Cheers,
Maritsa
Cutters Club Chair

This event will include keynote speakers, workshops and open floor sessions that will allow delegates to discuss particular issues current within rural, remote and Indigenous health in Australia. This event will also see the first student-run rural health roundtable, where delegates as well as invited professionals in the field of rural health can come together to address rural health workforce issues.

For further information about this event, please visit www.amsa.org.au and follow the links through the Events menu or email steven.hurwitz

Good luck with your applications to this amazing event!

Cheers,

The NRLDS Committee

As to the metaphorical validity of sink or swim, yes there is a point when teaching a child to swim when you take off their floaties and simply let go of them in the water, and they must swim to you. It isn’t as horrible as it sounds believe me – there is a whole process leading up in gradual steps to this moment and you would never do it if you didn’t know the child was entirely capable of swimming. But even though you know it, the child doesn’t know it. Letting go and allowing the child’s by now instinctual dog paddle to kick in is the only way for the child to realise, “hey, I can do this – all by myself!”

I strongly believe that your degree here at Newcastle will not simply turn you into a doctor. It will also teach how to become a doctor, and how to be a doctor. By the end of the first 12 months you will not only have kept afloat, you will have become a better medical student. You will be better able to become a doctor and will understand what you are doing, why Newcastle does things the way it does, and how to learn even more, even better, the next year. You’ll learn how to swim.

Of course, in the mean time, you will become frustrated with PBLs, with the fact that no one gives you the answers and that sometimes there are no answers, with never knowing if what you are doing is enough, with the whole self directed learning thing in its entirety. Stick with it. Everything will be okay. I cannot stress that enough. PBL at Newcastle has been going on for 31 years now and not only is it producing passable graduates, I’ve been told (by an old school Sydney graduate no less) that in a hospital “you can always pick a Newcastle graduate – they’re better.”

No, you won’t know what you’re doing at first. But no one else will either. When I am in the pool and I let go of a child, I can see in the first moment the panic in their eyes. I can remember throughout my first year discovering/realising/figuring things out, and thinking “if only someone had told me that at the beginning”. Looking back, I know why no one did. There are some things you have to work out for yourself. As George Bernard Shaw said, if you teach a man anything, he will never learn.

In short, yes this degree is at times terrifically scary and yes you will struggle in your first year. But it all comes amazingly good in the end. The smile on the child’s face as they realise they have reached my arms again, all by their self, is worth it every time.

– Rosanna Olsen

So it was no surprise that when I was told the Wildebeest Analogy by an older and wiser third year medical student, as I expressed my deep and unfamiliar fear of failure, that it stuck. Some may have heard this story already, and I make no claim to have thought of it myself. However as you head into life in med and series upon series of those terrifying med exams, I thought it was fitting to share this short but reassuring bit of wisdom with all.

“Being a Med Student is like being a Wildebeest, in a great herd of Wildebeests. We are all moving in a massive herd in the great migration, heading for a great goal. There are the young, the old, the weak, the strong.

There’s those who are at the front of the pack, setting the pace, working much harder than the rest. Many of these will tire and fall back. Some are just amazing achievers who can maintain the pace the whole way. But it’s a dangerous place to be – you have to jump first into the great rivers –you could plunge into deep water and be swept away or even eaten by crocodiles!

Then there are sick, weedy ones at the back. They really have no chance and are easily picked off by lions, hyenas and a rare species of wildcat known as the Faculty Professor. Back here with the sick wildebeests are the lazy ones. They just can’t be bothered keeping up. Sadly, these too are doomed.

Sometimes, a herd will have a rogue wildebeest, who follows the migration, but in a valley all of their own. They keep up with the herd, and are heading vaguely in the right direction, but are literally off in their own little world. Of course, being so exposed they may also be prone to predation, however due to the absurdity of their path, they often manage to slip by predators unnoticed.

The key to surviving the great migration is to be tucked nicely in the middle of the herd. Here it is warm, there is no risk from predators, and as long as you keep on top of the pace, the herd will just whisk you along and the migration will be over before you know it.“

So when you fear failure, or you feel you are doomed, just look around the lecture hall and think – what sort of wildebeest are you? Just tuck yourself nicely in the middle of the herd, you’ll be fine.

Andrew Williams

When: Friday 5th March- Sunday 5th March
Where: Port Macquarie (Buses depart from the Uni)
Price: Early bird special $85 (Normal price $100) – includes buses, beachside accommodation, all meals, full weekend of activities

FRIDAY: After we arrive in Port Macquarie and do all the boring admin stuff, like checking we left nobody behind at the service station that we stopped at, the mentors and you, the first years, will be able to chat and relax after your first week of stress. You will then meet your UNE brothers and sisters, the armadillos – trust me, they know how to throw a party.

SATURDAY: You will see the competitive edge that defines all medical students appear as we set you through a set of activities to see which group comes out supreme and is treated like royalty for the 30 seconds following the event.
That afternoon we will let you prove how you are younger and fitter than your mentors. Our goal is to make you more relaxed than you will ever be in the following five years. That Saturday evening we let you loose on Port Macquarie, with a few secret activities planned for that night.

SUNDAY: As you wake up we will provide a delicious breakfast and then slowly get ready to leave the wonderful Port Macquarie behind, until next year when you beg to become O-Camp mentors so you can experience it all over again.

First Incision

Date: Wednesday 3rd of March 2010

Venue: Noah’s on the Beach ( Map)
Cnr Shortland Esplanade & Zaara St, Newcastle

Time: Year 1’s at 6.00pm – 12.00pm
Years 2-5 at 8pm – 12.00pm

Dress: Cocktail Party

Tickets:
UNMS Members – Alcohol – $25, Non-Alcohol – $20
Non-Members – Alcohol – $35, Non-Alcohol- $30
Available from Year Reps or via the form below

Complimentary beverages from 8-10pm and food until 12pm

Unfortunately we have had to suspend online bookings due to difficulty tracking payments. If you paid online and did NOT use your student number as the transaction description please contact the treasurer Ben Hardy – benjamin.hardy ‘AT’uon.edu.au.

Sponsors:

http://convention2010.amsa.org.au/

From the 4rd to 11th of July this year Hobart will be infected. Infected with something much stronger and virulent than any bacteria, virus, fungus or genetically inbred disease. Convention will take hold of Hobart. 800 medical students will engulf this city for a week that will blow their minds…

Not too many first years from Newcastle usually head to AMSA’s National Convention, but strangely enough heaps of second years do. Why you ask? Well just like the cause for multiple sclerosis, no one is really sure. But I do have a theory. I didn’t head to convention in first year because of a number of reasons. I didn’t really know much about it, it seemed expensive, and it didn’t seem that good. Then my friends in second year got back from convention and they wouldn’t shut up about it! So all the first years seem to get tired of hearing about it and have to experience! They then jump on their next opportunity.

So I guess I should explain what the experience is. Over 7 days, you get to hear from some of the best speakers in the world. This includes, but is not limited to, Nobel prize winners, Australian’s of the year and writers of the bible. No not the actual bible, but the medical bibles! Last year we had the editor of Robbins Pathology and writers of Talley and O’Connor Clinical Examination, books that all medical students know well by the end of their degree. Then of course you add on to the speakers incredible workshops and stimulating discussions and we’re not even half way there!

Each day is capped off with a social night that will top any party you’ve ever been to. You will see more body paint than you would think could ever exist and costumes you have to see to believe. In fact I don’t want to brag but last year I had the best costume ever (it was a giant sperm)! Then the social occasion is topped off with a gala ball that last year included roller coasters, fireworks and a broken heart.

Sports day! This day plays an integral role in the convention program. It includes the Emergency Medicine Challenge which last year involved chemical spills, gun wielding maniacs and army vehicles rolling. The EMC is just the beginning of the inter med- school competition as the day continues with tug-o-waring and boat racing.

I don’t know if I’ve convinced you to get down to Hobart for AMSA’s Convention 2011, but let me leave you with a little statistic: Last year over 1300 people applied for the ballot system which only had 800 places. It’s amazing, don’t miss out!

Click here to view the embedded video.

For those unfamiliar with the location, the RNC (Royal Newcastle Centre) is the newer part of the John Hunter Hospital. The conference room is situated behind the coffee shop on the ground level, as you walk in. I hope to see you there.

Cheers,
Maritsa
Cutters Club Chair