Rural Placement at Warragul
going to warragul for a week has definitely made me think abt practising medicine in the rural areas, or maybe even doing rural for year 3.we started off early on monday 31july n took the V-line train from clayton. it was fun as monash had booked the tix for us all.. so all the medicine students actually travelled tgt on the same train, dropping us off at diff rural locations. ours wasnt too far off from clayton- only 1 hr ride down, while the rest had a longer ride on the train. it was cool just looking out the window, the vast green grass n occassional cows grazing ard.
the monash facilitators at warragul station were there to welcome us n we headed straight to our accomodation- Caravan Park & retirement village. it was a great quiet lil place, sth like a park, with small single houses by itself. ivie, wan jie n i shared a house. monday didn have too much of activities for us. it was mainly discussion for PCL n a talk by the emergency services forum given by the police, ses,rav and cfa. we were then fetched to the nearest safeway to stock up our supply of food for the week. (: daniel, lestern richard, wanjie n i decided to have a mass cooking session. so we shared our groceries... n just had to put our skills tgt to make all the wonderful meals!
tues was when the fun started. i was taken to education centre w wanjie while the rest of the groups were split n brought to diff locations to see the diff services. then we had a GP forum where we had a lil discussion w Dr Jenny Eury abt the rural life n her experience as a rural doctor. the year 3s medicine students doing the course at Warragul also invisted us for dinner. we had a night of fun- loads of pizzas n soft drinks n we had a great time chatting w them abt their experience of learning in the rural areas... apparently, it turned out to be q a good one, w much much more opportunity to learn new stuff n to be on the medical team n actually assist in the treatment as the no. of students there were lesser. so they got to learn more things.
wed: charmaine went aloneto the Baw Baw communtiy Care Centre- occupational therapy & physio dept where i had a nice chat with the physiotherapist, occupational therapist, social worker n they piled me w loads of info. then i followed danielle- a physiotherapist to 2 elderly women's home on her usual home visits in the countryside. the scenery was fantastic. loads of greeen grasss, n the layering of hills, n w cows scattered n left grazing the fields... magnificient sight... we took a while getting to their houses which was situated so far off the main road... n i obviously had a great time just admiring the scenery. (: it's fantastic. i vow to buy one of those property for my retirement one day... just too goood to be liviing there, so much fresher air, clean n crisp. the cottage we finally arrived in was a quaint lil one, w sweet countryside home interior furnishings, loads of nice lil photos frames, table liners n all- belonging to a sweet lil 90 year old lady. danielle did her usual therapy exercises while i just watched her... (: in the afternoon, the group of us were brought to Warragul hospital where we were given a tour of the hospital n it's services. it wasnt as busy as we tot it was. n we also visited melissa Fitzgerald's father's office(he's a physician working there). we then had a treat fm Melissa's father at the courthouse. it was fine dining w delicious main course. i hadCourthouse lasagna which was good! well, at least sth different. her dad also invited one of his colleagues a psychiatrist. (: pretty cool... so we had a nice session of get together w her parents n heard many interesting stories from them! (:
thurs started off well... w a visit to the saleyard- Choppers and Bulls. a place where the cows were sold. farmers would usually sell their cows when they were not working as effectively as before or producing milk as effectively before. they were then put into pens according to where they came from, a tagged on the ears. it was interesting as we got to see how these cows were then resold to other farmers or representatives from the abatoirs. once the cow was resold, it will be painted on it's back as a note n they were then divided accordingly to which farmer bought him. the remaining will then be brought away to be slaughtered. they did not have the slaughterhouse there, apparently they had one in melb. kinda gross when we were told of the process. the cows were pushed onto trucks n carried away. the bulls were of a muhc larger size n were sold for a higher price as most of them were able to work on the farms. we were much fascinated by how the cow pooed n peeed. n learned tt they were q scared of humans. when the group of us moved from pen to pen, the cows will then gather n congregate in a herd n move to the extreme other end of the pen -as if to avoid us... -defensive action i call it. then Anne and Steve kindly inserted another activity for us, which is to visit the Warragul & district Specialist School where we got loads of info from them abt the facilities they provide for the rural area for a child with DS. after that, we headed to the Disability Services school, where we got a chance to try out being visually impaired, or wheelchair bound. (: it was cool as it gave us the opportunity to realise wad an inconvenience it is to be born w a disability n how often we overlook the fact of the easiness we can do things. it made me so much more thankful of wad i have n am given n just to treasure the things i can do while i'm still young. it also made me realise how selfish the society has been in terms of providing help n facilities for these people. much as the gvt (s'pore / aust) has been promoting on it's increased infrastructure in wheelchair facilities, it actually isnt much. n one somtimes wonder wad limited services can a wheelchair person utilise given tt most of the places are not suitable for wheelchair use. eg, the slopes in NUS arts canteen are for wheelchair use. but by the looks of it, the steepness can make one wonder wad an idiot the architect is. i've tried it n i know... even how gradual a slope is, it takes so much effort just to roll oneself up a slope. wad more of it's a steep slope. n then i look again at those overhead bridges w the long ramps that goes all the way up... n i sometimes wonder if it REALLY is for show. as it is really nearly impossible to roll oneself up such a slope.
n indeedn in such a shoirt time frame of 5 days has made me learned loads of things. from being such a complacent, take for-granted attitude... i finally realise the nitty gritty of life, n the effort taken by so many people just to get the steak on the table. how can one ever dare to complain about food? or even waste it?
charmie
12:12 AM
