought by those who make decisions about where energy, money and time are best directed. I encourage you to be there when the questions are asked, to let the government know what your experiences are and what the many health disciplines need in order to work together effectively .

Your Network

I am pleased to announce that funding has been provided for us to establish the long awaited NRHSN Membership database. This will enable

us to gain real data, that will underpin the kind of research that will spark interest and action for the benefit of the future rural health workforce. Therefore we have a new staff member, Kate Nakic who is already busy collecting and collating the database. This is a great investment in the future of the NRHSN.

All the best to you as you move in to exams and complete your studies for 2009 and I look forward to a positive and progressive year for rural health in 2010 and good luck to those graduating, we will miss you as students but look forward to having you on board as fully fledged professionals on the other side. We will keep pushing, now you can pull.

Rural Health Workforce Australia: Kim Webber – CEOLitsa Kane – Contracts and Operations Manager Pauline Reid – Events / Office Manager Linda O’Meara – Finance ManagerEstilita Vaz – Administration and Executive Assistant

Future Workforce Team Louise Lawler – DirectorKristen Harrison – National Program ManagerKerryn Eccleston – Senior Project OfficerJane Jamieson – Project OfficerKate Nakic – Project Officer Linda Nink - SPO (Maternity Leave)

membership in many clubs has meant that our student membership has surpassed the 9000 mark. Well done, but don’t rest on your laurels.... there is always room for more.

NURHC ‘09 in Cairns during July was a great success and for many has been the launching pad to throw themselves into any and all of the activities that their Rural Health Club provides. Overall the feedback was positive and many of the suggestions via the student evaluation form will be implemented at NURHC 2010 in Alice Springs next July.

Hope to see you there!

Louise, Kristen, Kerryn, Jane, Kate and Linda

Future Workforce Team (Left to Right)Kate, Kristen, Kerryn, Louise and Jane

It’s quite exciting here in the office with the breadth of experience and skills that our new team members have added to the mix, and as a consequence widened the range of support we can deliver to the network.

Louise’s passion for education within health with a vast array of roles, ranging from hands on nursing/educating in the Torres Strait, to remote third world communities and back again where she has been involved in the development of educational programs devised to close the gap.

Kristen, our new National Program Manager, joins us from James Cook University, Townsville, which has been an excellent training ground from which to take the helm of the NRHSN program. Her pragmatic but fun-loving approach is very useful when juggling her work commitments with bringing up her seven kids.

Kate, brings understanding of regional and rural health, and will manage the National

Database Project. She recently displayed her ability to go with the flow, agreeing against her better judgement, to display her dance moves at the CRANAplus conference.

We have been excited to see a rise in multi-club events. With the desire to support and also get a better understanding of these events, Louise, Kristen, Kerryn, and Jane ventured out on dusty roads to take part in some of these events. We all came away inspired by the student’s energy, enthusiasm and interest in all things rural, remote and Indigenous.

This edition of the COOEE! newsletter promises to entertain you with insights into the activities of the network. The individual portfolio reports explain current goals and aspirations. Our Rural High School Visits, Indigenous Festivals and Conferences of National Significance programs continue to deliver positive experiences, assisting the students when making their future career choices. A few of our intrepid members have written about their fascinating rural and remote placement experiences, which you can read about on pages six and seven.

It’s heartening to read the reports of the clubs to see some excellent ideas for activities and events. The subsequent healthy growth in

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Rural Health Club AdministratorMonika Marzec ROUSTAH

Our MembersTeena Downton, SHARP NRHSN Senior Rep, NRHSN Medical Portfolio

Our Alumni Ryan Spencer, WILDFIRE Doctor

What are you studying?I’m in my first year of medicine at the University of WollongongWhen did you first join SHARP?August 2006 (when I was in my first year of undergraduate Medical Science)Why did you join SHARP?The opportunities SHARP has to offer sounded like a lot of fun and a great way to get to know students studying other health degrees. I was interested in finding out more about rural health - I live a postcode away from a rural area but didn’t know much about rural health other than that there are shortages of health professionals in these areas. I also found everyone who was involved in SHARP to be really excited about the Rural Health Club so I thought it would be a great group to join up!What do you love about SHARP?Everything!! Our T-shirts, our echidna, our creative ideas and projects, our

events, our trips away to promote rural health, Kay (our Administrator), and of course the enthusiasm of our members, many of whom have discovered a love for rural health which they never knew they had.What is your best SHARP experience?Every SHARP event – though some highlights that come to mind include the SHARP bush dance (which brings out the rural in everyone), the RAHMS’ Rural Appreciation Weekend and when we launched the NRHSN Wide Horizons DVD to members last year in complete cinema style!What is your best NRHSN experience?The National University Rural Health Conference (NURHC) this year, with 2008 Vibe Alive Festival in Coonamble a close second. Hearing from other NRHSN members and current health professionals about their rural experiences, being out in rural communities, talking with the local kids, having fun with arm plastering and promoting good health have been among my best experiences so far.What are your interests outside of rural health?Being a tourist, balderdash, movies, ice-skating, tennis, piano accordion, eating out with friends, medical research, and first aid with St JohnWhat are your words of wisdom for students thinking about a rural career? Find out when your next Rural Health Club event will be!

Which Club were you a member of and when did you graduate? Wildfire, 2006 Where are you from originally? Riddells Creek, Victoria Where are you based now? Geelong What do you do there? (Career, spare time etc) Currently I am travelling throughout Egypt, but next year I will be in Physician Training. In my spare time I enjoy surfing and playing the guitar.

What is the best thing about your town/job? Right now it’s the surf and the time off to do it!! If you weren’t doing what you’re doing what would you be doing? Living the life a of a rockstar without the talent.What’s in store for the future? More travel, more surf and unfortunately more study.Best rural placement experience? Mossman Hospital Queensland.Best NRHSN experience?It’s hard to decide between 2002 NURHC Tasmania or 2004 NURHC Barossa, Great wine, great people, and great fun.Best RHC experience? It would have to be the ‘Get Plastered Night 2002’ drinking beer whilst in plaster can be so much fun! Words of wisdom for others thinking about a rural career? DO IT! You won’t regret it. Oh and get out of the city while you still can.

Favourite ROUSTAH memory? Watching them dance about in chicken/rooster costumes at NURHC, and hanging out with the members at Campfire ’09

What do you do at ROUSTAH/RDWA? RDWA – Student Services Officer, ROUSTAH Administrator

What does your job involve? What don’t I do?! My RDWA role is all about encouraging and supporting people. Whether that’s rural high school kids who want to study medicine, current med students thinking about going rural, or assisting people who are applying for Graduate Entry Med. I also mentor and support med students receiving a particular bonded state scholarship. We also work pretty closely with the 2 other RHC’s in SA. And then of course there’s ROUSTAH, where I advocate, mentor, assist, send lots of emails, talk way too much and eat lots of yum food!

How long have you been involved with ROUSTAH? Just over a year

Best rural experience?Working with ROUSTAH! Only one answer – the next one !!!

Why are ROUSTAH the best? They have lots of energy, a great sense of humour and fun, are passionate and generally very lovely people to be around.

What keeps you occupied in your spare time?Spare time?? I’m not familiar with that term.

What’s the one thing you want the world to know about you? That I love interpretive dance.

The thing you don’t want the world know? See above. It’s a love/hate relationship

Words of wisdom for others thinking about a rural career or wanting to get involved in their RHC? Get into it! Working rurally doesn’t have to be forever, but it will be an amazing experience no matter what you do or where you go. And get involved with your club, you’ll learn so much, make lots of new friends from around Australia and you’ll get lots of free food!

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Indigenous Festivals

I boarded the small REX plane to Broken Hill,.. and the hostess’ instruction to “ensure you can see the nearest exit” making me smile as I could see the entire inside of the plane from my seat with barely turning my head. I was surprised to hear the captain quoting the “local time”, and so found out that while still in NSW, for some odd reason Broken Hill operates on Adelaide time... I was picked up by two CRANC students and we headed into town, where the Breaathhe girls were waiting. Over dinner we planned for the next day, working out which activities we would run. The next morning, we picked up supplies for the day and headed to Broken Hill High School, where we set up..... and ran sessions as the students cycled through. We ran two main activities, healthy eating and Gutsy Gus. In the healthy eating section, we taped a circle on the ground divided up into sections representing the amount of each food group that you should have on your plate, and asked students to stand in each part. We then asked them which food group they represented, depending on the size of the portion, and examples of these food types. We also discussed differences between types of foods, e.g. whole grain versus white bread.... We then did a section on the sugar content of different drinks...We finished with an amazing little device that peels, cores and cuts the apple into a slinky, which was very popular... For Gutsy Gus, we went through the body, asking students to name the organs, what makes them healthy or sick. This led to discussion of lifestyle factors affecting health, which was particularly popular with a number of students who had trouble seeing and liked to feel the shape of the different organs. Plastering and face painting also went well, with a large line for multi-coloured casts and Aboriginal flags. In the afternoon, we watched the films that the students had made; it was very interesting seeing the students we had taught in their own movies,...and their lives. That evening, we went up to some rock sculptures for the sunset. These were set on top of one the many hills that give Broken Hill its name. and at dinner we ate bush food, eating kangaroo, emu, and barramundi wrapped in paperbark...Throughout the next day, I watched the landscape slowly change as I headed back east, turning red to yellow to green.... and I thought of returning to such a beautiful and interesting part of the world.

The exciting Indigenous festival season is now over and it’s time to reflect upon the great work done by our RHC’s and especially the Indigenous Festival Internal Officers, Maria Bernardi and Frankie Garnett from RAHMS. They have tirelessly assisted all 29 Rural Health Clubs to link up and attend one of the Indigenous Festivals. They also ensure the delivery of a fun and inspiring program for Indigenous children attending the festivals. Students attended Vibe Alive, Wakakirri or Deadly Days Indigenous Festivals in areas ranging from Coonamble(NSW) to Katherine (NT) to Ceduna (SA). There is an emphasis on games and activities that emphasize healthy lifestyles. An equally important message is the different health career possibilities. The NRHSN stands are usually a great attraction with many children returning home, sporting plastered appendages as a result of imagined accidents. We are currently evaluating the NRHSN Indigenous Festivals Kit and would love to hear your ideas on things that could make these events even more successful. Please send your ideas to festivals@nrhsn.org.au. Read excerpts from Frankie’s Wakakirri Indigenous Festival at Broken Hill Report below, to give you an idea of how they are organised.

Vibe Alive Mildura

Laura Dance FestivalLaura Dance Festival

Wakakirri Broken Hill

Vibe Alive Mildura

Rachel Nugent - Broken Hill

Pete Wyllie

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GPNNT Rural PlacementsIan Vickers, StARRH

For the past four years, GPNNT has been working collaboratively with the Charles Darwin University Rural Health Club; Students Association for Rural and Remote Health (StARRH), in partnership with the National Rural Health Students’ Network (NRHSN) to promote health, health careers and staying in school, to rural and remote high school students throughout the Northern Territory.

This partnership allows GPNNT to work closely with members of StARRH to build ongoing relationships and develop the future of our medical workforce.

On 27th May, GPNNT received an email from Sally Grainger (CDU Nursing Student and member of StARRH, currently undertaking community nursing prac at Yirrkala Health Centre), to let us know of an exciting opportunity for two StARRH members to

travel to Yirrkala Health Centre and assist with promotional activities during the healthy school aged kids screening (HSAK’s) being conducted between 15 – 17 June. The local Indigenous clinics combined this year to do the kids checks for ages 5-15 and expected to see in excess of 200 children over the three days.

Accommodation was offered by Dr Jenny Brown of NT Clinical School but the students would need to fund their own flights.

After discussing this fantastic opportunity, GPNNT offered to sponsor Ian Vickers (nursing student and co-president of StARRH) and Michael Cassells (occupational therapy student and StARRH member) to travel to Yirrkala Health Centre and assist with the HSAK’s.

During the three days of HSAK’s, Ian and Michael had the opportunity to help out with a variety of checks from simply weighing and measuring the kids through to taking blood, urine tests and administering vaccinations.

Ian has said on his time at Yirkkala Health Centre,

“not only did this opportunity help in improving our skills it also provided us with the opportunity to meet with and discuss a

Ian Vickers administering a vaccination

variety of issues relating to remote health with Aboriginal health workers, doctors and nurses”.

“One major effect the trip had on me was to further reinforce my desire to pursue a career as a remote area nurse and to motivate me through my remaining studies at CDU”.

GPNNT is committed to the ongoing development and education to improve the health of all Territorians and to lead the way in primary health care.

Details on the HSAK’s can be found at: www.health.nt.gov.au/library/scripts/objectifyMedia.aspx?file=pdf/24/43.pdf&siteID=1&str_title=Healthy%20School%20Aged%20Kids%20Manual.pdf

Cane toad racing for the Australia Day public holiday, Miwatj Aboriginal Medical Service on Tuesday, visiting the remote community Dhanyah with the child health team by 4WD on Wednesday, flying to the remote island community Galiwinku on Thursday and spending Friday with the visiting Ophthalmologist at the Gove District Hospital.

This is just an example of some of the incredible opportunities available to medical students on placement in Nhulunbuy, East Arnhem Land. The town’s 30 bed hospital provides acute care, with the assistance of MedAir (the NT top end version of RFDS), for the 14000 people living in the region; two- thirds of which are Aboriginal. Completely inaccessible by road during the wet season, everything arrives by plane or the weekly barge service.

Nhulunbuy was established to support the Alumina mine and refinery less then 15km out of town, the town is a stark contrast with the lives of Traditional Owners in the region. Many small homeland communities surround the town – creating lots of opportunities for bush trips. I spent two days out at Ramingining, the community where 10 Canoes was filmed.

In addition to spending time in the clinic, I visited the local primary school with one of the remote area nurses. Each week he visits a different class to check the ears and skin of every child. Not only was it very good practice, but the children loved seeing what was inside their ears, as the otoscope connected to the TV.

Dhanyah, a homeland community 90 minutes south of Nhulunbuy, was another place I visited with the Child Health Team. After their health checks each child was given a toothbrush which they loved, as you’ll see from the pictures they took of each other. One of the highlights for me, were multiple visits to a remote community Galiwinku. Situated on an island 40 minutes flight from Nhulunbuy, 3000 Aboriginal people are serviced by lots of Aboriginal Health Workers, several remote area nurses and one doctor (at best). The use of bush medicine and healing services are supported by the health service, Aboriginal Health Workers are an integral part of the clinic and there are many education sessions teaching patients the “story” of their sickness.

Another visit was a part of the child health school screening program. In just 3 ½ days we screened over 240! I did a lot of vision screening and no matter how hard 4 year olds may seem in a clinic, it is 100 times harder when they don’t speak English. Fortunately, one of the Aboriginal Health Workers interpreted, making the testing possible, and the chaos had an element of fun to it. Many of the children had anaemia, heart murmurs, perforated ears, hearing loss, scabies, fungal infection and some had trachoma. It was interesting to note that the children living a traditional life at Dhanyah were much healthier then those at Galiwinku. As with most remote communities, Galiwinku also has the generalised social problems of overcrowding, poor living conditions, expensive food and high unemployment rates.

But as the Aboriginal Mental Health Worker on Galiwinku said to me; “everyone hears about the bad things up here, but no one hears about the good.” And there are lots of good things happening.

The medicine in East Arnhem Land is interesting, challenging and you realise that logistics are the biggest issue; yet there is also plenty of time for fun. I went on several 4WD trips to the local beaches and freshwater lagoons. And if you like fishing there are HUGE fish to be caught. At 95cm mine was considered small!

Remote PlacementEmily Carroll, CARAH

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Rural High School Visits(RHSV)

Ian Vickers administering a vaccination

The Rural High School Visits (RHSV) program aims to encourage students in a rural area to enter tertiary education as research has shown that rural students are more likely to return to their ‘hometown’ communities to live and work when they finish their studies. They are a unique chance for Rural Health Clubs to inspire

www.nrhsn-rhsv.org.au

rural and remote youngsters and attract them to the wonders of the healthcare profession and YOU can be a part of it through your Rural Health Club.

Clubs have been on some great Rural High School Visits throughout this year ranging

from visits to high schools to career expos. HOPE4HEALTH and BUSHFIRE visited 7 high schools together in the Kingaroy region of South East Queensland earlier this year. AURHA, ROUSTAH and FURHS together visited high schools in the Mount Gambier region of South Australia. Reports from these visits along with many other Clubs’ visit reports and ideas can be found on the RHSV website (www.nrhsn-rhsv.org.au).

Log in to the RHSV website to keep up to date as to what other Rural Health Clubs are doing and see if you can join in!

Email rhsv@nrhsn.org.au with any questions and ideas that you would like to ask or share.

As a fourth year medical student, I experienced my first ever clinical placement through the John Flynn Placement Program (JFPP). For 3 weeks I lived in Nguiu, the capital of the Tiwi Islands. Bathurst Island, together with the neighbouring Melville Island, form the Tiwi Islands, 100km north of Darwin and 500km south of East Timor in the Arafura Sea. They are Australia’s largest Islands after Tasmania and home to the Tiwi Aboriginal people.

Weary from the red eye delayed flight from Melbourne I arrived into Darwin at 1am to the warmth of the top end night air. With no knowledge of the place I jumped into a cab and struggled to pronounce the address of the house I needed to go to. Luckily the driver was very familiar with it, he tells me it’s one of his

most regular drop offs, with students always coming and going. At the house I was relieved to see another student just arriving too, I wasn’t the only one! In fact the backpacker style/ dorm rooms were full with over a dozen medical students & some even slept on the couch futons.

Next day we were all up bright and early and made our way to Charles Darwin University (CDU) for the cultural awareness/competency training co-ordinated by the Northern Territory General Practice Education (NTGPE). A leisurely walk through the bush to the nearby beach eased us into the day while we learnt the amazing possibilities the bush holds for nutrition and medicine in Aboriginal culture. Further sessions over the next two days gave us a solid grounding in the complexities of Aboriginal culture and the common health problems and challenges to health care in the ‘Top End’ of the Northern Territory.

In the evenings we took the opportunity to explore Darwin after navigating the infrequent but ridiculously cheap (50cent) buses.

Flying from Darwin to Nguiu was very quick and accommodation in Nguiu was so comfortable and conveniently close to the nurses’ units and clinic that I never felt isolated. The health clinic in Nguiu has one large building split into a women’s and men’s clinic, plus rooms for visiting specialists, dentists, optometrists and other allied health professionals. With no prior experience of

clinical medicine or Aboriginal culture my goals were to learn about the local culture, the community and their health.

On the first day of my placement I was fortunate enough to accompany a mobile screening clinic to the small community of Ranku, 90km from Nguiu at the other end of Bathurst Island. In the wet season this community is cut off from all road and air access and the road had only been recently fixed so we were the first health clinic staff to visit for quite some time. Everyone was eager to get a checkup but with facilities lacking we resorted to setting up our clinic outside on the tables of the general store! Blood pressures, urine and blood samples were taken in preparation for a Doctor’s visit the following week. I soon learnt the Tiwi words for urine: ‘bogeny’ and hello: ‘iwana’.

The first weekend I was on the Tiwi Islands I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Tiwi Health annual ‘happy hunting’ camping weekend where all health clinic staff from Nguiu and the smaller communities Milinkapati and Pirlangimpi and their families go bush. We camped on the beautiful Artawini Beach about 30km from Nguiu and enjoyed a weekend of fishing etc By the evening campfire Tiwi hymns were sung whilst the kids danced around the fire on the beach......

Full unabridged version on our website www.nrhsn.org.au

Remote Island Placement Brent Corcoran

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Multi-Club Events

The word is out. Multi-club and Regional events are on the rise.It’s exciting to see an ever increasing number and diversity of Rural Health Club’s joining forces to create their own distinctive multi-club and regional events attracting participation from around the state and even right across Australia. These events offer a whole raft of valuable insights into all things rural from the various skills required down on the farm, some practical hands-on survival skills required out bush, clinical skills, rural emergency medicine, cultural awareness, introduction to an Indigenous language, Indigenous medicine and even survival on bush tucker. The students also benefit greatly from the inspirational personal experiences of the guest speakers. And of course, a big spin-off of these events are the social networking opportunities around the campfire or the barn dance.

On a regular Friday evening somewhere lost in the endlessly long working weeks of 2009, a group of intrepid mountain rescue trainees met at the Sydney University car park, backpacks slung over shoulders and climbing shoes donned. It was the beginning of the first Wilderness Medicine Society training camp, which was to be held over two days in the Blue Mountains. The aim of the weekend was to bring together students from different universities to learn leadership and teamwork skills whilst developing a systematic approach to search and rescue, and managing emergency situations in a remote setting.

The event was a joint collaboration between the Sydney University Rural Health Club MIRAGE and a new and exciting student society named The Wilderness Medicine Society. The Wilderness Medicine Society was inaugurated in March 2008 with the intention of introducing medical students to the field of wilderness and remote medicine, as well as the emerging field of expedition medicine, which is receiving worldwide attention. Since its inauguration a number of highly successful events were

held in 2008 by the society, including a weekend hike through the Royal National Park, and special presentation nights by Dr Glenn Singleman, Dr Keith Burgess and Dr Edi Albert. Acknowledging their common interests in remote medicine, the Wilderness Medicine Society and MIRAGE have been working closely to achieve their goals of inspiring young students to break the shackles of city life and explore the rewards to be had in remote Australia and beyond.

The Wilderness Search and Rescue Medicine camp involved medical students from the University of Sydney, Notre Dame, the University of Wollongong and the University of Western Sydney, and was a fantastic opportunity to meet medical students from other universities and share information and ideas. The weekend was facilitated by Dr Edi Albert and Vonna Keller, who have years of remote medical experience between them, having recently spent the summer at Casey Station in the Antarctic. Edi has a great love of the outdoors, which he combines with an interest in both medical education and remote medicine. He was previously Head of General Practice at the Tasmanian Medical School, but has developed a post-graduate training program in Expedition Medicine in Tasmania. He has travelled widely, including climbing expeditions to the Himalaya, kayaking in the Arctic, and closer to home, kayaking across Bass Strait. Vonna has a wide range of experience working in the outdoors, from

being an instructor in rock climbing, vertical rescue, kayaking, and white water rafting to working as a field guide with film crews in Antarctica. They made a dynamic training team for the basics of search and rescue. During the weekend, theoretical lectures involving primary and secondary survey and dealing with an unfavourable environment were combined with the more practical skills of managing spinal injuries, rolls and carries, and improvising stretchers and splints. Knowing there was to be a search and rescue exercise on Sunday afternoon, the morning was given to practicing search techniques and triage. The weekend culminated in an exciting exercise involving 3 “real” wilderness patients with a variety of injuries, including femur and ankle fractures, C-spine instability, hysteria and hallucinations, all of whom were expeditiously rescued and returned home.

This weekend would not have been possible without the continued support and generous funding from the NRHSN and MDA National. Given the resounding success of the weekend and the intensity of energy that the students took home in their pockets, MIRAGE and The Wilderness Medicine Society look forward to providing more events like it in the future, with invitations open to all universities.

The Wilderness Medicine Society: www.wildernessmedicinesociety.orgemail: info@wildernessmedicinesociety.org

Mirage : www.mirage.soc.usyd.edu.au

Campfire Quorn, South Australia

Campfire was a chance for the 3 RHCs, AURHA, FURHS and ROUSTAH from SA to come together for a student run rural health forum. This year’s theme – Rural Exposed! gave participants the chance to question and explore ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ sides of rural practice. In all 31 students from the three clubs attended, with a range of disciplines represented such as physiotherapy, OT, medicine, nursing and dentistry. The clubs were also pleased to host Jane Jamieson (NRHSN), Mel Watters (FURHS

Administrator), Monika Marzec and Barbara Wright (RDWA).

Pichi Richi Park in Quorn, provided an idyllic location and the program even allowed for a hike up Devils Peak providing panoramic views of the Flinders Ranges, Spencer Gulf and local towns. Students loved the opportunities to network with like minded students, meet and discuss pertinent issues with rural health practitioners, and pit their great intellects against each other in the dress up Quiz Night. As future health practitioners, it was only fitting that the dress up theme was ‘Bumps, bruises and boo-boos’ with many gory injuries and fake blood galore.

Wilderness Medicine Search and Rescue Camp The Blue Mountains, NSW. Amanda Beech and Nathan Creber, MIRAGE

C o o e e ! O c t o b e r 2 0 0 9

Conferences of National Significance - CoNS

Want to learn from the professionals? Want to expand your horizons? This program provides all of that and more as it allows students to attend national conferences which they might not be able to afford by applying for a CoNS funding. The conferences must have an emphasis on rural, remote and or Indigenous health issues. Attending a conference has been shown to greatly assist our members decision to take the leap of faith and ‘go bush’ as a result of the inspirational programs and networking with professionals and other students from throughout Australia.

Since May this year we have sent 72 students off to 14 different conferences spanning the continent. Their mission was to discover new career possibilities, absorb the latest refinements on health practices in rural and remote Australia, make connections with potential colleagues and experience a little bit of the local culture if their timetable and budget allowed.

We sent a multi-disiplinary delegation of 20 students to the extremely important and popular NRHA - National Rural Health Conference in Cairns in May. Professional development opportunites abounded as all

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students participated in scribing sessions, networking whilst assisting on the NRHSN exhibition stand; with Josh Crase(Outlook) and Luke Smith (ARMS) presenting papers and Matt Cane (RUSTICA), a panel discussion.

We had a similar student involvement at the recent very inspiring CRANAplus - Council of Remote Area Nurses Australia + Allied Health conference in Alice Springs in October. Three students, Sally Grainger (StARRH), Kat Radosevich (WAALHIIBE) and Amanda Francis (SHARP) presented a paper on nursing students’ rural placement experiences. A further 7 nursing students assisted with the NRHSN stand and 1 assisted CRANAplus with the conference organisation in return for reduced fees.

Students are required to write a CoNS Report which is placed on our website, many of which make interesting reading and could help in the selection of the perfect conference for you. Check them out on www.nrhsn.org.au/cons and get your application in now!

I have walked away from the CRANAplus conference with more career direction, more passion to pursue my goals of becoming a remote area practitioner, and I hope with time friends and colleagues with whom I can continue to share my stories with in the future.

Amanda Francis, SHARP, 3rd Year Student

NRHSN Trip Report – NRHC Conference – 17-20/5/2009 – Joshua Crase

Page 1 of 3

NRHA NRHC Conference – NRHSN Trip Report

Joshua Crase

Final Year Graduate Medical Student – Melbourne University

The National Rural Health Conference covered a number of very important themes related to rural health.

This is one of the few conferences where delegates have the opportunity to provide direct feedback to the

NRHA in the form of recommendations. The conference provided a great opportunity to mix with

likeminded students and professionals. Moreover, being able to present a workshop on behalf of the

NRHSN was also a highlight for me.

On Sunday morning I helped out putting together our fantastic exhibition hall stand (shown below). It

couldn’t have been achieved without a few volunteers and Jane’s plan – but I think we had one of the

most colourful and eye-catching stalls in the hall!!

Figure 1. The NRHSN Exhibition Hall Stand

Following this I spent most of the day preparing for my presentation for Monday afternoon. My topic

followed on from the NRHSN Wide Horizons DVD and aimed to provide some tips and techniques for

preceptors to interact with health students (from all disciplines). The presentation contained a number of

instructive example videos from a Canadian medical training website which highlighted appropriate and

non-appropriate ways to interact with students. I also drew information from the book “Teaching in Your

Office” (referenced in the presentation) created by one of our lecturers, Professor Dawn DeWitt (amongst

other authors).

Sunday night saw a rather unexpected evening exploring Cairns with the other students. An excellent

night was had by all – dancing the night away whilst networking in true student fashion.

AMSA Global Health Conference 2009 – Brisbane 2nd-5th July

Challenge Your World CoNS report written by Philippa Bowers (UNSW/RAHMS)

The girls on-site at the beautiful University of Queensland

It was wonderful to be back in sunny Queensland. Brisbane was just as I remembered from my boarding school days. The conference was held at the beautiful UQ campus at St Lucia, wedged in a bend in the Brisbane River, only a 20 minute ferry ride from our accommodation in the city. The conferences’ focus was on world health; Australian indigenous health, the challenges faced in developing countries and how we can impact the world around us. The theme of the conference was “challenge your world”. I am certain that I did challenge my world and my conception of it.

Thursday – International Day We arrived bright and early Thursday morning to get registered and start the conference. After receiving bags full of wonderful goodies, we headed into the plenary room. We were welcomed by Maroochy, representing the Turrbal people, who are traditional owners of the land at St Lucia. We were moved by the traditional song and dance she performed for us.

Following further introductions,, we were introduced to Dr Sujit Brahmochary. Dr Sujit took us on the most amazing journey of his life and showed us that one man can make a huge difference. Educated originally in Calcutta, Dr Suitt specialised in Belgium in the field of paediatric medicine. Inspired by Mother Teresa, Dr Sujit returned to Calcutta and founded the Institute for Indian Mother and Child (IIMC). What started in a barn he shared with a cow once a week, grew to multiple clinics, hospitals and schools established for the betterment of health and education for Indian women and children. The speech was highly entertaining, enlightening, emotional and inspiring.

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Allied Health Portfolio Daniel Mahony & Cristen Fleming, Co-Allied Health Representatives

Medical Portfolio

Matt Van ZettenMedical Representative

Nursing Portfolio

The Allied Health Portfolio focused on stakeholder relations and consultation on the major issues facing allied health students wanting to go to rural or remote areas. The portfolio welcomed Laura McClure to the new position as Dentistry and Oral Health Liaison Officer. At the recent National Universities Rural Health Conference (NURHC) in Cairns, QLD, there were 3 main concerns allied health students felt passionate about and came up with some solutions to get allied health students, graduates and professionals into rural and remote areas: Incentives: Increased incentives and scholarships and incentive schemes for rural allied health students/graduates. Placements: Increase rural and remote placement opportunities and support through Universities, Increase the number of AHCPSS scholarships to be favourably comparable to medical students. Training for graduates: Increase opportunities and supervision and training opportunities in rural and remote areas for graduates. Cristen Fleming, attended the Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH) biennial Summit, to raise the NRHSN profile and to work with SARRAH to advocate for more support for allied health professionals and students. The Department of Health and Ageing - Allied and Indigenous Workforce Branch were also keen to talk with students in the future about scholarships for Allied Health students. Pharmacy Liaison Officer, Elise Taylor is busy promoting the NRHSN to pharmacy students and professionals in Australia and is doing a terrific job! Daniel Mahony will be presenting on behalf of the NRHSN at the National Allied Health Conference in Canberra in October. Thanks to those clubs who completed our survey which we are currently collating. If you have any questions about the allied health portfolio or would like to be part of it, please email us at alliedhealth @nrhsn.org.au

It was great catching up with some of you at the National University Rural Health Conference – thank you for making it so successful and rewarding. It was a valuable experience for the medical portfolio to be able to receive input from so many medical students, and the portfolio has taken your suggestions on board. By far the most pressing issues weighing on the minds of delegates were related to the availability of pre-vocational positions and access to specialty training in rural areas. These complicated issues will be faced by many of us in the coming years, and unfortunately there is no simple solution. In recent months we have created a statement regarding internship places, including suggestions as to how health departments can ensure that an increased number of positions does not equate to lower quality internships. We will continue to review and respond to the recommendations from NURHC, in particular rural training opportunities, at our September Face 2 Face meeting and over the remainder of the year. Since NURHC the medical portfolio team has been working with the NRHSN executive and the other portfolios in creating a response to the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report, which will hopefully be released soon. We are also improving our relationship with AMSA through the creation of a joint working party to discuss pertinent rural health issues, share policies, and be up to date with what each organisation is up to. We also hope to be able to produce joint statements on issues we share common beliefs on, and to increase the awareness of the NRHSN and its beliefs amongst medical students and the general public. The medical portfolio is comprised of 7 medical students who represent the NRHSN and our medical student members on a number of national committees. This includes the support schemes for JFPP, BMP and MRBS students, as well as to the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand - we are the only student voice on each. If you have any suggestions, comments, or ideas on any of these please, contact us at medical@nrhsn.org.au so we can discuss these with the relevant organisation.

The nursing team, consisting of Sally Grainger and Katherine Radosevich has concentrated on several areas of student involvement through the NRHSN in 2009 including: Review of members’ applications for Conferences of National Significance (CoNS) funding to ensure equitable distribution of CoNS funds. This year, increased numbers of nursing students are attending and presenting at national conferences, with some students offering assistance to reduce registration fees and stay with friends in order to reduce conference costs. Amanda Francis (SHARP), Kat and myself will be presenting a paper of Rural Placements at the CRANA’09 conference in Alice Springs. Our liaison with the Royal College of Nursing Australia (RCNA) and Council of Remote Area Nurses of Australia (CRANA) has started to raise the NRHSN profile. Kat Radosevich was invited to submit a nursing article to the RCNA for publication as a result of networking at the National Rural Health Conference in May ’09. 35 nurses attended Nursing Discipline Lunch at NURHC ‘09 voted to support: 1. A national nursing student website, 2. Scholarships/financial assistance, 3. Rural and remote placement guidelines Representation of nursing perspectives and issues concerning nursing student members for the NRHSN Council and other interested groups. Advice and support for individual nursing student members within the network via email, telephone and in person, demonstrating the strength of national student networking via the NRHSN network. We continue to advocate for more remote and rural placement opportunities. Winnows, the NRHSN nursing sub-group, has moved to Facebook in order to generate increased membership and interest.

Through the combined teamwork of RHWA staff and student volunteers we’re are able to spread the message – Health in the Bush: go rural, stay rural!

Sally Grainger, NRHSN Senior Nursing Discipline Advisor for 2009 at nursing@nrhsn.org.au

Sally Grainger Nursing Representative

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Community and Advocacy PortfolioClaire Sutcliffe NRHA Representative

The Indigenous health portfolio has been getting off the ground this year; there hav been baby steps in laying firm foundations for the portfolio, we acknowledge there is still a long way to go. There is an abundance of work to be done, the question is...where does one start?! If you are interested in helping this portfolio get up and running please contact us!

One of the key events for the Indigenous health portfolio this year has been the Cross Cultural Awareness Weekend and Cultural Perspectives Day hosted by the Alice Springs club, CARAH. This provides an opportunity for other Rural Health Clubs to come and taste the local Indigenous culture and discuss a range of topics that broaden cultural awareness. The Indigenous portfolio and CARAH encourage health students to get to know Indigenous people in their community seeking to learn from them. People have much to give, when we give equally to one another, we will see our nation change!

Mitch Sharrock recently travelled through the central desert area on a rural high school visit tour. He helped out with NURHC, and has been chasing up details of our Indigenous health reps from all our national Rural Health Clubs, a big job!

Portfolio holder Dianne Thorp received the award at NURHC for, “Outstanding Contribution to Indigenous Communities”, presented by Rural Health Workforce Australia and National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO).This was unexpected, and an honour to receive. She has been busy organising the CARAH Cross Cultural Awareness Weekend and Cultural Perspectives Day

We have learned much this year and welcome our new members into the portfolio. Email us at indigenous_health@nrhsn.org.au.

The establishment of this portfolio means that we will now be able to more effectively voice the views of the NRHSN to major stakeholders such as the National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA), Australian Rural Health Education Network (ARHEN) and Rural Education Forum Australia (REFA). The team is lead by Clare Sutcliffe and Andrew Hunter Co-Senior Representatives of the portfolio and NRHA liaison officers, with team members Lauren Frieze (REFA liaison officer) and Susan Jai (ARHEN liaison officer).We would like to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about each of us:-

Clare Sutcliffe: I’m a 1st year Speech Pathology student at Flinders University, SA, and have enjoyed the lifestyle of the country all my life, but also experienced the lack of health services and the lengthened waiting time to see a health care provider. Due to my passion and enthusiasm for rural & remote health and being part of the NRHSN as well as this portfolio I hope that I will be able to encourage anyone who is considering and studying a health career to go and work in a rural or remote area once they have graduated. To be able to entice more students to go and work in rural and remote areas we need to make sure that they will have the same benefits as their urban colleagues now, as well as into the future and this is what I am personally hoping to make sure we can improve, by being part of this portfolio.

Andrew Hunter I’m a 1st year graduate entry (my first degree was a B.Sc in Molecular Biology) Medicine student at Flinders University here in Adelaide. Having lived in several rural communities from SA to VIC to QLD, I have seen first-hand the exceptional quality of life a rural/remote community provides yet the severe lack of adequate local medical services accessible to these communities, particularly to our Indigenous population. The massive 17 year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is an unacceptable one, and a gap that should and can be shortened by passionate people. What drives and excites me about rural health is the continuity of care that I will ultimately be a part of, becoming an integral part of people’s and family’s lives, together with the strong sense of community, not only providing quality health care options

Indigenous Health PortfolioDianne Thorp & Mitch SharrockCo-Indigenous Health Representatives

but playing an active role in preventative health advice. My hope is that the sharing of some of my passion for a rural career will encourage my fellow students, in considering a career in rural health as well to connect with the “decision-makers” to promote and advance the causes of the NRHSN.

Lauren Frieze: I’m a 3rd year Biotechnology (Medical) student at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. Originally from the Central Coast, I have fallen for the rural lifestyle. I’ve held REFA (Rural Education Forum of Australia) Liaison Officer role since 2008 as a junior. In September 2009 I attended Parliament House in Canberra for the REFA Roundtable Meeting where problems similar to those arising on the NRHSN council were discussed such as how to get teachers to go rural and stay rural, as well as defining the REFA role in a quest to better education at all levels for rural and remote students. This meeting introduced me to WATSA (The Women’s College Aboriginal & Torres Straight Islander Alliance Project) which is a group run from the Women’s College in the University of Sydney where they go to rural and remote areas and talk to the local Indigenous and non-Indigenous women about tertiary studies. There was also a desire to create a national rural health network for education students like the NRHSN which I hope we can assist with.

Susan Jia: I’m a second year medical student at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney. Though I am city born and bred, studying medicine has made me realise that as fabulous as Australia is, people in this country do not have equal access to healthcare. This is how I became passionate about rural, remote and Indigenous health. I hope that as ARHEN liaison officer, I can help create more positive rural experiences for all health students, and represent their interests and concerns to significant stakeholder organisations.

We aim to develop clear goals and stronger stakeholder relationships in order to improve the future of rural, remote and Indigenous health. For information on stakeholder organisations please check out our website www.nrhsn.org.au/community. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions please feel free to send us an email to advocacy@nrhsn.org.au.

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AURHA:AdelaideUniversity, SA

Pip Baker

ARMS:AustralianNational University, ACT

Agnes Luty

AWAIRH attended a Vibe Alive

Indigenous festival in Kalgoorlie

and from all accounts it was a

fantastic experience.

We are still attempting to build our

membership and hope to link into

AWAIRH:La Trobe Uni, Wondonga VIC

Jacqui James

a Breast Cancer Awareness concert

being held by the Future Leaders

Club at LaTrobe University Albury/

Wodonga campus.

We are starting to look to next

year and are attempting to build a

calendar of events for 2010.

We will be losing a few of our

executive members at the end

of this year as they will be

graduating and we wish them

the best for their future careers in

Rural Health.

Since April ARMS has visited 8 high schools, often with our allied health colleagues from CRANC joining us to promote the broad spectrum of health as a career option to high school students. ARMS members trialed a new men’s health survey - covering prostate and sexual health at the Cooma Steel Open Day in May.

ARMS hosted a photo exhibition to raise awareness of Indigenous health issues featuring work of medical students who have spent time in remote communities.

Throughout July, several students attended “Mate Helping Mate” mental health focussed events. Our students were privileged to listen to Cootamundra farmer, John Harper’s own story about depression, mental health in rural areas as well as prostrate cancer.In early September, three students attended the Deadly Days Indigenous Festivals in Grafton and Port Macquarie promoting health careers and lifestyles to children with Indigenous backgrounds. By the end of the day everyone was

treated for a broken arm at the popular plastering activity on the NRHSN stall.

Eight fortunate ARMS members attended NURHC 2009, a great learning and social networking opportunity. ARMS members, Yin and Alicia presented their

Haven’t you heard? It was my understanding that everyone had heard...

AURHA’s members have been travelling to all corners of state and country over the last few months attending exciting events and spreading the word. Members have travelled to Port Augusta for Vibe Alive; Mannum

and Quorn for clinical skills trips and an extremely successful trip to Mt Gambier in the south east, attending four schools over two days and forming strong bonds with our South Australian counterparts from FURHS & ROUSTAH. It was promising to see so much enthusiasm for a career in health and hopefully with plans

to get back to the country when they finish!

One of our big events for the year, Dinner Under the Stars, held in quaint Willunga at the Russel’s Gourmet Wood Oven Pizzas with fantastic guest speakers, awesome pizza, a lot of late night dancing – this event had everything.

A strong contingency headed to Cairns for NURHC to battle it out for the Golden windmills! A fantastic experience, which our members learnt a lot from and formed great relationships with likeminded students from across the country.

AURHA, in conjunction with ROUSTAH and FURHS has been working towards our big event of the year – CAMPFIRE, which is guaranteed to be another fantastic event!

AURHA’s AGM is not far off and a new team will be in to carry on the good work and keep spreading the word... about Rural Health that is.

research and Deb won the ACCRM Presidents Prize for her innovative “Take a Mate” idea.

ARMS is also starting up a mentoring program by providing monthly tutorial assistance for high school students who live in rural areas around Canberra.

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CARAH: Charles Darwin Uni, NT in assoc with Flinders Uni, SA

BREAATHHE:University ofNewcastle, NSW

Greer Stevens

BUSHFIRE: Bond University, QLD

Dianne Thorp

Emma Hogan

In September BUSHFIRE embarked on a journey to attend our first ever Indigenous festival. With 10 enthusiastic BUSHFIRE members we headed south of the border from Bond University to the Deadly Days festival at Kingscliff Tafe. Not knowing what to expect, we were very glad to be accompanied by students from 4 other Rural Health Clubs who could show us the ropes. On

arrival we were overwhelmed and excited by the number of high school students who turned up at the festival with a genuine interest in health related careers. This made for an excellent opportunity to have a fun and educational experience with the students as well as for us to share whatever experience we could in terms of our chosen university and career paths.

CARAH has certainly been busy this year, with two rural school visits, Yirara College in May and at Santa Teresa community, in June. You can see photos and reports on the NRHSN CARAH page (www.nrhsn.org.au) as well as on Facebook. In May we had our first official “Health and Wellbeing Night” with speakers covering self care,

professional support, nutrition, stress management, exercise techniques and smoking cessation. The event was well attended by a wide variety of health profession students, and dinner went down very well!

In July seven CARAH students attended NURHC in Cairns; with highlights including hearing

from high profile speakers, skill workshops and many networking opportunities. They were highly successful at the Golden Windmills night performing “Under My Umbrella” and many other clubs remarking that maybe we should have won! CARAH mentor, Angela Titmus was awarded ‘Honorary Life Membership’, and our NRHSN Senior Rep, Dianne Thorpe received the RHWA/NACCHO award for contribution to Indigenous Health.

In August, we had three members attend the Wakakirri festival at Barunga, who ran health workshops along with StARRH as well as a stall at the St Phillip’s Careers Expo with many high

Students got their hands dirty with interactive activities that included CPR scenario simulations, BP checks, Gutsy Gus interactive quizzes, auscultation workshops and plastering. Plastering was the hit, with the kids making up all kinds of stories as to why they needed their arm, ankle or wrist plastered up - the best being a broken arm and “my brother sat on it…”

The festival was extremely rewarding for all involved. As well as fostering interclub relationships and sparking further interest in Indigenous health for us, many of the high school students we interacted with appeared to take something away from the experience that may hopefully influence them to consider a career in health when the time comes around to choosing their career pathways.

Deadly Days was an awesome introduction to Indigenous festivals for our club and are really looking forward to getting involved with more in the near future. Thanks to all the clubs who attended for making it such a worthwhile and enjoyable experience!

school students showing interest in health careers. CARAH hosted a BBQ for other RHC club guests travelling through Alice Springs on a week long programme of high school visits in Central Australia.

October will be lively in Alice Springs with the Ti Tree Deadly Mob festival which we plan to attend. The CRANA conference is also to be held in Alice Springs which students nationally are attending as well as some of our members. The CARAH Cross Cultural Awareness Weekend and Cultural Perspectives day are also being held this month! CARAH has enjoyed this year and are looking forward to another year full of vast opportunities.

Well, it has been another action-packed year at BREAATHHE. We kicked off the year, as always with our O-week stall, recruiting over 100 new members! A promising start. Next up was our welcome event, where we partied the night away Vegas style, complete with some trashy, impulsive Vegas weddings.

Our annual skills night was once again a hit, with stations for cannulation, venepuncture, plastering, and for the first time; massage therapy, Red Cross demonstrations and activities from podiatry. Students from all disciplines came to learn new skills or brush up on old ones, share a bite to eat and get to know each other.

BREAATHHE reached far and wide across Australia in 2009, sending students on rural high school visits as far as Broken Hill and all the way to the Northern Territory! Teaching students, many for the first time, the role of allied health professions and potential careers in rural health.

Our AGM last week was very enthusiastically attended by almost all of our disciplines, those who came enjoyed a gourmet dinner and a very interesting talk from a health professional from our local Aboriginal Medical Centre. A creative and passionate executive is pleased to lead BREAATHHE into the new year.

As we reach the end of our year, BREAATHHE has just one event remaining. To take out our spectacular year with a bang we are calling all wicked witches, ghastly goblins and spooky spirits to celebrate another great year for rural health in a freaky farewell to ‘09.

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CRANC: University of Canberra, ACT

Lyndal Hayes

HOPE4HEALTH:GriffithUniversity, WA

Walter Hipgrave

Robert Carey

FURHS:FlindersUniversity, SA

HOPE4HEALTH members have been actively involved in rural activities throughout Queensland this year. The ‘Midnight Muster’ raising funds for the Royal Flying Doctor’s Service (Queensland). With members of the NRHSN in attendance from all over Australia, this event looks to be a permanent fixture for the future.

There are plans for next years Muster to be a collaborative effort between all Queensland Rural Health Clubs. Members have attended the Joint Rural Health Club Weekend at Beaudesert, - rural high school visits to Kingaroy and Roma, and the location of rural placements, Goondiwindi. It is hoped that the positive feedback from students returning from these trips will encourage people to select a career in rural healthcare. Students also attended the RDAQ Conference on the Gold Coast and the NURHC Conference in Cairns.

We had members attending the Deadly Days Festival and improving their cultural awareness at the Dreaming Festival. HOPE4HEALTH’s Teddy Bear Hospital Program continues our strong relationship with the community of Cherbourg. This preventative health program is targeted at 5-7 year olds with workshops on exercise, diet, dental care, sun care and visiting the doctor and a new interactive careers workshop aimed to encourage Indigenous children to consider careers in healthcare. Our members gained clinical experience in Indigenous health on the Gold Coast Hospital’s

Specialist visits to the Barambah Regional Medical Centre in Cherbourg.

The first half of the year for FURHS has been somewhat quiet compared to years gone by. Despite this we have had members participating in a range of activities which have included volunteering for the cultural awareness day and the welcoming barbecue. We also have had members attend the Royal Flying Doctor Service orientation session which was

This is CRANC’s second year of operation and we have an eager executive and enthusiastic members keen to embrace the rural spirit of the club, build upon the past efforts of our pioneering executive and participate in rural health activities.

We held a combined BBQ with the Food Nuts club resulting in a number of Dietetics and Nutrition students joining. Two members attended the Broken Hill Wakakirri Festival, enjoying the location, meeting the locals and other

members from BREAATHHE and RAHMS.

Our rural high school visits have benefitted greatly through joining with ARMS. These are win/win situations as not only do we get to go to some wonderful rural areas, meet great high school students, socialise with colleagues and have had great days out.

CRANC also organised a First Aid course and an excellent, well attend and informative Cultural Awareness night facilitated by Dr Kerrie Doyle. Three of our members received NRHSN CoNS funding to attend conferences.

We are trialing webcast evenings this September through the Rural

Health Education Foundation as a support to our studies and our need to socialise. CRANC and ARMS members will join forces in doing a defensive driving course and hope to culminate the year in a lawn bowls evening.

It has been an exciting year and we are looking forward to building on this next year and spreading the word that rural health careers are fantastic!

C o o e e ! O c t o b e r 2 0 0 9

organised by the Rural Doctors Workforce Agency. This was once again extremely popular with tickets selling out fast for both the March and August sessions. We have run a two day rural high school visit to the south-east corner of South Australia. This was attended by students from FURHS, AURHA and ROUSTAH.

FURHS has also sent several students on a RHSV to Kangaroo Island which was organised by ROUSTAH. Both trips received excellent reports both from the club members and the school populations. We have been working hard with ROUSTAH and AURHA, to organise the annual Campfire event held in rural SA.

A very busy second half of the year is planned with students attending the first Wakakirri festival to be held in Ceduna, a rural first aid night, our annual masquerade ball and our annual multi-discipline evening where members educate other members about their health discipline. These activities will hopefully ease everybody into the stress of the exams.

Two LARHC members attended the Rural and Remote Social Work Conference in Geelong. As a result LARHC hopes to send more of our members to many more rural health conferences in future years. Another committee member is attending a rural health conference in Darwin the following week. We can’t wait for the opportunity to use additional ideas that Caitlin Sherlock our Junior NRHSN Representative will have experienced in the NT RHSV. LARHC has conducted 2 RHSVs and attended 2 careers expos with great success. In the previous few months LARHC members have made the journey to Donald and Rochester Secondary Colleges, the Charlton Careers Expo and the Ballarat Careers Expo that attracts over 3000 students and parents from surrounding areas to discuss

To kick off the year and introduce new MARHS members to our club, we held the annual Bush Bash Ball at the Kinross Woolshed Hotel, the perfect authentic location for line dancing. We showcased our Flashy Flannies, akubras and boots for a night of boot-scooting to a live

MARHS:Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW

future health Career oportunities. LARHC is also proud to announce that we are sending three people to Wakakirri, the Indigenous performing arts festival held

LARHC:La TrobeUniversity, VIC

KRASH:Notre DameUniversity, WA

Morika

West

What a year it has been for the La Trobe Rural Health Club. Our members have enjoyed both the educational and the social activities that have been run for our members and the community.

Our major social function of the year has been the LARHC Ball, held at the Platinum Room at the Foundry in May of this year. The theme was a masquerade ball with the masks ranging from the sublimely beautiful to afterthoughts.

annually in Ceduna, South Australia in September and that we’ll be having a stall at the Elmore Field Days, an annual agricultural show held in October, which brings together the small communities north of Bendigo. We are proud to have five of our LARHC members on the NRHSN council. This is a great achievement which we hope to continue in years to come. Our AGM was held recently and it has allowed a smooth transition for the new committee and gives us a head start for our preparations for next year. Bring on 2010!

The second half of the year started with seven members attending NURHC which was a great eye opener for the first year students being able to see the dynamics and enthusiasm from the many NRHSN clubs.

Several KRASH members, along with WAALHIIBE and SPINRPHEX, attended the Vibe Alive in Kalgoolie, WA. During the two day festival we engaged the children who seemed to have a good time in various health related activities

such as plastering their fingers to putting Gutsy Gus back together. Future plans for the club include attempting to recruit Aboriginal Health Worker students from Kimberley Aboriginal Medical

Services and Enrolled Nursing students from all over the Kimberley region. We are also planning our Rural High School visits in the new year. As there are not many high schools in our vicinity, we are also planning to visit some primary schools as well. Our recent handover saw a major change in the 2008/2009 exec of graduating nurses being replaced by first year nurses. A huge thank you goes out to Jacinta, Elise, and Cathy for keeping club the alive over the past year!

band who taught us complicated bush dances.

At the Albury Wodonga High Schools Careers Expo with over 1200 students, MARHS club had two stalls presenting allied health career options. This included displays of tools of the trade, career information sheets and demonstrations.

Four MARHS representatives attended the NURHC Conference in Cairns. A heart-felt speech on mental health presented by MARHS student, Stephanie was well received. The conference was a great opportunity to meet inspirational individuals either studying, working in the rural health field or in government, who have a passion for rural health.

MARHS was involved in running and supporting a Mental Health First Aid course, providing a valuable opportunity to gain awareness about these relevant issues.

A MARHS crew attending the Vibe Alive Indigenous Festival in Weipa, far north Queensland, to run a healthy lifestyle and careers stall. While in Weipa we also plan to do some cultural awareness training and visit health professionals in the area. Also on the agenda is RAW (Rural Awareness Weekend) in October and we plan to enjoy a weekend away on a farm with like-minded students.

Rosie Purdue

Cristen Fleming

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MIRAGE:University of Sydney, NSW

Nathan Creber

The world of rural health has proven to be an exciting one at the University of New England, Armidale (a.k.a “FArmidale”). NERCHA is a relatively new club, hence this year was dedicated to establishing the club from the grassroots.

We got the year off to a great start with the NERCHA Birthing Kit Assembly Workshop, in which we assembled 500 birthing kits that were sent with Australian military forces to women in Afghanistan. This was an exciting event, as students realised that their actions would help bring a baby into the world. This was extremely rewarding and we hope to make it an annual event.

NURHC ‘09’ was another of our most exciting events. NERCHA was able to send 19 students this year, which was a great achievement in itself. We all enjoyed leaving temperatures of 5 degrees to head to sunny Cairns. The experience was a highly educational one, as we became more aware of the realities of the rural health workforce. We were also fortunate enough to take out the prestigious ‘Golden Windmills’ Trophy, proving that cross dressing can make up for a lack of dancing skills.

NERCHA recently held the first ever ‘Clinical Skills Day’ to be conducted at UNE. Students were able to practice taking blood, suturing and plastering, under the watchful eye of some highly skilled anaesthetists, registrars and GP’s.

Coming up for the end of 2009, NERCHA will be hosting an end of year dinner for medical, nursing and allied health students. The dinner itself will aim to raise awareness of mental health issues.

NOMAD, being eighteen months old now, is still a club very much in its infancy. But this is one active little baby, reaching all its developmental landmarks quickly, and putting on weight at a healthy rate. Its first year was spent under the guidance of a very small but very passionate group, who undertook the task of writing a constitution and the numerous administrative roles involved in setting up this club from scratch. There were only a few activities run in this first year, but it was enough to get more people involved in NOMAD, and drum up some enthusiasm - such that at our last AGM earlier this year, a full committee of 18 people were voted in, and hundreds more members have since signed up from all the Deakin health courses.

NOMAD: Deakin University, VIC

Jarrod Miles

NERCHA:University of New England, NSW

Shannon Townsend

What a bumper start to 2009 we’ve seen. MIRAGE has experienced a substantial boost in its membership numbers, and with that has arrived a flood of enthusiasm and intitiative focused on exploring our great wide continent.

May was an exciting month with the first Wilderness Medicine Training Camp held over two days in the Blue Mountains. (See page 8) MIRAGE hosted “Bond for the Bush - Graduates for the Great Outback” at Manning Bar Newtown in August as a response to all concerns regarding the task of convincing your partner to move rural. The solution: Meet someone else! This event brought together students from ALL professional domains with a common goal of solving rural workforce shortages one relationship at a time! Nurses, physio’s, OT’s, teachers, vet’s, doctors, architects and even lawyers were in attendance, all dressed as a profession other than their own. The event was a huge success and all proceeds went to the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience and the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health.

A Mention most certainly has to be made regarding the success of the “Rubik’s Cube” Rural health cruise. RAHMS, UNSW MedSoc, MIRAGE and SUPA all put in a huge effort to make this a cracking social event and MIRAGE would like to specifically acknowledge the contribution of its members Leigh Archer and Marianne Dowsett for their contribution to the event. EVERYONE came in the 6 colours of the Rubik’s cube (white, yellow, orange, red, blue and green) and all left monotone by swapping articles of clothing, even the 80s style headbands. Classic!

During October we will host the Rural Health Night, to learn of opportunities available in the bush as well as the Rural GP Skills Night run with GPSN, where we will learn essential remote setting clinical skills and our “Operation Deep Tundra” RHSV’s to remote Bourke, Nyngan, Cobar and Narrabri.

We’ve undertaken a huge range of activities; a rural high school visit to schools in Warrnambool, sending delegations to both the NURHC conference and the Rural Health Alliance conference in Cairns, being involved in a careers expo in Horsham, participating in the ‘Vibe Alive’ Indigenous festival in Mildura, and organising a climate change week.

Another of our successful endeavours has been to host regular ‘storytelling sessions’ every fortnight, where we try and revive this traditional method of communication in a relaxed environment – we’ve had members share tales on everything from time spent in Indigenous communities, to personal stories of dealing with chronic illness.

We appreciated the RHC’s for their help. You’ve kick started our club. For more info check out our new website at http://nomad.dusa.org.au

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OUTLOOK:University ofMelbourne, VIC

Joshua CraseJarrod Miles

RHINO: James CookUniversity, QLD

RAHMS: University of NSW, NSW

Jinny Gill

Outlook and Moovin Health highlights include: The Shepparton Festival, where Prof. Ian Anderson, foundation Chair in Indigenous Health at The University of Melbourne spoke on the tragic state of Indigenous health and his future vision. Moovin’ Health’s event “The Dying Patient: The Influence of Culture and Religion”, aimed to increase understanding of patients cultural and spiritual beliefs, experience of illness and attitudes to death and a lunch to hear about problems faced by Indigenous patients in and out of hospital as well as a netball showdown between medical and dental students as a fundraiser for the Cancer Council of Victoria. Other Moovin Health events were a men’s health promotional evening and a high school student health careers day. Outlook held several BBQs to attract new students to the club resulting in more Biomedical Science, Allied Health and Dentistry members and had two students attend the Vibe Alive in Mildura in late July. Outlook in combination with Wildfire held a bushdance to raise funds for the Country Fire Association (CFA).Three students from Outlook attended the NRHC conference, where Joshua Crase (Outlook) presented for the NRHSN on teaching medical students. 18 members attended NURHC in July. The Golden Windmills was not ours this year, but we put in a good effort with our rendition of “Oh Kevvy” continuing our infatuation with Kevin Rudd.

As RAHMS enters what is definitely the busier half of the year, a plethora of planned activities have been keeping our Exec busy busy. June saw us embark on our Rural High School Visit to the Hunter Valley, reports indicate this was a very enjoyable trip by all means, and we are currently recruiting for our second semester RHSV to Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst in October which will be bigger and better than the first…

For something a bit different we held a massage night, where everyone had the opportunity to develop some sweet skills thanks to our lovely facilitators, and in the very near future we have scheduled our next clinical skills night and mental health night, both of which draw significant numbers of the RAHMS (and greater) community.

RHINO has had a very busy semester 2 that began with NURHC. Sixteen RHINO students attended NURHC held in Cairns 23-25 July and our President and Secretary covened the event. Highlights for RHINO students included the keynote speakers (Minister Snowden and Maggie Grant), the Saturday panel, the AMS and RFDS trips, opthalmology workshops and social activities. RHINO would like to thank all those involved in the conference including James Cook Uni and staff from the Faculty of Health and Molecular Sciences for their help in bringing the conference together.

RHINO’s annual Cockail Party in September, was themed ‘Beating the Blues in the Bush’. Fundraising for the event went to the Townsville headspace. GP and clinical director of Townsville headspace, Dr Mary Emeleus, gave a great talk on looking after mental health in the bush – of your patients and yourself.

Our Semester 2 RHSV held in September visited the rural communities west of Townsville including Hughenden, Richmond and Charters Towers. Students at the schools were very interested in the presentations given by RHINO students from Allied Health and Medicine. Some wise advice from the trip was to take dinner with you if you plan to stay in Hughenden on a Sunday night but if you do get caught out, you can visit the servo.

Three students from RHINO enjoyed “feeling the vibe” at the Weipa Vibe Alive when the community all gathered to enjoy the results of the festival with live entertainment, and some fireworks. The festival brings together students from all over the Cape to participate in education, arts, science, sporting and health sessions. The students also visited the Weipa hospital and saw all the different equipment at the hospital.

Heather Hanks

RAHMS was lucky enough to send 22 delegates to NURHC, with the largest contingent there. Everyone valued this experience immensely, and it also enabled the development of the official RAHMS salute, keeping the Cairns experience alive everyday. Inter-RHC bonds were further strengthened and maintained by the recent RUMS harbor cruise, where Sydney Harbour enabled mingling of predominanlty MIRAGE, RAHMS and University of Notre Dame health students.

Speaking of NURHC, needless to say, anticipation is nearly at climax point for the Rural Health Club Event of the year; RAW. As I’m sure you’re all aware registrations have already opened and planning is well underway with less than 3 weeks until the life-changing event, it’s going to be EPIC. Get in quickly kids.

On this note of excitement it feels appropriate to conclude, with visions of end of year functions, beach days and romantic rural escapes, RAHMS is very excited.

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RHUUWS:University of Western Sydney

Fay Lewer

ROUSTAH:University of South Australia

Matthew Hayman

ROUNDS:Notre DameUniversity, NSW

Kelly Wilkinson

Well another year has gone by and RHUUWS has been hard at work recruiting new members. Rhuuws has had three major events this year in hopes of spreading the awareness of the level of need for health professionals to go rural:

We started the year with what we hope will be a new tradition “Get Plastered”. While the idea was not new the event itself was

In just one year, ROUNDS has not only got off the ground, but in the air, as students keenly volunteer to get involved with all aspects of our Rural Health Club. With the club having one of the smallest cohorts of students to draw members from, it’s encouraging to see the number of students from non-rural backgrounds getting involved and then bringing their experiences back to the University.

This years RHSVs were located out at Griffith High School and Hillston Central School. The drive however, proved to be a great chance for people to get to know each other away from the books, and prepare for the days ahead. Not only did the children and teachers comment on how much they learnt, but also the ROUNDS members that attended and explored their own rural experiences.

The VibeAlive Youth Festival, held in Coonamble, NSW, provided similar education to rural school students with workshops that also included successful hands-on experiences such as in the RHSVs. Again, not only did the students that attended get an insight into health education and professions,

but the ROUNDS members got a chance to interact with other Rural Health Clubs.

The highlight for this half of the year however, was our attendance at our first NURHC. Nine fortunate members of ROUNDS, both of rural and non-rural backgrounds, were inspired and educated in an amazing atmosphere that encouraged people to come

The last six months have been busy and productive times for the team at ROUSTAH. We have seen some changes to the committee with some wonderful new people becoming active within the club. There have been several different events that members have attended most of which have

been joint projects of the ‘Tri-Club’ initiative between ROUSTAH, AURHA and FURHS.

There was a clinical skills trip to Whyalla in which students visited local hospitals and talked to health professionals in the area. From all reports a very educational and entertaining trip was had and we look forward to having more events of this type in the future.

new to the students of Western Sydney who through years of training were masters at the act of plastering.

There have been several rural high school visits, the most recent being a two day trip to Kangaroo Island where members were able to enjoy the local sights and hopefully help some students on their pathway to becoming health professionals.

ROUSTAH has also been involved with the Rural Flying Doctor Service and Rural Doctors

Then we moved onto the noble field of battle, but not to joist, rather to join in combat of our minds. What more honourable victory could there be than the one in which a person is able in the area of trivia humiliate their opponents without breaking a sweat. As with all tournaments a great feast was held to honour those who sought to compete. In an effort to increase the skills we practice a clinical skills night was held. Not only, to our patients relief, were our skills sharpened but we learnt a few new ones from our fellow students.

together with a common interest in Rural and Remote Health, with a great mix of education and socialisation on the program.

With a new committee on the way, new initiatives, and a close University community, ROUNDS is looking forward to the chance to develop and make a real difference in Rural and Remote Australia in the coming years.

Workforce Agency to enable some UniSA nursing students to learn more about and take a flight with the service. Some of our lucky members also had the honour of attending this year’s NURHC in Cairns. The event was a massive success with the team at ROUSTAH coming back to Adelaide inspired to continue the good work.

Looking forward ROUSTAH has a busy time ahead with a doughnut day and member dinner in the coming weeks, Campfire just around the corner and the AGM to finish off the year.

We are looking to continue the good foundations set for this club and with help from our fantastic administrators build a bigger and better ROUSTAH for the future.

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Rustica: University ofTasmania, TAS

Amanda

Felmingham

SHARP: University of Wollongong, NSW

Teena Downton & Emma Harvey

SPINRPHEX: University of WA

Marie Leknys

Rustica’s 2009 has been hectic but heaps of fun!

From orientation days to welcome dinners, skills nights to RHSVs, with a little bit of NURHC, Port Macquarie Deadly Days and Agfest, the supreme being of agricultural field days, we have definitely had it all going on. This year Agfest (held in the north of the state) had 70,000 patrons visit over the 3 days in early May. Rustica joined with the pharmaceutical society to educate patrons about standard drink sizes, take blood pressures and to get kids plastered (in a good way). Plenty of parents were willing to pay for full body plasters for their children but we resisted all attempts at bribery!

We also sent a team to Port Macquarie Deadly Days festival, which was a fantastic day. The

2009 continues to be a successful year for our Club, with SHARP members promoting rural health in more ways than you can poke a stick at!

In April, we supported Close the Gap Day with an event which attracted over 350 students and staff. In May, we partnered with several local groups including our University’s Centre for Translational Neuroscience to hold a “Shining a Light on Schizophrenia” awareness evening which was huge with over 200 attending! The evening featured a symposium,

a mobile lab, poster displays, as well as fire dancers to heat up the event.

In May, SHARP members Ciaran and Ellie road-tripped to Coonamble for the Vibe Alive Indigenous Festival alongside other students from RAHMS, RHUUWS and ROUNDS. There they got involved in awesome activities from promoting health by teaching students about parts of Gutsy Gus to, as usual, plenty of arm plastering!

Our members have also been busy spreading the message of health careers at Rural High School Visits with RHUUWS in Bomaderry and Moss Vale. A record 14 SHARP members attended the 11th NURHC held in July. We’re still talking about how fantastic the experience was and how we can use what we learnt to promote rural health even further in our part of the world!

We have a Health Careers Expo, Grafton Deadly Days Indigenous Festival, the Rural Appreciation Weekend, Sexual Health BBQ and

a Rockin’ Rural Road Trip to the Murrumbidgee still to come, we can’t wait!

SPINRPHEX has had a very busy year so far, with great participation in events. This year’s first event, “Multi-D’ focused on the RFDS experience. This was followed by Close the

Gap day and the much anticipated Camp. We had 86 members attend the Camp, which definitely lived up to its reputation with plenty of relaxing and health-orientated team building activities, snake bite, cannulation and emergency care in the bush workshops, crocodile races, a quiz night, plus a bucking bull! Competition was fierce, with many team mascots being kidnapped in exchange for points! The hugely successful annual SPINRPHEX/WAALHIIBE conference had a theme, ‘You Can’t Eat Scenery’ focussed on effective clinical

weather couldn’t decide between sun and rain so decided to alternate for the best of both worlds. ARMS, BREAATHHE, RAHMS and ROUNDS joined Rustica to provide students with information about health careers, get their blood pressure tested, test their grip strength, explore Gutsy Gus and find out information about body systems and what lifestyle choices are good and bad for their bodies, and get their arms plastered. The plastering and NRHSN footballs ensured our stall was the most popular of the day.

With the AGM coming up, Rustica is hoping for an enthusiastic crew on next year’s committee so we can consolidate on this year’s successes and come up with more events for next year.

practice in rural areas. Highlights included a snake handling workshop and speakers from both the Rural Clinical School and The Centre for Rural and Remote Oral Health. We also held an Adolescent Mental Health night that aimed to educate and recruit members to visit the Cunderdin Agricultural School to talk to the students about depression and suicide. Members also attended the VIBE festival in Kalgoorlie, and teamed up with WAALHIIBE members to participate in the Scitech Roadshow in Albany, attended by over 1500 students from the local high schools.Upcoming events include the annual dinner, the Children’s festival in Narrogin and two more rural high school visits. SPINRPHEX is also entering a team in the Perth City to Surf. This year has been absolutely fantastic, and next year promises to be just as much fun!

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StARRH: Charles Darwin University, NT

Ian Vickers

TROHPIQ: University of Queensland, QLD

Alicia Lorenz

WAALHIIBE: Combined WA Universities, WA

Christie Leyendekkers

We at WAALHIIBE are excited to announce some fantastic new developments within the club. Firstly, we are able to boast membership numbers of over 300, double the numbers we have ever had! Hopefully an indication of an increasing awareness of WAALHIIBE within the Allied Health faculties around Perth, and the increased interest of Allied Health students in going rural.

Secondly, we are pleased to have developed a relationship with Curtin Volunteers and the Laverton Project. Through this collaboration, we will be sending members to Laverton and Leonora, remote mining towns in Western Australia’s goldfields. The trips will focus on health promotion and awareness in local Indigenous communities. Our members were able to experience life in remote WA, with insight into issues of working in communities with transient populations and limited access to resources for healthy living.

Our annual Rural Health Conference in conjunction with SPINRPHEX, was an overall success. Interactive workshops and speakers passionate about their professions ignited many ideas about what we are able to contribute to world change ourselves. Snake handling was a highlight, with a few participants never having realised their true fear of all things cold blooded (a good chance for many to practice treating mild panic attacks)! Kidsfest was a fun weekend for all, with many laughable moments. We have two rural high school visits planned for York and Gingin. These trips should offer some spectacular views as well as experiences, being wildflower hotspots this time of year. So next update should include some pretty spectacular pictures for our next report.

Well! Looking back, the second half of 2009 hasn’t been at all bad for a few bright StARRHs. Thanks to Danni from GPNNT (our club administrator) for paying the air-fares, and our ex club President Sally Grainger, who organised the whole thing. Ian Vickers and Michael Cassells got to spend four days at the Yirrikala Health Clinic, on the Gove Peninsular, helping with the ‘Healthy School Aged Kids Checks’, providing an opportunity to ‘mix it up’ with the kids from Yirrkala, get some hands on experience and to really get a good feel of life and work in a coastal Territory Community. Sally also organised two nights R&R under the stars at the idyllic Turtle Beach, (it’s a hard life) thanks Sal!

Next up July, and of course NURHC. What a great time was had by all, everyone that attended really enjoyed every part of it, the speakers, the networking, nights out and what about the performance by Freddie Mercury and his naughty nurses OMG... Enough said!

TROHPIQ has been extremely busy in the last couple of months, with lots of fun and exciting events!

Our Annual Formal Dinner was a great night to get to know each other with delicious food! Guest speaker Dr Bill Glasson was inspirational in his presentation on rural practice as both a junior doctor and in his ophthalmology outreach services. Of note is the induction of Francine Riley (TROHPIQ Administrator) as a life member for TROHPIQ at the dinner. Not only has she been a wonderful support person for the club in the past few years, she has been a great friend to us all.

During our trip to Toowoomba students participated in a clinical skills session. TROHPIQ also convened its annual visit to the Aboriginal township, Cherbourg. We spent some time at the community health centre, learnt about Aboriginal culture, explored the surrounds at a local winery and visited the Kingaroy Hospital.

Other great events that have been held recently include:

Allied Health Rural Discussion Night – featuring speakers such as Emilie Gollan (physio), Heather Volk (pharmacist), Michelle Downs (speech pathologist), Carolyn Robinson (nurse)

Medical Rural Careers Night – featuring Dr Christian Rowan (Deputy Executive Director of Rural and Remote Medical Services for Queensland Health), Dr Sheilagh Cronin (Current President of the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland), Dr Jim Finn (Immediate Past President of the Rural Doctors Association of Queensland), Dr Anne Morgan (Senior Medical Officer for Primary Health Care Services, RFDS Queensland Section) and Dr James Telfer (a registrar on the Rural Generalist Pathway).

Health Careers in the Bush – visited schools in Toowoomba, Oakey, Cecil Plains, Millmerran, Pittsworth and Clifton

-UN MDG workshop – we taught plastering to first year med students under the auspices of the United Nations Millenium Development Goals workshop

Finally – TROHPIQ is proud of its efforts at the last NURHC. Thanks for the wooden spoons – they have come in handy with the cooking!

StARRH and CARAH enjoyed working together, promoting health and health careers to the kids at the Wakakirri Festival at Barunga Community, near Katherine in August. The delights of living in The Katherine region with members of StARRH was further illustrated when heading off on a two day canoeing trip down the majestic Katherine Gorge.

StARRH members thoroughly enjoyed the GPNNT RHSV’s in August. Especially Kim Izod (ex Darwin High).

September saw club members Felix and Anh accompanying GPNNT to the Oenpelli open day in Arhem land, many thanks yet again to our club administrators GPNNT. Rumours are around that members will be enjoying an end of year dinner party.... Here’s to 2010, see you all there!

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Mildura Vibe Alive in July provided a joyful day with the children involved. Two of these students went on to present at NURHC, about the great Indigenous festival experience generating enthusiasm amongst our members. 2010 Vibe Alive will be fantastic!

July saw the WILDFIRE contingent head up to Cairns for the 2009 NURHC. With the vast majority of our crew attending NURHC for the first time ever, all had an absolute ball! With students from a range of year levels and disciplines, the social and academic programs ensured that much was learnt and many new friendships established.

The 2010 WILDFIRE Council has been selected, with a range of new blood and more ‘experienced’ Council members, 2010 looks set to be huge, with continued development of our Council and subcommittee structure, and a massive push for more members from more disciplines than ever – bring it on!

WILDFIRE: MonashUniversity, VIC

Margot Lodge

WARRIAHS: Charles Sturt University, NSW

Lauren Frieze

WARRIAHS has kept the ball moving all year with our health expo running brilliantly, including creating a quick exciting fill-in interaction seminar for the high school students with sheep hearts, adrenaline rushing fun with Paintball, including suicide rounds by one very-keen-for-a-thrill-student, the Bush Bash in Albury, the Cadaver trip lead by MARHS, NURHC and our Winter Wonderland Ball!

The events combined with MARHS in Albury, the Bush Bash and Cadaver Trip was immense fun! The fabulous student leaders showed us the thrilling in-depth anatomy of humans. We were so impressed we are hosting another trip in October! The Bush Bash was a great country styled night including line dancing, themed outfits and a hootin’ tootin’ country band!

NURHC was a blast for all of the eight WARRIAHS students who attended. We learnt about the difficulties faced in remote Australia and ways that we, as rural health students can help. None of us wanted to leave so we partied all night on the last night and dragged our feet behind us on the way to the airport...

WARRIAHS Winter Wonderland Ball went swimmingly! We had beautiful decorations, prizes for the winner and the wiener of the night. Luke Smith even made his way down from Canberra to join us! This was topped off by our members dancing to the Macarena and Thriller all night!

Term 4 is set for WARRIAHS to end 2009 with a bang! We have planned a Museum of Human disease + Sydney Tour, another Cadaver Trip, Moctober (Movember in October!), a Rural Experience Night, Indigenous Festivals Tours and our AGM! We cannot wait!

The second half of 2009 has seen WILDFIRE members from across Victoria participate in a wide range of exciting educational and social events. Our 400 medical, nursing and allied health students and our eight subcommittees have worked with the WILDFIRE Council to experience a variety of rural experiences. The NRHSN’s Additional Pool of Funding allowed a busload of students to travel to the snow for a day – which included an educational component, allowing students to experience a different rural environment and clinical setting.

1. What Aboriginal term for a waterhole is

also the name of an Australian clothing company?

2. What natural disaster killed 13 people in Newcastle on December 28, 1989?

3. What do the letters of the television network SBS stand for?

4. Name the 3 new executive members of the NRHSN for 2010 and what clubs do they belong to?

5. Name the Director of the newly released, Australia hit movie Mao’s Last Dancer?

6. Who was named Australia’s Sports Performer of the Year in 2008 and what was her/his sport?

7. What is the name of the original yellow Wiggle?

8. Which Bushranger did Sidney Nolan portray in a series of paintings he created in 1946 – 47?

9. Where did Australia’s first female Noble Prize winner go to school?

10.Name the plant species, that was believed extinct, that was found in and Australian National Park in 1991?

11. Answers on the back cover

QUIZ!An open book exam...

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NURHC ‘09Heather Hanks, RHINONURHC ‘09 Co-Convenor

In July, over 300 students from all 29 rural

health clubs converged on Cairns for this year’s

National University Rural Health Conference.

And north Queensland certainly showed our

visitors its highlights – balmy weather, tropical

rainforest, spectacular reef and a cosmopolitan

night-life.

The conference kicked off with a welcome

to country by a representative of the local

Irukandji people and James Fitzpatrick, our MC

and resident poet started the morning with

some good old-fashioned bush poetry. We

were also able to hear from the Department

of Health and Ageing’s Maria Jolly, Rural

Health Workforce Australia’s Kim Webber and

James Cook University’s Richard Murray. These

speakers gave some context to the global and

local issues of rural and remote health care.

Other speakers that day included Roger

Strasser, Jane Connell, Caitlin Keighley and

Peter Mulholland, each of whom talked about

their experiences of rural health both within

Australia and internationally. The afternoon’s

workshops also proved to be a hit with trips

to the local Aboriginal Medical Service, Royal

Flying Doctors Service and opthalmology skills

as some of the highlights.

That evening, a BBQ dinner at the chilled

venue, Gilligan’s Backpackers followed on

from the networking drinks with students,

stakeholders, (RHWA) staff and presenters.

The highlight that evening was watching Sarah

Farlow, Co-covenor and RHINO president drum

her way into NURHC history with the Gilligan’s

band!

Friday’s program highlighted the many

opportunities available in Indigenous health.

Speakers Mark Wennitong, Maggie Grant

and James Charles were very powerful

and motivating for many students. This

was followed by some incredible student

presentations, one of which was presented

again on the final day by Steph Frazer titled

“Black dogs, blue days and hazy grays – A

personal portrait of depression” who very

bravely shared a very personal story.

We were also lucky enough to have the

Hon Warren Snowden, Member for Lingiari

and Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural

and Regional Health & Regional Services

Delivery officially open our conference.

He spoke very openly of his personal

experiences of health care and particularly

of Indigenous Australia. Probably a good

thing though that he wasn’t there for

the incredible amount of cross-dressing

and nudity that occurred that night at our

Golden Windmills night. Congrats to NERCHA

who took out the windmill!

The final day of the conference asked

students to consider how the NRHSN and

their local RHC might change something

such as Indigenous rates of smoking.

Delegates were guided by the very wise

and very experienced Sabina Knight, Tony

Hobbs, Peter Carver, Jim Birch and Scott

Wagner. And to close what was a truly

fantastic conference, a very special formal

dinner was held at Tjapukai Aboriginal

Cultural Park where students ignited a spark

for rural health.

Our very sincere thanks for all the staff

and students that assisted with organising

the conference. Also to our sponsors and

stakeholders without whom, NURHC would

not have been possible. And we can’t wait

to see you all again at the next NURHC.

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NURHC ‘09 Photo Competition

Awards were presented to some outstanding Rural Health Club members and Club’s for activities, events and contributions to Clubs and the community at NURHC 09.

The NRHSN awarded the Best Rural Health Club Event for 2008 to RAHMS for their Rural Appreciation Weekend (RAW) which is a weekend away to rural Dunedoo in NSW where students from Clubs from across NSW and ACT can experience rural lifestyle and network in a multidisciplinary fashion. It includes workshops, speakers, local interaction and team building excercises.

Rural Health Workforce Australia and National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) awarded Dianne Thorp from CARAH Rural Health Club for her outstanding contribution to Indigenous

A photo competition was held again this year at NURHC 09 and we had a great response to this competition with 309 photos sent in! We then had to try and limit these down to the Top 20 which were presented at NURHC to the delegates to vote on the winners.

3rd – Eleanor Bott, Outlook (Indigenous community ‘airport’)1st – Erica Collins, CRANC (emu) 2nd – Pete Wyllie, FURHS (shadow on rock)

NURHC ‘09 - Awards

Communities. Dianne has lived in Alice Springs for the past 4 years and through her involvement in her studies, her Rural Health Club and through practicing nursing, she has become involved in the Indigenous Communities throughout the Central Desert.

Rural Health Workforce Australia awarded Teena Downton from SHARP Rural Health Club for her outstanding contribution to a Rural Health Club. Teena has held many roles on her Rural Health Club’s Executive as well as playing a large role in the many events that SHARP holds each year. The Janie Dade Smith Award was presented to Sarah McMullen-Roach from BREAATHHE (1st Prize), Cristen Fleming from LARHC (2nd Prize) and Ashley Willock from WAALHIIBE (3rd Prize) to recognize and encourage them for contributing to rural, remote and Indigenous health. We thank Janie Dade Smith for her continued support for this award. Five students were awarded for presenting the best student presentation within their category. Bridget Copson (SPINRPHEX), who

presented on research into discovering solutions for family abuse was awarded the best student presentation for the scientific category. Warwick Isaacson (HOPE4HEALTH), who presented on raising funds and awareness for Rural Health Clubs was awarded the best student presentation for the Club activities category. Stephanie Frazer (MARHS), who presented on mental health was awarded the best student presentation for the personal experiences category. Sarah McMullen-Roach (BREAATHHE), who presented on addressing cultural barriers was awarded with the best student presentation for the Indigenous health category. Shannon Nott (RAHMS), who presented on what it’s going to take to get students out bush was awarded with the best student presentation for the workforce category. The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine presented their President’s Prize to Deborah Smith from ARMS who had submitted a great short essay on her experiences in rural health.

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Rural Health Workforce Australia National Rural Health Students’ Network Level 6, 10 Queens Road Melbourne Vic 3004 Australia

www.nrhsn.org.au

Telephone 03 9860 4700 Facsimile 03 9820 8383 Email info@nrhsn.org.au

If you would like to recieve additional copies of the Cowpat, the Rural Placements Guide or

the Wide Horizons DVD please email us at info@nrhsn.org.au

Quiz A

nswers

1. Billabong, 2.Earthquake, 3.Special Broadcasting Service, 4.Matt Cane

(RUSTICA

), Shannon Nott (RA

HM

S), Jasmine B

anner (AU

RHA

), 5.Bruce Beresford,

6. Matthew

Mitcham

(10m Platform

Diving), 7. G

reg Page, 8. Ned Kelly,

9. Launceston,TAS, 10.W

ollemi Pine