Past events
What we got up to in 2010! Get involved in great events like these in 2011.
Health Expo at Deakin University, Waterfront Campus 22 July 2010
On Thursday 22nd July, Deakin University held a Health Expo at Waterfront campus for approximately 250 senior high school students from around the Geelong region. It was aimed at giving students an insight into the health sector as well as the various careers and opportunities on offer. In conjunction with the NRHSN high school visit program, NOMAD represented Deakin’s medical program by holding a stall at the expo. Here we were able to promote careers in medicine, and in particular the opportunities on offer for working within rural and remote areas. The students were able to ask any questions that they had in regards to the course and the role of NOMAD. It was a great opportunity to talk to the students and the stand was extremely popular. We also offered some activities for the students including practising taking vital signs (heart rate and blood pressure), bag of bones where they had to build a skeleton and label the bones, and boozed and confused which was aimed at getting them to think about the effects of alcohol intoxication on their behaviour. Check out our photos page to see some pics of the team on the day!
NURHC Conference 2010
Last year a bunch of NOMADIANs went to Alice Springs to the National Universities Rural Health Clubs Conference. Get inspired for the next one by checking out this report and our photos page.
First Annual Dinner Discussion Night - Friday 30th April 2010
Our first annual dinner discussion night was held at the Truffleduck, Fyansford. The evening was a great success with three amazing speakers sharing their experiences and thoughts on rural and remote health past and present. Dr Richard Di Natale, Louise Lawler and Dr Will Twycross all gave generously of their time and shared many inspiring stories about their work. Photos are now up on our photos page! Keep your eyes peeled for details on 2011's event.
NRLDS Conference 2010
Read all about the National Rural Leadership Development Conference held by the NRHSN in Wollongong in 2010!
Rural High School Visits - 16 - 18 February 2010
A look back at some highlights from 2009!
Indigenous Health Speaker Night - Monday 26th October, 2009
A Positive Outlook for Indigenous Health!
Speaker 1 - Dr Richard Di Natale - 'Life and medicine in remote Aboriginal communities.'
Dr Richard Di Natale draws on one and a half years experience as a GP in Tennant Creek as
well as stints in Carnarvon and the Tiwi Islands to talk about the public health
challenges and personal rewards of life as a Doctor in remote Aboriginal communities.
Background: Dr Richard Di Natale is a public health specialist and drug and alcohol
clinician. He has worked on HIV prevention and drug treatment in developing countries, as
a general practitioner in remote indigenous communities and in a number of different
public health settings. Dr Di Natale has a medical degree from Monash University, a
Masters in Public Health, a Masters in Health Sciences and is a Fellow of the Australian
Faculty of Public Health Medicine. He is best known to me and a lot of Melbourne for some very inspiring political work!
Speaker 2 - Jo Radcliffe - 'Life and culture in a remote aboriginal community'
Before becoming a medical student Jo and her husband lived and worked as teachers for
several years on remote aboriginal communities in northern Australia, where English was
often spoken as a second or third language and culturaldifferences palpable. Come and
hear about Jo's experiences of the difficulties and rewards of life in a Remote
Aboriginal community.
Rural High School Visit - Thursday September 17th
On a long day out in October, a team of five NOMAD members from a range of health courses took a long trip down to Warrnambool College and Brauer College, to interact with some year nine students. The joys of both a health career and studying health were espoused, and a whole lot of fun at a whole lot of health stations was had!
There's a few photos from the event (unfortunately high school students cannot be shown on the website) on the photos page, and we also have two detailed reports from the event for you to have a look at!
The Storytelling Sessions
Most recent one was the 21st September, we heard from second years about their experiences in the John-Flynn Placement Program. Before that, the theme for Monday the 8th of September was Blue Week (Beyond Blue) and we heard some stories
about peoples different experiences with depression and other mental illnesses.
First year medical student Yota shared his thoughts about this night with us, I encourage you all to have a read.
Thank you to all those who offered to share their stories with us. We feel greatly honoured and priviledged! If there is anybody else who would like to share a story during Blue Week or along a different theme, please email Grace (your NOMAD cultural officer) at gcha@deakin.edu.au.
NOMAD held its first story-telling evening on the 10th of August in the Learning Centre at the Waurn Ponds campus, and followed it up with another on the 24th of August. It was a great, relaxed atmosphere and the yarns spun true - the theme of the first night was sharing ideas from the recent NURHC conference, the second night was hearing some students share their experiences living in remote Indigenous communities.
We will keep running these every second week until semester's end, at both Warun Ponds and Waterfront campuses.
25-27th July 2009 - NURHC, Cairns.
NOMAD was able to subsidise eleven of our our members to attend this year's NURHC - the National University Rural Health Club Conference - a forum where the 29 Rural Health Clubs from all around Australia could get together, share ideas and collaborate in projects, and have somewhat of a blast. In future years we hope to be able to subsidise around ten students each year to attend.
To get an idea of some of the great experiences had by our representatives, have a look at the following reports from:
Also check out the photos and videos from the event!
29-30th July 2009 - Careers Expo, Horsham.
Report from Amy Lavithis, Deakin Nursing Student.
The 2009 Career Expo was held at the Wimmera Events Centre In Longerenong (which is just
outside of Horsham). Universities, trades and all sorts of companies in the Wimmera are
invited to hold stalls briefing what they offering by way of education or employment so that
both students and adults can find careers or talk about career paths. It is predominantly
attended by the different schools over the Wimmera, so the students can ask questions
from the universities about the courses they are interested in and get information on
these courses.
I attended with Danielle and two other staff members to man the Deakin University stall
that had information about all the undergraduate health courses we run (including
medicine to those who asked about it as a graduate course) as well as the courses from
other faculties. My role was as a student rep, to answer the students questions about the
health courses from a student perspective, and be able to answer questions about the
nursing and psychology degrees and intergrating into university life. On the second day
Danielle gave a presentation about all the health courses offered at Deakin, and I gave a
speech on the the Bachelor of Nursing / Psychology.
29th & 30th July 2009 - Vibe Alive Indigenous Festival - Mildura
Three NOMAD members, Mary, Sarah and Prue, represented us at the Vibe Alive indigenous festival in Mildura, in conjunction with Melbourne and Monash university's rural health clubs. Their report of all the fun, culture, and plastering of kid's limbs that happened can be read about here:
Peeky's Vibe Alive 2009 report!
Also there's some photos for the photo board...