GUMS Guide to First Year

GUMS guide to first year

www.gums.org.au

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griffith university medicine society GUMS (Griffith University Medicine Society) was found in 2005 and since has developed into a respected organisation that represents the medical students of Griffith University and provides advocacy and support through academic, social, wellbeing and community activities.

contents 04 gums president 05 get involved in gums 06 study tips 07 advocacy report

This year’s executive will strive to: • advance & promote the interests of the students

08 academic report

• provide a supportive setting

10 community report

• promote healthy living & positive coping mechanisms

11 amsa report

• enrich the school’s social & academic environment • foster links with students from other medical schools, in Australia and abroad • promote positive interactions with students & members of the health care field • promote the health of the community through community projects & charity function GUMS is your society! So sign up & join in the fun!

12 what the hell is PBL 13 wellbeing report 16 social report 17 med revue 18 southport hotspots 20 participation guidelines 21 PBL food 22 surgia report 24 H4H report 25 Healthy Start 26 GPSN report

www.gums.org.au

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gums president tommy brennan Hello first years of 2013!

I’m Tommy and I’m the GUMS president! You might have first met me before in some of the orientation mail outs. Welcome to your first week of Medical School.

Today will be full of information, so try not to get too bogged down in it all. This booklet has been put together for you to read at your leisure but I also highly recommend you read it during some of the more boring moments of orientation. There might be a few.

Some of the GUMS exec will be giving a couple of short presentations to fill you in on who we are and what we do, but in the meantime, here’s a little intro that you may or may not have heard before… GUMS (Griffith University Medicine Society) was formed in 2005 and has been built upon in the years since then.

Formed by students, for students, the GUMS executive is composed entirely of student volunteers from the medical school, hell bent on getting you through to graduation!

We have numerous portfolios, many of which you will be hearing from very soon!

2013 will be aawesome year, and I hope you

become a gums member

will be a part of it by becoming a member of GUMS. GUMS members enjoy heavily discounted entry to events, access to GUMS education resources, and many other benefits!

Come check out our Orientation day sign up table!

If you have any questions about GUMS or how you can get involved, please see the GUMS website (www.gums.org.au), look us up on Facebook (Griffith University Medicine Society) or email president@gums. org.au.

Also, don’t be afraid to accost us if you see us around the school today or any other day, we love the attention.

Tommy Brennan GUMS President 2013

GUMS members get access to:

This may be the most important thing you do today. The only way to survive first year is to become a GUMS member!

• Dicounted GUMS merchandise

Membership is $15 for one year or $40 for all four years of your course.

• Wellbeing sessions

Sign up today and get a free GUMS O-Bag with lots of free goodies!

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• GUMS Conference Subsidy Scheme • Academic workshops • Discounts on GUMS events Become a member at gums.org.au!

www.gums.org.au

get involved in gums

gums subcommittees & convenor roles Academic Subcommitte

Med Revue Subcommittee

The GUMS Academic team is looking for enthusiastic first years to be a part of our subcommittee. The students will work with the Academic Representative and the rest of the GUMS Executive to provide the students with the support they want and need. The Academic team will be coordinating a number of ongoing and once off special events.

Contact academic@gums.org.au to find out more.

Want to be part of the team that will make superstars out of mere medical students, turn future doctors into dancers and will make you laugh so hard you develop a hernia. This year we’re looking for people who want to continue the new Med Revue tradition. There’s a lot more behind the scenes work than you’d think.

So if you want to help out with what will be a smash hit, contact medrevue@gums.org.au.

AMSA Think Tank

GUMS writes a lot of publications throughout the year, bringing members all sorts of information about medical studies, the Gold Coast and beyond. The Publications Subcommitee has the freedom to write what they want their cohort to hear about. Contact publications@gums.org.au to find out more.

Do you get excited about advocacy? Does being heard on the big issues impassion you? Get involved in the Griffith ThinkTank to discuss and develop policy on the issues that affects medical students on both local and national levels. Contact amsa@gums.org.au to find out more.

Social Subcommitte Are you a social butterfly? Keen to help out in the organisation of all the huge events we have this year? We’d love to have you on board! On the social subcommittee you can do as much or as little as you want. Whether you really want to get involved in one event, or just help out with little things throughout the year, it’s up to you. Contact social@gums.org. au to find out more.

Publications Subcomittee

Community Subcomittee GUMS isn’t all about us. Join the Community Subcommittee to help put something back out there. Contact community@gums.org.au to find out more.

GUMS Sport Convenor Reporting to the Wellbeing Officers & Social Reps, the GUMS Sports Convenor’s job is to coordinate and manage GUMS Sports Teams and events. If this sounds like your perfect job, email social@gums.org.au to find out more.

www.gums.org.au

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study tips

15 techniques for when you’ve tried everything 1. Write out the LOs. Keep the explanations to a limit & clinically relevant. If you write too much, you won’t remember it all. If you don’t write enough, you might miss concepts.

9. Practice taking histories/examining each other and then give critical feedback. The more critical the feedback, the more likely you are to remember not to do it again!

2. Try and stay on top of LOs from week 1. It’ll make things a lot easier near exams!

10. Do the Anatomy worksheets BEFORE the prac. You will feel like a genious when you walk in. These are big, so it might be easier to get in a small group and split up the workload.

3. Use a whiteboard to make big flow charts of patients linking their anatomy, physiology, pathophys and clinical presentation.

4. Make a study group. You could go through PBL cases or review LOs. It’ll force you to stay up to date with the group.

5. Be confident making Differential Diagnoses.

Try and think of at least 3 differentials for each Presenting Complaint. An easy way to do this is to go back through each PBL case.

6. Go over PBL cases a couple of weeks after and answer the discussion questions. It’s a good test of your understanding.

7. If you think you’re going into too much detail, think ‘would an intern need to know this?’ If it’s a ‘HELL NO!’, save it for later.

8. Make flashcards and review a few daily.

By reviewing ~20 per day, it won’t seem overwhelming. Anki is a cool computer program which does all the work for you.

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11. Make a ‘P-List’ for drugs. Whenever you encounter a drug add it to the list. You should put down the class, mechanism of action, indication and major/common adverse reactions.

12. Find a book/website with PBL-like cases.

13. Anatomy exams aren’t worth as much as you may think. So while it’s imperative that you keep up during the semester, if you’re stressing around exams, it’s time to prioritise your study.

14. Don’t leave DLEPP/DHC to the last minute.

There aren’t many questions for them on the exam, so you need to get them right!

15. Try everything. Study can get boring and no one likes to do boring things. If you are losing motivation, try a different technique.

Ask your peers or your mentors, they might have the perfect study technique for you. As long as you don’t give up, you’ll be fine!

www.gums.org.au

advocacy rep mat wong

Welcome to Griffith, and your first day as a ‘physician in training’. I would like to introduce myself as GUMS Advocacy officer for 2013 and look forward to meeting as many of you as I can and representing the interests of the student body throughout the year.

Your first weeks of medical school can be a little overwhelming and so I have prepared some short guides to the participation and professional behaviour policies as they are commonly unheard of or overlooked amongst all the excitement.

The role of the GUMS Advocacy officer is to be the collective voice of the student body and maintain open communication channels between the school and its students. The main way this is achieved is by sitting on the various school committees and meetings to provide feedback on behalf of students. Year level and hospital representatives are also elected to attend these meetings and work with their respective student bodies.

If you have any issues with the school, be it administrative, educational or simply

general feedback, you can contact your year rep or the advocacy officer who will bring the issue to the appropriate school staff.

The advocacy officer can also assist students with appeals & grievances, as well as put students in touch with the welfare and student liaison officer at the parklands campus.

You can contact me via my email: advocacy@ gums.org.au or feel free to grab me in the corridors if you ever see me around!

All the best on your first day of med school!

Mat Wong GUMS Advocacy Rep 2013

gums first year rep The GUMS First year rep is an elected student representative whose main job is to provide the primary communication channels between the first year cohort, GUMS and the school. They represent their cohort on the y1/2 committee (every 2 months) meeting and other relevant meetings that may arise whilst also relaying information to the year about GUMS events.

If you think you would be good in this role and would like to get involved in GUMS, email a short (50-100wds) description of why to advocacy@gums.org.au. This will be made publicly available for the purpose of an online election.

www.gums.org.au

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academic rep jess lewkowicz

Welcome to life as a baby doctor!

Your first year of medical school is a big adjustment & the amount of information you take on can be overwhelming.

Never fear! Your GUMS Academic team has organized programs & events to support you through this transition.

Peer Mentoring Program The GUMS Peer Mentoring Program commenced in 2008, and in its first year running it received the Student Guild award for Most Outstanding Achievement by a Cultural Club. The program pairs you with a mentor in a higher year level, so you have someone with the perspective of having been through first year. You can talk to them about study topics, life pressures, fun times, or just hang out and share some gossip. It’s up to you. To sign up, head to gums.org.au/peermentoring/ Peer Mentoring Program A concept that will drive you bonkers over the next 12 months (or even 4 years) is “how much depth should we go into?” and if you let you let yourself you could go into oh so page 8

much detail with study you might just learn the meaning of life. Whilst this would be quite lucrative, it isn’t really conducive to passing med school. The Peer Tutorial Program is here to offer a bit of perspective. GUMS organises higher year level students with expertise in an area of the course to lecture lower cohorts.

These tutorials offer a big picture view from someone who has studied the material, sat the exam and then put the material into practice.

Keep your eyes peeled for announcements regarding the upcoming first year tutorial Medicine for Beginners: How to Survive MBBS Year 1. Tutorial topics are decided by you so tell us what you are having trouble with and how we can help by emailing academic@ gums.org.au.

GUMS Futures Evening The GUMS Futures Evening is a huge academic event full of interesting speakers and loads of exhibitors from post-graduate colleges, finance and accounting companies, medical defence organisations and more. And let’s not forget professional catering. It is all put on to give you a glimpse into your future in medicine and help you be the best prepared intern you can be.

Electives and Selectives Evening The second semester of year 4 consists entirely of electives and selectives – your opportunity to see Australia and/or the world and get a bit of medicine in on the side! Want

www.gums.org.au

some advice on electives ideas? Not sure what a selective is? Keen to take one final break before becoming an intern and starting the rest of your life? Come along to the GUMS Electives and Selectives Evening and find out all you need to know. Whether you want the holiday adventure of a lifetime with just enough medicine in it to be approved by the school, or an experience where you’re entrusted to hold the clamps and put the lumbar puncture needle in yourself, the GUMS Electives and Selectives evening will be able to help you out.

GUMS Conference Subsidy Scheme Medical conferences are a great way to get involved in the medical community and to learn more about a topic of interest. But being students on a tight budget, combined with the often high registration costs can limit these opportunities. The GUMS Conference Subsidy Scheme aims to help students attend medical conferences by subsidising the conference registration fee. There are six subsidies available up to a value of 50% of the registration fee or $200 each. There is also one subsidy available each year for the entire registration costs of a conference on the official GUMS conference list. Check out the full guidelines on the GUMS website – what have you got to lose?

going to survive the OSCE?? If this sounds like your inner monologue then GUMS is here for you. This year in April/May we are hoping to run the first ever Practice OSCE to help you become more comfortable with the process and learn how the day runs and what will be expected of you. Stay tuned for notices on how to be involved throughout the year.

GUMS Procedural Practice Sessions Your first couple of years at med school are going to include learning the foundations of clinical medicine – taking histories and performing physical examinations. These skills are imperative to being a good intern and a good doctor. Last year we launched the program which was met with huge success.

Workshop places filled up within minutes!!

Workshops that are run include ECG, spirometry and much much more! Don’t miss your chance to sign up and take part in what is an extremely valuable program.

Remember, you get out what you put in! Get involved & make learning fun!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at academic@gums. org.au Jess Lewkowicz GUMS Academic Rep 2013

GUMS Practice OSCEs and Exams What are exams going to be like? How am I www.gums.org.au

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community rep alex maynard-russel

Hello first years, I welcome you to your new world of Griffith Medical School. I am Ally, your GUMS Community officer for 2013. I hope I get the chance to meet you all and have you be involved in our charity fundraising events. The first few week of medical school can be daunting, but we have lots of exciting events coming up that should help relieve a bit of the tension.

My role as GUMS Community officer, is to organize fundraising events like parties, charity drives,, barbeques , fun runs and bike rides all in the name of helping others in need. It also entails acting as a rally point for the selected charity and trying to encourage as many students as possible to participate in the big events we have planned. Bring to me any suggestions for charity events you may have and we will try to incorporate them into our calendar.

Community is all about getting involved!

Whether you buy a ticket for a fundraising event, join a team to raise money for a charity event, or donate to one of these teams; you’re getting involved in improving our community.

With a focus on local, or medically related charities, this really is YOUR community, and your opportunity to help make it better.

So if you like to run, ride, swim, dance, sing OR just want to help out a worthy charity, get involved. If you want to help out with organizing or have a great idea for a charity/ event send me an email, all help is welcome.

Alex Maynard-Russel GUMS Community Rep 2013

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community events Colour Party - This year’s Colour party will be held in April, raising money for the GUMS chairty of 2013. There will be great prizes for best dressed!

Relay for life - This over night event raises money for Cancer council, with teams working together to fundraise. Each team must keep there baton moving all night long, with performances, activities, food, drinks and bands to spur you on.

Coffee House Nights - Join your fellow students at one of the Gold Coasts chilled out cafes, for a night of some relaxed tunes, good converstations and lattes, cappuccino and macchiato galore!

Gold Coast Marathon - We aren’t all runners but that is no reason for us to miss out on some fresh air whilst raising money. The Marthon will take place on 6-7 July. Each year GUMS enters teams in a variety of distances.

Movember: … A time for the men of the cohort to pump up the Testosterone levels and see if they can ‘mo’ it up for Movember!

Stay tuned for more community events at gums.org.au/category/community/

www.gums.org.au

amsa rep felicity macivor

Welcome to Griffith Medicine and the Australian Medical Students Association. As the peak representative body for Australian medical students, AMSA is all about connecting, informing and representing you.

ADVOCACY: AMSA acts as a voice for Australian medical students, helping you be heard by all levels of government, as well as other relevant stakeholders in medical education. Get your voice heard though GUMS and the Griffith AMSA ThinkTank.

STUDENTS: Prospective, current and graduating medical students are provided with a wide range of benefits including events, publications, bursaries and discounts.

EVENTS: AMSA holds many national events every year, connecting medical students from across the country with leadership, educational and networking opportunities as well as incredible social programs. Some key events in 2013: • May 13-15: National Leadership Development Seminar (NLDS), Canberra 2013. This once-in-a-medicine-degree opportunity enables you to develop leadership skills for the medical field.

• July 7-14: AMSA Convention – Gold Coast 2013 – The most amazing academic and social week of the year, right on your doorstep in 2013. Get excited to Go Coastal.

• Sept 12-15: Global Health Conference (GHC), Hobart 2013. Learn how to make a difference on a global scale.

Other events include Life in the Real World, National Rural Leadership Development Workshop, Training New Trainers and Think Global Workshop.

PROJECTS: Getting involved in community projects, such as the National Blood Drive (Vampire Cup) and learning from Health & Wellbeing projects are great ways to get the most out of AMSA. GLOBAL & RURAL: AMSA advocates strongly on global, rural and indigenous issues. Your Global Health Network representative for 2013 is Chris Maguire in Year 2 (Hope4Health).

PUBLICATIONS: AMSA produces a range of publications to guide and inform you though you medical degree and beyond.

AMSA is truly amazing. GAI at www.amsa.org. au and friend AMSA at Griffith on Facebook.

Felicity MacIvor GUMS AMSA Rep 2013

www.gums.org.au

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what the hell is PBL...

By now you’ve probably heard a few new acronyms: PBL, LIs, LOs, PFO... the list goes on. And while one of these refers to an inebriated man who is now on the floor, the others will soon be embedded in your brain forever. We’ll start with the process of PBL to ease your way in!

You have two 2.5hr PBL (Problem Based Learning) sessions a week with a group of ~10 students. You’ll go through a case which takes 2-3 sessions. Each case starts in a similar way: “Jane Smith is a 60yo female who comes to your office complaining of chest pain.”

The next step is a little similar to what you see on the show House MD. The group makes some hypotheses as to what could be the cause.

It’s important to have a go at making a hypothesis even if you don’t have much medical background. However, if you’re completely stuck say drugs, neoplasm, infection or even depresion/anxiety. They always seem to fit somewhere!

When you’re thinking of hypotheses, also try and thick of a reason you chose it. For example, there’s no point saying “Jane’s chest pain could be caused by radiating pain from her right toe which may have been stubbed while walking into the office.” And definitely don’t say something like that if you’re in Barbara Bonecki’s PBL! Next you’ll need to think of what information you need to know next. Is Jane’s chest pain sharp or dull? Sudden or gradual? etc.

As you go through the case, you will get more information and the actual diagnosis will become more clear. But it’s not that simple.

Right now, you may have a limited knowledge page 12

of medicine. It’s important to acknowledge that throughout the case. That’s where LIs (Learning Issues) come in.

LIs are areas of knowledge that as a group you are not confident in yet. For example, you might be unsure about the anatomy of the heart, so you make it an LI. At the end of a PBL session you will have a list of LIs. You then divide the LIs around the group and everyone goes home and writes a 1-2 page summary on that topic. Everyone posts these online a day or two before the next PBL. Once they’re all posted you need to go through and get a good overview of each LI in preparation for “report back” When you start the next PBL session, you begin with “report back”. This is where each student has to present a random LI to the group using the whiteboard. Don’t stress out, this is for your benefit! If you don’t know it perfectly, that’s OK. It’s more about getting comfortable presenting to a group. These should only go for ~5mins each.

Once you finally finish a case you’re given the LOs or (Learning Outcomes). This is a list of things the school wanted you to get out of the case. For this case one might be, “Describe the anatomy of the heart, including chambers, valves and coronary circulation.”

As you can see, this matches up with the LI we made before. And that’s the aim. If your PBL works well (and you have a really good facilitator!) your LOs should all be covered by the LIs that the group made!

And that’s it! Simple yeah?

Oh and PFO means pissed and fell over...

www.gums.org.au

wellbeing reps

ashlea white & carlin saldanha Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity - WHO (World Health Organisation) Congratulations on taking your first steps in the medical profession, we know how long it can seem to get to this stage. Medicine is one of the most exciting and rewarding careers you can pursue, but it can easily become all consuming.

The wellbeing team is here to support you in any way that we can throughout the next four years. If you have suggestions or just want to have a chat, drop us an email at: wellbeing@ gums.org.au. Some of the events planned for 2013 are as follows: Peer Support Groups - A casual catch up in the common room for anyone who wants to chat during the first few weeks of uni.

This could be a good opportunity to meet and get advice from some older students as well as your peers. The first few weeks can be a huge shock to the system and both of us in wellbeing have experienced external challenges and have some handy hints on the achieving the balancing act that med can be.

Mindfulness Sessions - Mindfulness is a simple meditation technique that you will soon learn about from the guru himself, Kwong, that encourages awareness of thoughts and feelings. This skill can be practised at anytime and is particularly useful for dealing with stress and is a great tool for self-monitoring.

Parasympathetic Picnic in the Park - Second week in, this picnic in the park will be a perfect chance to rest and digest and hang out with your uni colleagues. This is a familyfriendly event so it will give you the chance

to get to know the loved-ones of your fellow students.

Wellbeing Breakfast - Free health food pretty self explanatory in its awesomeness.

Free Massages - Leading up to exams you may be feeling a little stressed. Let the massage therapists remove the knots from your back and help you to relax a little Ashlea White Carlin Saldanha GUMS Wellbeing Officers 2013

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2012

disorientation camp

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social reps

ashlea white & carlin saldanha Welcome to Griffith newbies!

Our names are Chad and James, and we probably have the best job of anyone in GUMS. We’re in charge or orgainsing all the exciting social events of the year. From the fantastic meet and greet of Disorientation Camp to the wild and woolly Scrub Crawl and the stylish and sophisticated Medball, we’ve got quite a year planned for YOU! We’ve been busy scouring the Coast for all the best venues and deals to make your first year of med school one you’ll never forget. Get excited kids, because this year is going to be HUGE! We’ll aim to keep you regularly updated either through the GUMS website, your year’s facebook page or crashing your lectures. If ever, you have any questions regarding social events, don’t hesitate to hit us up on social@ gums.org.au and we’ll get back to you quick smart. Here’s a few of the big events to look out for throughout the year: Scrub Crawl What’s the only thing better than the greatest pub crawl the Gold Coast has ever seen? Doing it in scrubs! That’s right medlings, get excited.

Starting (all Scrubbed up) at our favourite local watering hole, The Courthouse, we then bus it to some of the best bars and clubs in Broadbeach and finishing in Surfers for one of the best (and probably the wildest) social nights of the year. Make sure you get in quick, as tickets sell out in a matter of seconds!

Med Ball After a hard week of being up to your elbows in someone’s abdomen, sometimes you need a little bit of glitz and glamour to reinvigorate your studious soul. Luckily we’ve got the classiest event the Gold Coast has ever seen page 16

(I know that’s not saying much, but trust us, it’s classy). The GUMS Medicine Ball gives you the chance to dress up and forget all your troubles.

We’re looking forward to meeting you all at an exciting Disorientation Week camp!

Chad Maidment & James Powell GUMS Social Reps 2013

med revue 2013

med school’s not all song and dance...

This year, there will be a number of demands for your time. People will come to you from all sides, asking for your help in various functions and activities. The following is a guide as to how to deal with it.

Over-enthusiastic Third Year: “Hey! You look like a keen young guy/girl, how about joining up and helping me out with ______ New Med Student: “Hell no! I’m in MedRevue, I don’t have time for your _______, I’m too busy being generally awesome in a group of damn fine looking people as we strive to put on the greatest theatrical/musical/skit show a med school has ever produced.”

Do the right thing: 1. Join the facebook group MedRevue2013 2. If your keen to help with script work, look out for writers meeting times 3. Get ready for auditions And become who you were born to be.

Chris Maguire - Hamish Bush Sarah McNamay - Tyson Jones GUMS Med Revue Convenors 2013

Feel free to riff on this staple response. www.gums.org.au

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southport hotspots

everywhere you need to know to survive 1. GH1 Coffee Cellar

5. JFX

Outside level 3 there’s quick access to coffee & snacks/lunch. The food may seem a little pricey. Also, there’s better coffee if you venture beyond the uni walls.

Great Japanese food at super cheap prices.

Less than $10 for lunch! Awesome for uni breaks.

2. GCH Coffee Cart (lvl 2)

Good vego & gluten free food. A nice place to chill with a coffee.

The coffee is better than the Coffee Cellar, but more expensive. You can access it from the level 5 walkway.

7. Officeworks For all your stationary needs!

3. GCH Canteen Cheaper food: hot & cold, with a sandwich bar.

Same coffee as the cart in the hospital.

4. Aviva Nice cafe to sit & chat. Best coffee nearby.

Also has some cafe treats to nibble on if you can be bothered to walk over!

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6. Sol Breads

8. The Courthouse This is the Griffith Med School ‘local’. It’s great on a Friday afternoon for a cold one after PBL! Good pub grub here.

9. Centrelink Office The busiest place in Southport!

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10. Australia Fair Good for a walk around during breaks. Not many options for shopping but has some fast-food outlets & cafes for lunch. Also, the movies here are the cheapest you will ever see: less than $10 tickets for students & $20 for gold class!

11. Pay Car Park This is probably the closes car park to the uni: it’s 3 hour max and you have to pay per hour.

This is heavily patrolled so pay up now & save later!

12. Pohlman & Eugaree St This is the closest parking if you don’t want to pay and you don’t want a ticket! Make sure you park West of Nerang St (like in the map above). The streets of Southport are HEAVILY patrolled and the parking inspectors are ruthless!

No motivation for study? Take a walk along the Southport Broadwater. It has been done up with walkways and plenty of little things to let your mind wander.

There’s a cafe near the pier and plenty of spots for picnics. A nice spot in Southport to get away!

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gums guide to the participation gu You are finally here! Welcome to life as a medical student. We all know what a (potentially) long journey the admissions process has been and now that you are here, the school wants to make sure you turn up! Why? Partly because it is professional behaviour and partly because the community, hospital staff & patients and school staff put in a lot of time and effort to teach us.

The school views attendance at all organised activities as paramount and all commencing students sign an agreement (submitted with all the orientation paperwork) to be available for school activities 8am-6pm, mon-fri ,as well as outside of these hours in years 3 & 4.

Sessions may be timetabled outside of these hours if necessary, with 2 weeks notice via the timetable. (eg: gowning and gloving training on a Saturday morning). The school has a somewhat harsh, but fair policy regarding absenteeism with penalties as summarised below: Y1&2: • All compulsory activities must be attended at (within 10 minutes of the start time) with the student ensuring attendance has been recorded.

• Compulsory activities are: • All placements (community, hospital, GP, Ambulance, Phlebotomy etc) • All Clinical Skills sessions and PBLs • Compulsory seminars in the lecture theatre (self-care, indigenous/rural/ mental health etc) page 20

• Absence for injury or illness with a valid medical certificate is acceptable • ***Lectures are not compulsory, but are provided to help you with your ‘LOs’ Penalties are incurred for each absence without a certificate and begin once the student has had 4 absences (regardless of theme). For each absence after this, a 1% penalty is subtracted from the final year score for the relevant theme. This % increases with each subsequent absence.

Eg: Jimothy missed 2x PBLs and 2x DP workshops early in the year without a certificate, incurring no penalty (4x compulsory sessions). He then missed 1x Hospital session, incurring a 1% penalty on his final DP grade. He also then missed a compulsory self-care day symposium incurring a 2% penalty on his DLEPP grade.

Finally, he then missed a Friday PBL, incurring a 3% penalty on his DKHI grade. Considering the passing mark for some themes is usually 65% or more, these penalties can matter 15% rule: In addition to the above, if you miss >15% of the total number of compulsory sessions in DKHI or DP, you automatically fail that theme, and thus the year. This applies for ANY reson, with or without a medical certificate. Eg: If there were 40 compulsory DnP sessions in a year (Hospital, clinical skills, communication and placement sessions), missing 6 of these, would meet and exceed the 15% limit resulting in failure of the theme.

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pbl food

uidelines Common reasons people incur penalties: • Being unaware of the participation guidelines and penalties • Forgetting to sign the attendance record (easiest with clinical skills) • Losing an attendance record • Being more than 10 minutes late to a session Tips for a trouble-free time: • Make sure you sign every form, every session. If you don’t – you were never there.

• Keep a photocopy of every form you hand in – It will save everyone trouble if it is misplaced • Keep copies of medical certificates and if you hand one in;

Pretty soon you will realise that arguablythe most important element of PBL is thefood.

One of the first crucial conversations you’ll have in PBL is sorting out the group standards.

Start by finding out if there are any dietary requirements. As a group set the standard for food - Is the food person providing lunch or just something to nibble on? Some groups may even set a minimum/maximum spendage for each session. The first person on food almost has the biggest responsibility: you set the initial standards.

While it may be easier to just buy some doritos and salsa dip or chocolates, this isn’t going to satisfy anyone. After a few sessions of this, everyone’s going to get mighty sick of PBL food.

Instead, try some variations. Bring some fruit or veggie sticks. Even something as simple as a BBQ chicken with bread, lettuce, tomato & cucumber is an easy do-it-yourself option. It’s not about being a masterchef, it’s just being mindful that not everyone is going to enjoy having a packet of chips for lunch!

• Write Name, Year and Student Number on the top • Write any absences the certificate covers and the time & date of the activity missed If you are having any sort of personal or extenuating troubles that may affect your studies, it never hurts to let your year coordinator know, they are often very understanding and can make exceptions (keep a paper/email trail though): Y1/2: Jeff Schwartz – j.schwartz@griffith. edu.au

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professionalism.

• Journal Clubs: Investigates the latest research in a relaxed and casual environment.

• Women in Surgery Events: These events will promote surgery as a career to female medical students and doctors.

To my fellow physicians in training!

I’m very proud to introduce to you all the Surgical Interest Association (Surgia), Griffith’s newest student and professional organisation. Surgia represents students, doctors, researchers, academics and surgeons, working together to increase the quality and access of medical and surgical services on the Gold Coast. We are not simply a surgical society, and Surgia is not just for those interested in surgery. Surgia is for every Griffith student and professional on the Gold Coast who is passionate about increasing our collective, regional achievement and who strives to combat local and international health inequalities in health provisional services.

Surgia provides events, services and opportunities for Griffith medical students to reach their maximal potential in their chosen career path. Whilst having a focus for those wishing to pursue a surgical specialty, Surgia caters to all students and is determined to increase the academic excellence of Griffith University through its brightest and most determined students – you! To demonstrate what Surgia has planned for 2013, the following events and opportunities will be available to our members: • Research Seminars • Surgical Skills Workshops: These workshops will teach our members surgical skills and expertise.

• Conference Subsidy / Research Bursary: Financial rewards to high-achieving members.

Surgia aims to bring absolute quality and professionalism to its events and organisation, ensuring that members enjoy the greatest opportunities and the best services available to any student in Australia.

Having won the Griffith Innovation Challenge in 2012, recognising that Surgia had the best business plan and financial outlook of any other proposition, Surgia is determined to use the resources and experience from this competition to deliver the best organisation to the ambitious and motivated students and professionals of the Gold Coast.

I am fondly looking forward to working with every one of you as we strive forward together in 2013. We have a new medical school, a new hospital, and a new professional organisation in Surgia to look forward to, and I hope you all join us for the health revolution on the Gold Coast!

We are looking for anyone to get involved with Surgia as we move into the future. If you want to gain some leadership and organisational governance experience, and be involved in the fastest expanding organisation on the Gold Coast, please don’t hesitate to contact me at president@surgia.org.

Elliot Dolan-Evans Surgia President 2013

• Professional Lectures: Educates members on finances, health policy, leadership skills, economics and page 22

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Welcome to 2012 on behalf of Hope4Health!

We would like to introduce ourselves and invite any and all of you to get involved this year. In a nutshell, we are a student run charity and the university’s rural health club all rolled into one. Our vision is “a world without health inequalities” and through numerous projects and fundraisers throughout the year we seek to do our little bit towards making this hope a reality. Whether you are interested inrural, indigenous, local or international health (or maybe you just want to take advantage of the social opportunities), we havesomething to offer you.

Soon our year will be off to a roaring start with the annual Members Launch Party. That will be followed a little later by Midnight Muster, an excuse to pull on the gumboots and crack out the flannelette at the Beaudesert Racecourse. Waterfront accommodation is included…ask your rural rep. The best part? It’s all for a great cause so you needn’t feel guilty about squandering those student dollars on socializing.

But the first semester has plenty more to offer than parties. If you sign up as a member you will soon start receiving emails advising you of how to apply for our rural trips. These are heavily subsidized weekends during which

H4H members travel to various rural locations where they get to explore the town, learn and practice clinical skills and meet many personalities ranging from rural doctors to allied health students from Griffith and other universities. Keep an eye out for Goondiwindi trips and the Joint Rural Health Weekend, both coming up this semester.

I hate to talk of exams on the first day, but you’re probably already tired of people telling you they may not be like those you have done before. To take the mystery out of practical exams we organize student-facilitated practice sessions late in the semester. I know the pearls of wisdom offered by older students really helped me through the first round so I encourage you to take advantage of these.

This short welcome can barely touch on all I would like to tell you about H4H, but now you know what to look out for to SIGN UP (it’s half price if you do it now) and come along to our events and meetings. We’re all very proud of our work and keen to tell anyone who will listen, so ask the exec about their different projects and if one takes your fancy offer us a hand. I have made some great friends through H4H and my med experience has been profoundly improved by being involved.

I hope yours can be too.

SkyleMurphy Hope 4 Health President 2013

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healthy start a H4H initiative

Congratulations you made it!! We know it was tough work but you now have so many new opportunities to help take you further in your future careers. 2013 is an exciting year to be a medical student because this year we are unveiling our new program Healthy Start. Over the past 3 years Griffith Medical Students, in conjunction with experts in the field, have developed a project unlike any other in Australia. A project where students are able to make a difference in the lives of a particularly needy and vulnerable group in our communities.

Healthy Start is a preventative health education program aimed at Refugees newly arrived to Australia. We are training medical students to teach basic health information to a vulnerable population who need our support. Through Healthy Start students will

gain valuable clinical and real life experience surrounding topics taught during our course.

The aim of the project is not only to educate and empower newly arrived refugees, but also to help train future doctors in adult education and cultural awareness (not to mention look great on your CV!). If the reason you got into Medicine is to help those that need it and you are interested in becoming a Doctor that can understand and help people from cultures other than your own, then Healthy Start wants you!!

For more information please check out the H4H facebook page and website. We will be runninginformation sessions soon so keep an eye out.

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GPSN

General Practice Students Network The General Practice Students Network (GPSN) is a national student-run organisation active in all medical schools across Australia.

We are your local avenue for not only all things GP, but also for networking and social opportunities, workshops to improve your clinical skills such as suturing, and the chance to hear from some inspiring and renowned doctors.

to express your interest. Or, if you see any of us around during O-week, please feel free to come up and say hi! For more information you can also visit our website at www.gpsn.org.au.

In the meantime, soak up all you can during your first few weeks of med school and get ready for a great year ahead!

Lauren Mann GPSN President 2013

General practice tends to be associated with more myths than any other speciality, but GPSN aims to change these misconceptions and illustrate how rewarding and stimulating a career in general practice can be.

As a medical student (are you getting used to that title yet?), the idea of choosing a speciality may seem a long way off, but regardless of whether you have or haven’t considered general practice as a future career-path, we would love for you to keep an eye out for all GPSN has to offer over the coming year or even get involved! We have a position available for a First Year Representative-a great opportunity to be part of a friendly and rapidly growing club. Feel free to send an email through to gpsn.griffith@gmail.com page 26

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