Teaching/Students
The Walwa Medical Clinic has been hosting medical students since 1978. We have a keen interest in teaching. The new clinic rooms, co-located with Walwa Bush Nursing Centre include an extra consulting room that is available for students. We believe students get a better experience of General Practice by being able to see patients by themselves initially rather than just always sitting in with the doctor.
The co-location of the medical clinic with the Bush Nursing Centre facilitates the practice of preventative medicine and population health and students are encouraged to become involved with the program run by the nurses of the Centre.
A 3 bedroom house provides comfortable accommodation for students and this combined with great scenery and ready access to activities such as bushwalking, skiing, kayaking on the Murray (depending on the season) ensure that students have a rewarding and pleasurable experience in Walwa.
Student Testimonial
| Jason Lam | |
|
I've been coming to Walwa as part of the John Flynn Program for 2 weeks each year for the past 3 years, and it's been a wonderful experience both medically and personally. The Walwa Medical Clinic services a large rural population which means a wide range of medical conditions from the very acute farming accident to chronic conditions. I've dug giant thorns out of people, handled hypertension and diabetes, aches and pains, dealt with cancer, chronic disease, mental health, excised foreign bodies and skin cancers - it's been a wonderful experience. The centre is well set up for students with an extra room which you can consult in. In fact I was doing consulting and presenting (albeit limited) from my first year here. It was also here I got my first chance to suture a person rather than a semi frozen pig trotter. The nursing staff is wonderful and very supportive. One of the best things that I've found working here are the wonderful patients who are generous and very patient with a ‘newbie' and it's been particularly rewarding coming back every year and seeing patients over time. Another aspect which I've found very gratifying is being able to gauge my development over time, and see how I've developed and gained in confidence. |
|
For me personally it's been very rewarding to experience life in rural Australia having mostly grown up in metropolitan Sydney. I've experience firsthand just some of the challenges faced by people in rural Australia having been here for the drought and fire in 2009 and the Victorian/New South Wales floods in 2010. The Murray River Valley is also just a simply stunning part of Australia and it is wonderfully refreshing to take some time out here every year. I was lucky enough to be mentored by Dr David Hunt, a local institution here, having been practicing in Walwa for some 30 years. He was a wonderful teacher, always eager to teach and very patient. He is immensely respected by the people of Walwa and has a wonderful relationship with them, having seen many of them over decades. So overall, I feel I have grown immensely as a clinician and as a person by the opportunity I've had to come here over the last three years. |
|