I know it's quite late for the update, but I was really too busy with assignments!!
25/8 (Monday)
Depart from Clayton to Swan Hill which took us about 5 hours to reach there. On the way, we stopped by Bendigo for bunch andthen I took the turn to drive all the way up to Swan Hill. The drive was really boring with the road was just straight and with very few turns… The scenery was still almost the same with farm land and some of the barren and flat land of Victoria. We had a short introduction period and then had our PCL (Part A & B) in Aboriginal Co-op centre with a GP.
26/8 (Tuesday)
It’s the aboriginal day which we paid a visit to Tyntynder Homestead, a settlement of the migrants back in hundreds years ago. We learnt about the culture and lifestyle of aboriginal, as well as the history. The place was great with an underground showroom of the collection of aboriginal and the amazing building of migrants which is already more than 100 years old. We paid a visit to Murray River bank for more details observation of the aboriginal lifestyle. Then we went for a meeting at the aboriginal co-op centre, for some presentations of the services provided for the aboriginals. Had a great delicious dinner of roasted pork….etc. yummy
27/8 (Wed)
We had some free time before the visit to a nursing home in Nyah West. I did an interview with a nice, friendly lady. She was really enjoying chatting with me and talked about her life story. It’s so interesting, and luckily I got a good interviewee. Then in the afternoon, I join Chunk, Daves and Matt to Kerang for a pharmacy visit. It’s so cool to look at how the pharmacist work, but the job wasn’t much interesting to me. Anyway, it’s good to have a good understanding of the pharmacy services provided in compliment to the doctors’ prescription. It’s the night we cooked our 2nd dinner. Lin, Sheryl and I were in-charge of it. We cooked tasty mushroom egg noodles soup and with mouth-watering roast-chicken. It’s so satisfying.
28/8 (Thu)
I had my hospital placement and ambulance visit. It’s so packed but I had a great day. Hamon and I were allocated to Acute ward in the hospital and we’re there at 7 am for the shift-handling meeting. I followed a nurse in completing routine check-up on her patients. Interesting, I did some temperature, BP taking and also learnt some new knowledge of medical care in the hospital. Hamon and I walked around and interviewed some of the patients. We also conducted physical examination on a patient and we found shifting dullness on his abdomen!! (which was never found by any doctor!) Initially we just wanted to do percussion and auscultation on the patient’s thorax for diagnosed consolidation of lung! We also met a patient with a very rare disease called vanishing bone disease. We felt so empathy towards the patient. Eventually the session in ward ended a bit late about 4 pm.
In the evening 5.30pm, I needed to attend to ambulance station to have a shift with the paramedics. Unfortunately, there’s no case or call. I was just sitting and relaxing there. Plus I watched a movie there on the super cosy sofa. It’s great that a kind paramedic cooked a yummy dinner for me and also I made some new friends there. It’s such a good experience although without any cases!!
29/8 (Fri)
We had some presentations of the allied health services, like physiotherapy and counseling services. The programs ended earlier today in the afternoon, and I had an interview session for my assignment. We had a picnic and walk in the pioneer riverside park, enjoying the beautiful Murray River bank with the rows of river gum trees. It’s almost spring, all world became alive and awaken from the cold freezing winter. During the day, the weather/temperature was good..while in the morning/ late at night could reach 0 degree. It’s really freezing. (the temperature difference was really big..it’s Australia and inland…)
