University Centre for Rural Health

We just farewelled a fantastic group of Griffith University occupational therapy (OT) students and physiotherapy students after ten-week placements with us. We chatted with them on their final day, asking them to reflect on their experiences and you can read their insights on our website: https://lnkd.in/gaD9ZuSy

Did you know the WellMob project is coordinated by staff here at UCRH? WellMob provides mental health and wellbeing resources developed by and for First Nations Australians including websites, apps, videos, fact sheets, podcasts, PDFs, and social media. This short video gives an great introduction into how you can use their website to tap into everything available: https://lnkd.in/gHXjiXRp

A slightly delayed but still wildly enthusiastic congratulations to UCRH researcher Associate Professor Veronica Matthews. Veronica has been appointed to two National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) committees. The committees relate to the Medical Research Future Fund and Veronica is hoping to contribute her expertise in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research. The appointments are testament to the breadth and depth of her work, something you can get a glimpse into with a casual scroll through the news section of our website! Read more: https://lnkd.in/g2caFeth

We're very serious people at UCRH, doing very serious work. We also occasionally make damper... Medicine and Health - University of Sydney students seemed pretty happy with the arrangement!

👍👍👍Thumbs up for a job well done… We had a group of five final year physio students from Australian Catholic University who have just wrapped up a five-week placement with us. They were based at our Grafton campus, under the guidance of Clinical Educator James McInnes, and spent their time in clinical settings at Maclean Hospital, Grafton Base Hospital and Yamba Community Health Centre. Their placement was filled with the usual things – a plastering session included, as you can tell from this photo taken a few weeks ago – but no one was expecting the students to face the prospect of a cyclone during their stay. When the inevitable happened, and flood waters cut road access for many Northern NSW Local Health District staff, the Rehabilitation Unit and Inpatient Service at Maclean Hospital found themselves short-staffed. Lucky this crew were on hand! For two days they found themselves working under James' supervision to keep things under control, helping patients and providing much needed continuity of physio care. James reported the students did a great job and were professional, helpful and positive. Given it was only their first or second placement, their willingness and confidence was impressive. Nice work!

A new study from UCRH researchers and colleagues (including from the Sydney Environment Institute and School of Project Management - University of Sydney) sheds light on how to conduct research in climate disaster affected communities while being sensitive to their trauma. Read more on our website: https://lnkd.in/g_ZPPKnp

Our Medical Education team recently hosted staff from the Sydney Medical School at our Lismore campus. It was a chance for the academic and professional coordinators of the MD program to get a deep insight into how our placements operate. Their visit included tours of Lismore Base Hospital and our Simulation Centre, meetings with MD research supervisors and plenty of time with current Medicine and Health - University of Sydney students.

We're pretty chuffed to welcome a new educator to our Simulation Centre team. Simon Jones is set to run his first workshop with us next week (10 April, Ultrasound Vascular Access Workshop with all the details on our website for anyone interested) and you can read a little about him and the wealth of experience from Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service - Northern NSW and Northern NSW Local Health District he brings on our website: https://lnkd.in/ggA3fvCU

We often share details about the work our researchers are publishing, but it's also great to share a small insight into how their work can help others across the country and the globe. We recently noticed this blog post from the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research. CLEAR is an interdisciplinary natural and social science lab space dedicated to good land relations. Their blog post was about community research authorship and attribution, and referenced work done by UCRH researchers Emma Walke, Veronica Matthews and David Edwards. Amazing to see how work done here in regional Australia can support work being done on the other side of the world! Read the CLEAR post here: https://lnkd.in/gsg4PBBc

Do you know that despite bringing great strengths and facing substantial health inequities, disabled people remain underserved by health research? Read a call to action to advance disability inclusion in health research written by group of international disability researchers and disabled scholars (among them is UCRH's Jodie Bailie) now published in Nature Medicine: https://lnkd.in/gnSxgGdB