A new perspective from Taree
Keelan Sheridan, Manning Rural Referral Hospital (MRRH), Taree, NSW
Tell us about your placement: Let’s face it: We can’t all be living it up drinking wine on a yacht in the Caribbean or trekking the picturesque mountains of Nepal. If you need to stay closer to home for your eight week HES placement, or if you’re living on a tight budget, then perhaps rural NSW is the way to go. While Taree lacks the glamour and excitement of the aforementioned locations, it is a lovely small town with very friendly people. Cheap subsidised accommodation can be organised through the UDRH (University Department of Rural Health) which is more than adequate and the newly built Manning Education Centre/Rural Clinical School is very useful, providing tutorial rooms, computers, internet access and library resources.
I was based in Manning hospital emergency department for my placement, which while at times was very busy, it was still a fantastic place to meet and talk with patients about their health care. More importantly, I could follow patients though their hospital admissions, from their time on the wards to community outreach follow-up. I chose to focus on acute stroke care at MRRH for my final report and wrote about the inequitable access (NB – equity = fairness/justness) to stroke services (especially thrombolysis and specialist neurological assessment) at the hospital, compared not only to major metropolitan hospitals such as JHH, but also to other rural hospitals which offered these services. The hospital’s stroke clinical coordinator was an invaluable resource.
If you want real hands on clinical experience, then rural NSW is definitely a good choice (due to the University’s insurance policy, only students who stay in NSW are allowed to undertake clinical procedures). Whilst the development of clinical skills is not a core objective of the HES placement, it is still very important to anyone’s future training and career, and I thoroughly enjoyed the practical aspects of my placement (from extensive cannulation practice to urinary catheter insertion to emergency intubation and even assisting in theatre).
What you choose to do whilst on your HES placement is entirely up to you, and the options available at MRRH are virtually limitless (pathology, radiology, mental health, obstetrics, paediatrics, ED, surgery, Aboriginal health, ambulance service, community health) with staff in all departments that are extremely happy to teach students.
Tips for making the most of this placement:
Plan early – do the reading, plan your topic, talk to students in other years.
Talk to as many people as you can whilst on placement (staff, patients and other students) – also, a search in the local newspaper’s online archive is a great way of determining prominent local health issues.
Enjoy the clinical experience – the best part of doing HES in NSW!!
