Medical Students at St Vincent's Hospital Clinical School
The St Vincent's Clinical School was established in 1910 and in the modern era teaches hundreds of medical and physiotherapy students from the University of Melbourne each year. Based 20 metres from the St Vincent's Inpatient Services Building (main hospital), the School has a reputation for outstanding teaching, consistently producing exceptional results. The last two Clinical Deans have been Prof Greg Whelan and Prof Wilma Beswick with the current Director of Medical Student Education being A/Prof Justin Tse. It is also the home Clinical School of two recent Rhodes Scholars who have undertaken further training in the United Kingdom.
The Clinical School is supported by excellent educational facilities. It is adjacent to the recently refurbished Carl de Gruchy Library. The library has an extensive journal and book collection as well as PCs with access to the internet and a wide range of online and CD-ROM based journals. Teaching at St Vincent's is further supported by a clinical skills laboratory and a Human Simulation Centre. The Centre gives students the opportunity to practice clinical skills on a high tech mannequin that breathes in oxygen and breathes out carbon dioxide, has realistic heart and lung physiology, has a heartbeat and neck, wrist and ankle pulses. The device is operated by a sophisticated system of hardware and software that controls the situation the student must respond to. The mannequin can be programmed, for example, to be a 64 year old overweight, hypertensive diabetic who has a heart attack or a fit 24 year old who has a severe allergic reaction to a medication. The Centre also gives students the opportunity to practice techniques such as intubation, defibrillation and basic procedural skills required for medical practice.
In 2012, the Clinical School commenced teaching in the new MD degree medical course. This is a four year graduate course where students will spend their last three years based at St Vincent’s Hospital and additional teaching sites which include St Georges Hospital, Peter MacCallum Hospital, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and St Vincent’s and Mercy Private Hospital. Part of their training time will also be spent undertaking a research selective within the Eastern Hill Academic Precinct.
Electives - Medical Students only
St Vincent’s Clinical School offers limited elective medical student placements in their final year of medical training. These are four week electives and is coordinated centrally by the Electives Co-ordinator. Electives under four weeks or beyond four weeks are not offered. All prospective elective medical students must complete an application process with the Clinical School and no elective can be commenced until approved by the Director of Medical Student Education and the electives co-ordinator. Additionally a letter of support from your home university stating that you are in a final year medical student program is required. Applications outside of this formal process cannot be undertaken. Given the double teaching year in 2012 and 2013, there will limited spaces available for electives. If you are interested in applying for an elective placement please click [here] - the electives coordinator will review applications weekly. Please note that there is an elective administration fee of $440 AUD that must be paid before commencement. Research electives are not permitted as part of this program.
Melbourne University Extended Rural Cohort student selectives
University of Melbourne extended rural cohort students are able to undertake some of their training in final year at one of the metropolitan hospitals. Apart from St Vincent’s, selectives can be done at RMH, Western, Northern, Austin, Royal Children’s Hospital and Royal Women’s Hospital. St Vincent’s has limited capacity and places will not be offered once our maximum numbers have been reached. ERC students accepted into our program may be placed at other sites apart from St Vincent’s Hospital. These include Peter MacCallum Hospital and St Vincent’s/Mercy Private hospital. Students cannot be guaranteed a speciality unit of their choice. The Clinical Dean with the electives coordinator will make all final approvals for the St Vincent’s Clinical School ERC Selective Program. Please click [here] to make a formal application to this program.
For further information on elective programs and the Melbourne Medical School please go to these websites -
http://medicine.unimelb.edu.au/home
http://medicine.unimelb.edu.au/study-here/clinical_elective
Melbourne University MiniCEX online module
Medical students at The University of Melbourne are required to undertake formative assessment tasks. One of these tasks is the miniCEX. To assist teachers in this assessment task an online module is now available. This will go through the aims of the miniCEX and assist with standard setting.
Link - www.mlt.unimelb.edu.au/login/medgp/