Community Health Placement Rewarding Students

Students demonstrating handwashing to local children in Siem Reap Cambodia
Students demonstrating handwashing to local children in Siem Reap Cambodia

Dr Anthony Tuckett
International Coordinator 

Community Health Placement Cambodia

This year saw the first group of nursing and midwifery students participate in an International Community Health Placement in Siem Reap Cambodia.
 
Thirteen Nursing and Midwifery students and two Clinical Lecturers set off 2 January 2010 for the month long placement  to work with staff and volunteers at New Hope Community Centre.
 
Students were divided into small groups enabling them to undertake various aspects of health care during the placement. This included assisting the “doctor’ in the local health clinic, assessing the health and wellbeing of community members a local Siem Reap village know as Modul 3, and demonstrating basic health promotion activities such as hand washing and oral hygiene (teeth cleaning).
 
As part of the placement student also visited hospitals in the area to observe medical practices, assisting in the admissions of patients they had seen previously in the communities.
 
According to Peta Crompton a School of Nursing and Midwifery staff member who accompanied the students, the Placement provided students with the opportunity to broaden their skills in managing and assessing patients.
 
"Some of the diseases and conditions the students were assessing and managing included TB, malaria, HIV, malnutrition and dehydration, diabetes and pregnancy" Ms Crompton said.
 
"Overall the clinical placement was an extremely beneficial experience professionally and culturally for all participants'.
 
"The most important and rewarding aspect was being able to assist New Hope in developing a data base detailing the people of the area in terms of their health and housing needs, enabling New Hope to continue to improve the community’s quality of life in Modul 3” Ms Crompton said..
 
Amid the hectic schedule, students and staff were able to take time to soak up the culture and were fortunate to be able to attend a Khmer wedding (with cultural costumes) and visit the Angkor Wat Temples and Phnom Pehn.
 
Well done to all involved.
 
Media coverage for this CHClinicalP has included stories in the Sunday Mail, Weekend Courier Mail, UQ News on-line and the Quest papers Westside News and Queensland Times.

         

       
Images Courtesy Peta Crompton

Other International Updates

Virtual Exchange Project

The Virtual Exchange Project (VPE) is a U21 initiative which aims to maximize a global opportunity to engage with like-minded populations and individuals in other countries through the blending of internationalization, innovative teaching and learning in nurse education, and state-of-the-art technologies. 
 
A VEP network between the member Universities of Auckland, Birmingham (UK) Lundt, Nottingham and UQ Queensland provides an opportunity to promote nursing academic, professional and cultural collaboration.
 
In early September a small group of 1st year Undergraduate Nursing students commenced their ‘virtual’ exchange with another small group of like students from the University of Nottingham (Lincoln Campus).
 
The experience to date has been immensely rewarding both from a professional and personal perspective. The students have engaged in discussions with their peers and have  developed a global awareness that would be difficult to gain without extensive travel. 
 
Discussions to date with all partners have identified the work thus far between UQ and Nottingham as the benchmark for the other ‘exchanges’. 
 
The work will continue once the students return to the new semester with an ‘academic’ project to further develop their ‘exchange’.
 
Two abstracts have been submitted by the UQ and Nottingham team for forth coming conferences at the University of Cambridge (UK) and University of Hertfordshire”. 

Student Exchanges

University of Auckland: Alice Forsyth and Ellen Carr continue to process their applications through UQ Study Abroad (Student Exchange) for a posting, Semester 2, 2010.
 
University of Pennsylvania: Chelsea Motzel soon arrives as our inaugural U Penn incoming student for Semester 1, 2010. Third Year Summer Semester and Ipswich student, Alicia Bye has taken on the role as student exchange-student mentor and is in e-mail contact with Ms Motzel, forging a welcome and relationship that will assist Ms Motzel settle-in and enjoy her stay with us.
 
University College Dublin: A communication is now open with UCD as a consequence of a visit by Susan Kellett late last year. Conversations are very much in their infancy.
 
Coordinator in 2010: Debbie Pittaway will take on the role as Student Exchange/Study Abroad Coordinator taking responsibility for managing current and initiating new SE relationships. At the time of writing, the University of Virginia is finalising arrangements for an exchange in 2011.
 

Lutheran University of Papua New Guinea

Collaborative work is underway with UQ QBI, UQ SONM and PNG to set out a three year plan for the LUPNG BN curriculum development.
A second visit to Port Moresby and a visit to Lae (Morobe Province) is expected soon. Further discussions with key informants and site visits are planned for the early part of this year. Dr Tuckett (International Coordinator-Academic) and Debbie Pittaway will attend.

 

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