I am back from rural placement!!

Yes, that's the reason I didn't update my blog for so many days - I went for rural placement at Sale! Sale...quite a name for a place, isn't it? Hehe..

Anyway, it was a five-day rural placement for all first year medical students, starting from 30th July to 3rd August. There were 21 students who were going to Sale and during the pre-placement briefing, each of us was given a return V-Line train ticket to Sale. We had to take the train from Southern Cross station near the city and the time of departure was 7.45am. Cheng Khoon, Ryan, Chau Wang and I decided to stay overnight at College Square on the night before we left (Ryan and Chau Wang were going to Bairnsdale but all four of us were on the same train, Sale is on the way to Bairnsdale). That was my second time staying overnight at Amelene's place. The guys were staying at Sree's place. The next morning (30th July), all four of us woke up early and gathered at 6.50am, then took a tram to Southern Cross station where we saw a lot of our Monash med buddies with luggages. It was a three-hour journey to Sale and I slept all the way there.

Upon reaching, we were greeted by our coordinators who drove us to our accommodation - Sale Motor Village, a caravan park. The cabins were better than I had expected and I was so happy to see that we could cook our own food coz there were stoves, oven and microwave oven! I shared the 2-room cabin with Afrah, Nadiah, Safiahani and Cindy. One room had two double deckers and the other had a king/queen (I can't differentiate between the sizes of 2-persons bed) sized bed which I shared with Nadiah. I had known the three Malay girls earlier before the rural placement and did not know Cindy well then, and it was a good opportunity to know her better. After putting our luggages in our cabin, our coordinators brought us to a nearby shopping centre to buy some groceries for our dinner in the next few days. After lunch, we had a presentation session on disability and part A of PCL session at the Monash Clinical School tutorial room. We were also given the journal booklet to write our journals in during the five days of rural placement. It was about 4pm when we finished our PCL so we headed back to our cabin, took bath and watched TV for a while till 6pm when we walked to La Porchetta for free dinner. I ordered a large pizza (we had $15 limit each and a large pizza cost only $9.90) but I couldn't finish it, so I took the leftovers for lunch the next day.

On 31st July, we had a emergency servises presentation by a volunteer from SES and a sergeant from Sale Police in the morning. After lunch, all of us headed for primary industry visit - some went to Fulham Correctional Centre (it's a prison!), some went to Heyfield and some went to RAAF Base. I was in the group going to Heyfield and we went to three places that afternoon!! It's a nice and interesting experience! First we went to timber mill, then to Heyfield Medical Centre and to a robotic dairy farm (which just means that the cows are milked using robotic machines). It was really a fruitful day!

After coming back from the dairy farm, I rushed to grab a few pieces of biscuits from my cabin and then headed off to Central Gippsland Health Service Hospital for my Emergency Department placement with Cheng Khoon. It's a 2-hour placement from 6 to 8pm and an intern there told us that 'it's such an odd time' to have our placement. There was really nothing much for us to do or observe, except that we got to see a surgical doctor stitching a lady's fingernail to her index finger which was bitten by her horse. The intern also taught us how to see an ECG. To me, the 2 hours that time seemed longer than the usual 2 hours...I couldn't just stand and walk around without any purpose, plus I was hungry and there was no conversation between me and Cheng Khoon. There was nothing to talk about anyway. I tried doing yoga by standing on one foot but got bored of it after a few minutes. Finally two other students came for their placement from 8 to 10pm and we left. I went back to my cabin and had spaghetti for dinner which my other cabin-mates had cooked earlier. They had gone out to watch The Simpsoms movie; so I wrote my journal, took bath, had dinner and watched TV. When they came back, we played UNO and poker till sleeping time. Thanks to Isyak for the cards!

The manager said that the safety jackets are a fashion!

The robotic machine which scans the udder using laser

On 1st August, we had community health service attachment. Danielle and I were attached to the community mental health services. It's a day for home visit. Both of us went to different patient's homes to visit with a Case Manager from the mental health service. Guess what did I realise from the home visit? --------I love the house!! And the area there! I love the trees...the greenery, the nature, the sky...the scenery!

I went back to my cabin in the afternoon and Cindy suggested to go and play the swings. I was quite surprised then, but I went with her anyway. We took some pictures around the caravan park while waiting for dinner time.

The 'spoilt brat' + coke addict who taught me how to climb fences - Cindy

At 6pm, Afrah and Safiahani prepared to go for their ED placement while Nadiah and I cooked macoroni with tuna and macoroni sauce. We ate dinner together with Cindy who just took her bath, and I was glad that she said the macoroni's good =) After dinner, Nadiah left for her placement at 8pm. The other two girls didn't come back for dinner at the time I expected, so it's just me and Cindy in the cabin. We chatted a lot that night while playing cards - from details of her friends in high school to characteristics and personalities of a boyfriend should have! It feels like I have known her for years as we were chatting like good mates. And I super cannot tahan her when she won and made that kind of face! She kept saying, 'I want my coke' and 'I can't wait to go back home' which I would continue 'yeah yeah, back to your room, your bed, your sheets, your pillow and your pig!'

On the 4th day (2nd August), it's the day for hospital visit. Each of us were allocated to different units in Cental Gippsland Health Service hospital. Safiahani and I were allocated to Physiotherapy from 9 to 11am and from 11am to 1pm I had to go to the Day Procedure Unit. It was a good experience to get to know the hospital, what is Physio and DPU about, how to take blood pressure, temperature etc. We had Part B and C of the PCL in the afternoon and after that we're free again. Back to cabin, we watched TV - there were a lot of cartoons going on, cooked dinner (we had chips and wedges, garlic bread and macoroni with spaghetti sauce) while Cindy went for her ED placement. At 8pm, Isyak and Cheng Khoon came to discuss our group assignment after Cindy came back. It took only a few minutes, and then all 7 of us played poker!

Last day (3rd August), we had a brief presentation from two local GPs, wrote the last day of our journal and handed them in for tutor evaluation. After lunch, our coordinators drove us to the railway station - it's time to go back Melbourne!

Yeah!

Overall, it's very relax during rural placement as we had a lot of free time especially at night. Special thanks to MISU members for the messages EVERY night and some mornings to report how's it going and say goodnight. Thanks for the calls too. You guys are so sweeeeeet! =P