Medical Education Medical Student Selective Program 2021 Despite the challenges of the last 12 months, we have continued to deliver a robust positive outcome program for the Year 6 MBBS program. The two-semesters program incorporates one semester of selective program in the areas of Medicine, Primary Care, Psychiatry and Surgery, and a Student Selected Experience (elective) and one semester dedicated to a hospital placements speciality program. St Andrew’s has now been involved in the 6th Year selective program for twelve years, offering placements in breast/endocrine and urology and cardiology, and is the only private hospital to do so. Throughout the rotations, and by the end of the year, twenty-one students will have attended; thirteen in breast/ endocrine, two in cardiology; and six in urology. We are fortunate to have a program where highly-regarded consultants provide supervision and mentoring to the students. Specialists provide opportunities for students to be present at a range of patient interactions, including initial and follow-up patient consultation sessions in the consultant’s private rooms, and within the theatre suite during surgery. Students also have the opportunity to follow up with the patients in the clinical areas in the presence of the consultant. The student feedback consistently recognises that the St Andrew’s program ensures they are exposed to a diverse range of specialty areas facilitated by a flexible program. Clinical Placement Coordinator Leanne Batten manages the program to ensure students’ exposure to surgical procedures are maximised during the rotation. This flexibility has been consistently recognised in the feedback statements provided by the students as a positive attribute of the program. Almost all students have attended a session in the cardiac theatre and followed individual patient progress during the following morning’s session with the CCU consultants. They are exposed to robotic procedures and have participated in surgical sessions
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in urology, vascular, plastic surgery, breast/endocrine, spinal/neurosurgical and orthopaedics. Where a student may express an interest in a particular specialty outside their placement, the program has the flexibility to provide this additional opportunity. During their theatre sessions, anaesthetic consultants engage with the students, providing mentoring in this pivotal aspect of clinical intervention. Many surgeons allow the students to scrub in to procedures. To ensure the student has the greatest benefit from these opportunities, they are provided with formal sessions in scrubbing, gowning and draping, as well as information on how to assist surgeons if required. These sessions have been well received by all students with comments received:
‘Excellent orientation and introduction to an unfamiliar environment.’
‘We rarely receive formal orientation sessions. It makes the first day less daunting. Appreciated the theatre scrubbing and introduction to what tools and equipment are used in theatre.’
In addition to surgical sessions, students are allocated to various cardiology consultants and cardiology students at GenesisCare. They experience consulting sessions, exercise stress ECHO, sleep clinic, CT reporting, angiography sessions, transoesophageal echocardiograms and electrophysiology laboratory sessions.
Those students in the breast/ endocrine placement program spend sessions with the consultants in the Breast Clinic to provide an insight into the care of these patients both pre- and post-operatively. In addition to medical input, the students spend time with the breast care nurses and stomal therapy nurses. These sessions provide a different perspective of the patient journey and are always well received. Dr Randall Brown, Clinical Director for Dr Jones & Partners at St Andrew’s Breast Clinic, provides a session sharing his radiology knowledge with the students. Consultants from both Adelaide Oncology and Haematology and South Terrace Urology have provided exposure to the specialty of oncology. The students are provided with a tour of the Clinpath’s Mile End facility, and have the opportunity to work with a pathologist utilising the multiheaded microscope. During the year, Mr Quoc Lam provides a suture workshop, a handson experience for the students. He teaches correct suture techniques and provides an understanding of types and uses of a large range of sutures. All the equipment needed for this workshop is kindly donated by Ethicon. Our chaplain, Reverend Peter Morel facilitates a session with all the students on delivering bad news, sharing his experiences and giving the students practical suggestions and resources for further reading. Feedback from this session continues to recognise the importance of developing this skill and how this session has benefited and prepared students for their future careers: ‘Interactive and insightful; I now know the role of the chaplain in the patient experience, and that we can refer patients to him.’ ‘Highly interesting, engaging and relevant … provided useful suggestions that I will use in my career.’
