Archive for January, 2009

More than 20 young doctors from throughout eastern Australia are gaining their first experience of whole body dissection in a week-long course for surgical trainees at the University of New England.The course – the first of its kind in Australasia and now in its ninth year – has come to UNE’s School of Rural Medicine at the end of that School’s first year of teaching. This year, for the first time, the course is residential, with the participants staying at UNE’s Mary White College.

The doctors, whose dissection experience as undergraduates was limited to working on “prosections” (i.e., pre-prepared parts of cadavers) say their overwhelming feeling on approaching a whole body is one of gratitude to the donor.

“We’re grateful that someone has given us this opportunity to learn by donating their body,” said Dr Ben East, who grew up in Armidale and is training to be an orthopaedic surgeon at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle. “We all approach the bodies with great respect, and place the highest value on the knowledge we gain from them.”

The initiator and organiser of the course is Associate Professor Fiona Stewart, a UNE graduate who now teaches anatomy in UNE’s School of Rural Medicine. Dr Stewart said the course was designed as “remediation” – addressing a decline in the training of undergraduate doctors in anatomy over the past 25 years. She described the course, which is for trainees of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, as “an intensive whole body dissection course, expert-led, and facilitated by surgeon-teachers – specialists in the specific regions dissected”.

“We start with the basics, including the use of instruments – even how to attach a scalpel blade,” she said. “Lectures on specific regions of the body are followed by dissection sessions focusing on those regions.”

Dr Stewart’s undergraduate students at UNE, who have completed just one year of their Bachelor of Medicine degree program – including an elective anatomy course – are already competent enough to assist in the dissection sessions. “It’s teaching them how to teach,” Dr Stewart said.

The participants in the course are enthusiastic about Dr Stewart’s organisation of the program. “Fiona does a lot of work behind the scenes to make it all possible,” said Dr Natalie Rainger from Inverell, who has assisted Dr Stewart in two previous courses, and is now a surgical trainee herself – training at Orange Hospital to be an ear, nose and throat specialist. And all the participants agree that UNE’s state-of-the-art anatomy laboratory is the best they have encountered.

“Coming back to New England, it’s good to see the School of Rural Medicine promoting medical services in this and other rural areas,” Dr Rainger said, adding that she was impressed with the quality of UNE’s first cohort of medical students.

The course participants are training in specialties including orthopaedics, neurosurgery, dental surgery, and radiology. One of the specialist surgeons instructing them is Mr David Storey from Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, a gastro-intestinal specialist who has appeared in the television series RPA. Others include Mr Bruce French, a cardio-thoracic specialist at Liverpool Hospital and Strathfield Private Hospital, and the prominent orthopaedic surgeons Mr Michael Shatwell and Mr James Powell. Dr Stewart herself, UNE’s Associate Professor Hans Dahl, and several Armidale-based doctors – including the specialist surgeon Dr Robert French – are also among the instructors.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here, focusing on tools for the study of anatomy, expands to show Dr Natalie Rainger and Dr Ben East preparing for one of the dissection sessions during the anatomy course.

(This news item was posted originally by UNE’s Marketing and Public Affairs in December 2008)
Article reproduced with permission from UNE’s news list.

For the first time, a vital state-wide school science test is being marked in rural areas. More than sixty thousand Year 8 students sat the Essential Secondary Science Assessment (ESSA) in November. The University of New England provided the venue and facilities for one of the four key marking stations in New South Wales.ESSA is used as a diagnostic tool to obtain information for teachers, students and parents about the level of achievement and the needs of individual students in science. It is compulsory for students in Year 8 who attend government schools in NSW to take the exam and it can also be accessed by Catholic and private schools. ESSA relates directly to the state science syllabus for Years 7-10. The results are therefore applicable and relevant to the topics being taught by teachers in the classroom.

UNE’s Professor John Pegg, Director of the National Centre of Science, Information and Communication Technology, and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SIMERR), and former Deputy Director Associate Professor Debra Panizzon, have been working with the NSW Department of Education since their involvement in the starting of the test back in 2005. Their work, based on a federally funded Australian Research Council grant, provided the structure of the ESSA system. ‘We worked with the state government on the science learning framework; how to generate appropriate items for the tests and then how to mark the extended question component most accurately’ he said.

The test consists of a 16-page colour stimulus magazine and a 20-page booklet containing 75 short answer questions and three extended response tasks. The short answers are electronically scanned while specially trained science teachers mark the extended answers. Responses are scanned in colour into a central computer in Sydney and become available for marking on computers in designated areas. Students are given a score based on the depth and quality of their knowledge and understanding.

In 2007, the test was marked by over 150 teachers in Sydney. ‘This year for the first time, as well as marking being undertaken in Sydney, more than 30 country teachers are assessing ESSA scripts at work stations in Wagga, Bathurst and here at UNE in Armidale. It means local teachers gain valuable experience in marking a state-wide test without having to travel to, or live in, Sydney’ Professor Pegg said.

Sam Virtue, a teacher at Walcha Central, is one of the six markers based at the UNE station. ‘Being in a regional area you sometimes feel you may miss out on certain opportunities, so this experience is fantastic. I can see for myself how the marking process works, and then share my new knowledge with my fellow teachers back at school’ she said.

‘The teachers received specialist training on Saturday before beginning the marking sessions which take place over 5 days from 4pm-9pm. To ensure accuracy, 20 per cent of the tests are double marked and every hour a common script is put through to help senior markers gauge whether the marking team is on track’ said Professor Pegg.

‘Regional marking stations help create a core of science teachers in rural areas who gain experience with sophisticated marking approaches and it helps them to better understand the problems students face in learning science. Over time, this activity will greatly enhance the skill levels of rural science teachers and as a consequence help improve further the learning potential of rural students in science’ he said.
Article reproduced with permission from UNE’s news list.

Students wanting to study nursing at the University of New England now have more options. From this year, students studying a Bachelor of Nursing degree at UNE will be able to obtain an Advanced Diploma and become an Enrolled Nurse after the first two years of the course. In addition, those who are already Endorsed Enrolled Nurses can enter straight into the beginning of second year and study for 2 years to become a Registered Nurse.The course will also have more blended learning in second and third years. Students will have the chance to study entirely on campus or to instead learn mainly on-line, and attend a number of short intensive schools and clinical practice blocks each semester.

‘The new changes mean the degree is more flexible and better suited to students who don’t want to relocate to Armidale or who can’t afford not to work’ said Dr Penny Paliadelis, Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator for Nursing at UNE’s School of Health.‘We now have multiple entry and exit points for our students. After two years of the course, students will be allowed to leave with an Advanced Diploma and become Enrolled Nurses or they can choose to stay for the full three years and become Registered Nurses’ Dr Paliadelis added.

Armidale’s Todd Naylor has wanted to become a nurse since leaving school more than a decade ago. ‘With a young family to think of, my wife and I needed financial stability and were never really in a position to live off only one wage in order for me to study’ he said. ‘However we were drawn to the course’s increased flexibility and the fact I can study part time and on-line’ he said.

UNE is also leading the way with its new entry criteria. ‘Those who don’t meet the usual entry standards, but feel they have the capacity to become nurses, can enter UNE’s nursing course via interview’ explained Dr Paliadelis. ‘Students new to UNE need to make an initial application to UAC and fill in the request form to book in for the final round of panel interviews to be held on the 22^nd of January in the School of Health’.

‘I was accepted into the course via interview’ said Mr Naylor. ‘I think it is a great way of finding students who are passionate about nursing. I don’t think people who are perhaps lacking in dedication to their study, would really put themselves through the rigorous task of sitting in front of a panel’ he said.

‘I am really excited about beginning my nursing degree. I have wanted to do this for a long time and I now just want to achieve a really good result and have a happy balance between work, study and family’ Mr Naylor added.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show Todd Naylor and Dr Penny Paliadelis in UNE’s simulation lab in the School of Health.

( Marketing and Public Affairs office, January 2009)
Article reproduced with permission from UNE’s news list.

Does the legal concept of a “duty of care” make it easier to solve environmental conflicts over farming? An experimental court case at the University of New England can be seen as a step towards answering that question.UNE’s Moot Court, within the School of Law, became the ‘New England Land and Environment Court of Appeal’ for the hearing of a hypothetical appeal case involving the alleged degradation of wetlands by a farmer.

The Hon. Keith Mason AC QC (pictured here), former President of the Court of Appeal of NSW, presided over the hearing, in which the farmer and the Attorney General were represented by opposing teams of lawyers - some of them specialists in environmental law. The legal participants in the moot court hearing travelled to UNE from Sydney, Lismore and Gunnedah, as well as from Armidale.

Their inquiry focused on the concept of ‘duty of care’ as it relates to farmers’ environmental responsibilities. “The main issue was whether the legal concept of a ‘duty of care’ is an effective and fair way of managing environmental disputes,” Mr Mason said.

“Everybody agrees that we have a long-term duty to look after our land so that the environment is sustainable,” he continued. “But would it be fairer to have just a general ‘duty of care’ for farmers, or a more detailed regulatory framework?”

“While farmers would probably prefer a general ‘duty of care’ to a lot of regulation,” Mr Mason said, “could leave them more open to being sued.”

“Although the concerns of farmers are focused on their farming interests,” he added, “they aren’t narrow or selfish concerns.”

Mark Shepheard, a CRC for Irrigation Futures research student at UNE, organised the hearing as part of his PhD project investigating the role of the ‘duty of care’ concept in managing conflict about farming and the environment. The project is being supervised by Professor Paul Martin, the Director of UNE’s Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law, and Associate Professor Mark Lunney from UNE’s School of Law.

For yesterday’s hearing, Mr Shepheard created ‘legislation’ (based on current laws in Queensland and South Australia), and outlined the background to the case and the courtroom scenario. “We took the kind of legislation that exists, and looked at the problems that could arise when it’s applied in the courtroom,” he said.

Mr Shepheard agreed that support for the ‘duty of care’ concept was widespread throughout the community. “But how does a farmer translate that concept into practical measures?” he asked. “Yesterday’s experiment has taken a significant step towards answering that question by identifying some of the problems involved in explaining ‘duty of care’ in practical terms.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows the Hon. Keith Mason AC QC presiding in UNE’s Moot Court in September 2008. Clicking on this image reveals a photograph of Mr Mason with Mark Shepheard, the research student who organised yesterday’s moot court hearing.

(Written by UNE journalist, Dr Jim Scanlan, Sept 2008)
Article reproduced with permission from UNE’s news list.