When the opportunity arose to travel to Nepal to undertake some volunteer work, it immediately sparked our interest. To be honest, neither of us knew much about Nepal – all we knew was that it was a third-world country and where the famous Mt. Everest was located.

On 14 November 2014 we set off for Nepal for two weeks. The plane ride was approximately 14 hours in duration with a stopover in Kuala Lumpur before landing in Kathmandu.

When we arrived in Nepal, we distinctly remember walking outside of the airport and being greeted by a bunch of friendly Nepalese people, with whom we would be working alongside for the following two weeks.

During the first few days of the trip we met the Rotary Club volunteers from Sydney, as well as the Rotary Club volunteers from Nepal. We had welcome dinner and drinks, followed by a slideshow from previous eye camps.

The Rotary Club is a not-for profit organisation that encourages and fosters the advancement of international goodwill, peace and provides help through meaningful world community service projects. This specific eye camp was to provide eye services to those in need and to those who have difficulties accessing basic eye care. The eye camp has been taking place for many years now and is run by Jason Booth, an Optometrist from Flinders Vision Eye Clinic.

The eye camp involved travelling to remote

villages in a bus and two cars to cater for the large team of approximately 40 volunteers. Each day the group split up into three separate teams. The first team was in charge of measuring a person’s visual acuity (how well they can see), this group was known as the ‘screeners’ and they decided who needed to see the optometrist, depending on their level of vision. The next group consisted of six optometrists, who, with our help, measured the patient's refractive error (power they need for glasses) and determined whether the patient would benefit from having glasses, as well as screening for some commonly encountered eye conditions. If the individuals needed glasses, they would visit the next team who were dispensers. They were involved in the fitting and supplying of the glasses as recommended by the optometrist.

This became one big assembly line; the local people would sign up first thing in the morning, then line up until late in the afternoon. The number of people who signed up to get their eyes checked each day ranged from 500 to over 1000. We would start our day at 6.30am for breakfast and finish at 5pm. This continued over many days, with some people coming from far-away villages just to visit the eye service. We were fortunate enough to service over 6616 people at eight campsites—in regions such as Kapilbastu, Dang, Banke and Surkhet Districts of Nepal.

As optometry students it was an invaluable experience, as we were able to practice our skills while being mentored by optometrists

Optometry students volunteer in Nepal June 2015

Pictures include the line-up (above), screening and treating, being greeted on

arrival in Nepal and a thankful glasses recipient

who had over 20 years of experience in running these volunteer eye clinics. It was extremely helpful to pick their brains and learn as much as possible from them. It was also valuable for our education to encounter some rare eye conditions, including infections, hereditary disorders and very severe cataracts (cloudiness of the lens inside of the eye), that you only see infrequently, if at all, in Australia due to better access to quality health-care.

Overall, the eye camp was one of the best things we have ever experienced. Not only was it extremely rewarding and lots of fun, but also we were lucky enough to have met the most incredible people along the way. The fellow Rotarian members and the Nepalese team are like family to us now. It really is an experience of a lifetime and I would recommend for anyone that has the opportunity to go; volunteers are always needed. We can’t wait to go again!

Jose Estevez & Lilian Tjia Master of Optometry students

From the Executive Dean

This issue highlights some of the international experiences of our students across the Faculty in 2014.

From Master of Optometry students volunteering in valuable and rewarding Rotary eye clinics in Nepal, to our Nursing and Midwifery students undertaking their Study Abroad elective topics in Canada, Indonesia and Japan.

These are fantastic opportunities for our students, and contribute to the internationalisation and global connectedness of our qualifications.

Professor Marcello Costa provides a very personal and fascinating insight into the creation and the changing nature of the Flinders Medical School during his 40 years at the University.

And we present the aims of a successful interdisciplinary OLT grant, led by Drs Julian Grant and Yvonne Parry from the School of Nursing and Midwifery, which will help inform the learning and teaching framework for children from birth to five years of age.

Professor Michael Kidd AM Executive Dean Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Flinders University

Forty years at Flinders — Professor Marcello Costa

Education in Focus

2 | Education in Focus

We were young and somewhat arrogant, and we created a very open, competitive and often confronting environment. We assumed that Flinders Medical School could be as relevant and important in science as famous larger and older institutions. Indeed a few years later, in the 1980s, our scientific credentials had placed Flinders amongst the top eight neuroscience institutions in the world, out-side of the USA. Flinders ranked amongst universities in such places as Oxford, Cambridge, Paris and Stockholm, to name a few! I still believe in the philosophy of the SA Premier Don Dunstan, that a small city could become the new cradle of civilized life, just like Athens was in ancient Greece. A large metropolis has other advantages, but the smallness of Flinders, far away from the “big smoke”, gave us the freedom to ignore the pressure of the large and famous institutions and we set to conquer the world from our small base.

As the School settled we eventually become populated by more conventional people, increasingly from the establish-ment, albeit always highly dedicated and well prepared. The risk we took would simply not be acceptable today. The School has changed its mode of teaching a number of times and changes still occur. This is the strength that my generation of foundation academics leave as our unique legacy. The realisation that change means adapting, while maintaining a high beacon of what really counts in each of our lives, as researchers, teachers, colleagues, friends, students and families. Looking back I feel enormously fortunate that I stayed at Flinders, despite many opportunities to move, and I would change very little. If I can share and facilitate that feeling of freedom and adventurous exploration that I enjoyed, and still do, I would feel complete in the natural cycle of life.

marcello.costa@flinders.edu.au

Forty years ago the buildings of the School of Medicine and Medical Centre were far from complete. A horde of young researchers descended upon Adelaide from different and distant places and countries, attracted by the novelty of a medical school that intended to teach medicine according to systems rather than by traditional disciplines. The early appointments, under the most innovative and enlightened Dean of the School, Gus Frankel, reflected this historical change. Amongst the new lecturers, a physicist John Furness, become the lecturer in Anatomy, and myself an anatomist and medico became a lecturer in Physiology. Gus Frankel appointed people with an ease and insight that would make a modern bureaucrat cringe!

I was invited to visit Flinders by a South African expatriate, Laurie Geffen, foundation Professor of Physiology, and by the end of the day I was asked to sign the tenured contract I still happily hold. The foundation Professor of Medicine, John Chalmers, was ebullient with a vision to change traditional methods of education in a medical school without losing the seriousness of the medical profession. The young lecturers (including myself) were left free to shape much of the research and teaching laboratories. As the academics of basic disciplines arrived first (Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry), the School was shaped with a strong ethos in research and hard science. This would put the Flinders Medical School on the world map in several research fields. We looked down on the University of Adelaide Medical School as a good but old institution full of academics from the medical establishment, stuck in the past like many of the universities we came from (I had studied and worked at the University of Turin in Italy). When I migrated to Australia in 1970, invited by my mentor Geoffrey Burnstock (himself a British migrant), I felt like I was breathing fresh air in his Department of Zoology, with a multi-disciplinary approach to science and in the times of the Whitlam Government.

Professor Marcello Costa, 1976 and 2014

3

3 | Education in Focus

Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Globally bound……Flinders nursing and midwifery students’ international

experiences in 2014

In 2014, eighteen final year nursing and midwifery students participated in the Study Abroad elective topic. This topic was coordinated by Pauline Hill and provided students with the opportunity to undertake a cultural study tour with some clinical placements in another country, supported by partner universities. The study abroad programs are initiated and negotiated by Annette Stenberg (FMNHS International Program Manager). They are planned in detail, then funding is sought in collaboration with academic staff and the partner universities 8-12 months prior to travel.

Ten nursing and midwifery students travelled to Indonesia, six nursing students to Canada and one under-graduate and one postgraduate nursing student visited Japan. Each study abroad group had a specific focus: HIV (Indonesia), Indigenous Health (Canada) and Disaster Nursing (Japan). Students attended four pre-departure workshops to prepare them for the program.

The Indonesian group travelled in April 2014, and was led by Dr Wendy Abigail and Kristen Graham (Midwifery Course Coordinator). An Asia Bound Grant was received from the Federal Government to partially fund the students and staff to attend the program provided by the Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) in Indonesia. The program included visits to the Soetomo Hospital, Infectious

Diseases Research Institute, Puskesmas and HIV Commission. Students also participated in the Inaugural Student Nursing Forum, lectures and a final day of presentations to staff and students at the School of Nursing UNAIR.

The students who travelled to Canada were supported by the School of Nursing and Midwifery partner, University of Saskatchewan and their clinical partners at the Meadow Lake Hospital and also local Indigenous community health services. The students arrived in time for Canada Day, met students coming to Australia in 2015 and identified similarities and differences between the Indigenous and non-indigenous health issues in Canada and Australia. The six students, now Flinders University graduates, have continued their association with the study abroad program by meeting incoming students from the University of Saskatchewan in January and February this year.

Two students travelled to Japan with Professor Kristine Gebbie as part of the International Network of Universities (INU) workshop on global health, focusing on Disaster Nursing. The workshops coincided with the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony and involved expert speakers from each of the partner universities, visits to

hospitals and interactive case studies which the students worked in small groups with representatives from across the world.

The assessment component of the topic included a 1500-word critical reflective paper of their journal. The second assignment required students to create an artefact about a health issue facing the people of the host country. Examples of submitted artefacts included poems, songs, posters, educational flash cards, PowerPoint presentations and patient dignity bags illuminating the specific health issue as experienced by the student.

The Study Abroad elective topic has been incorporated into the new nursing curriculum and is situated within the final placement topic NURS3005: Transition to Professional Practice. In 2015 students will be visiting Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand and the USA.

For further details about these programs contact Annette Stenberg annette.stenberg@flinders.edu.au or Pauline Hill pauline.hill@flinders.edu.au wendy.abigail@flinders.edu.au pauline.hill@flinders.edu.au

Ten nursing and midwifery students

travelled to Indonesia in April 2014,

led by Dr Wendy Abigail

and Kristen Graham for their Study

Abroad elective topic

Education in Focus

4 | Education in Focus

Education in Focus is an initiative of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University Comments and suggestions for future articles are welcome

Also available online: www.flinders.edu.au/health-sciences/current/publications.cfm Editorial Team: Ms Monika Vnuk, A/Prof Claire Drummond, Ms Kelly Meier,

A/Prof Barbara Sanderson, Dr Wendy Abigail and Dr Yvonne Parry

Contact: monika.vnuk@flinders.edu.au

The project team met in February 2015 to finalise the first stage of the project. The picture from left back row: Dr Jess Javanovic (Flinders University, School of Education), Professor Jennifer Sumsion (Charles Sturt University, School of Teacher Education), Assoc

Professor Kerryann Walsh (Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Education), Ms Christine Gibson (UniSA, Australian Centre for Child Protection), Assoc Prof Sally Brinkman (Director, Fraser Mustard Centre, Telethon Kids Institute), Dr Julian Grant

(Project Leader, Flinders University, School of Nursing & Midwifery), Dr Keith Miller (Flinders University, School of Social Work & Social Policy); in the front row: Dr Carolyn Gregoric (Project Manager, Flinders University, School of Nursing & Midwifery),

Dr Yvonne Parry (Flinders University, School of Nursing & Midwifery), Ms Kaye Colmer (Principal, Lady Gowrie Centre).

framework for early childhood practice.

A statement of universal essential elements (knowledge, skills and attributes) required for working with children from birth to five years of age.

A set of project resources based on outcomes 1, 2 and 3, that can be embedded into the delivery of existing curriculum and can inform future curriculum development for early years’ professionals involved in interdisciplinary work.

A dissemination and evaluation strategy that is integrated across the life of the project and beyond.

This interdisciplinary project provides the opportunity to develop educational programs and courses that skill graduates with knowledge about the early years in order to provide cross-discipline collaboration. yvonne.parry@flinders.edu.au

with the professional requirements and competencies needed to work with children from birth to five years of age (the early years) and their families across various disciplines. This data will inform the develop-ment of a national interdisciplinary learning and teaching framework, to inform curriculum for the education of professionals who will work with children from birth to five years of age (the early years) and their families. The national interdisciplinary learning and teaching framework will include:

A statement of common out-comes for children from birth to five years that recognises various disciplinary foci.

An interdisciplinary map of evidence-informed theories and national regulatory requirements for inclusion in an educational

Recognising that the first five years of a child’s life are irrefutably important, establishing life-long health, social and economic outcomes, Drs Julian Grant and Yvonne Parry from the School of Nursing and Midwifery have been successful in an Office of Teaching and Learning grant. In order to optimise this opportunity this national grant team will build on the national and state policy directives that provide a range of interprofes-sional working opportunities in services such as children’s centres. To assist directing professionals from a range of disciplinary backgrounds involved with children to work more collaboratively than ever before, this innovative national interdisciplinary research project lead by Dr Julian Grant includes researchers, employers and professionals from the areas of health, education and welfare. The project has begun mapping the various theoretical assumptions and knowledge, along

OLT Grant to help inform learning framework for the early years of life