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WELCOME LETTER BY THE PRESIDENT Greetings and welcome to HOPE4HEALTH 2012! My name is Ben Wakefield and I’m thrilled to be leading an enthuastic and highly motivated executive team this year. 2012 would be another great year for HOPE4HEALTH as we continue to provide our members with new and exciting opportunities to grow and learn as health professionals, beyond what you would normally get through your day-to-day curriculum. Via our numerous events, skills weekends and conference subsidies, we are well equipped to empower our students with the chance to develop their clinical skills. In addition, we are continually working to improve our networks with doctors, dentists and other allied health professionals who are keen to meet and educate the next generation of their peers for your benefit. Something else that defines us as a health club and makes us unique is that we offer students a chance to mingle and meet students of different health faculties. With over 90 members attending our first monthly meeting of 2012 I am confident that 2012 is going to be another massive year for us. After only 7 years, HOPE4HEALTH has grown extensively due to the input and hard work of past years’ executives, and this year I am certain will be no different. We have already kicked the year off with an executive retreat at Binna Burra that was a weekend of planning, mixing and general HOPE4HEALTH bonding. Through this planning weekend, it was established that our main focus for the year was to be prepared for our future move to the new Parkland’s campus. With the appointment of 3 new nursing and midwifery representatives: Amy, Rachael and Nicola, we are very excited to finally be able to launch our HOPE4HEALTH nursing and midwifery portfolio. With 2 out of the 3 reps recently returning from Laos from the Griffith School of Nursing and Midwifery Laos Clinical Placements (a project that has recently been handed over to HOPE4HEALTH) the reps are very enthusiastic to kick start this new portfolio.
I am proud to announce that there are further developments put in place to attenuate the growth of our club. After the record high dental students’ involvement last year, our dental reps Laura, Lizzie, Heidi and David are confident that they can build upon the huge success of this portfolio. With projects such as SmileWise and Cherbourg Dental Clinic, HOPE4HEALTH provides dental students with numerous opportunities to improve their professional skills as well as increase their community involvement years before they graduate. The addition of 3 new allied health reps: Geoff, Richard and Laurie; and 2 new biomed reps: Lee-Sarose and Lauren are also highly welcomed. With their participation, we are hoping to continue to expand our membership base throughout the other allied health faculties of Griffith University. Another exciting project in 2012 is the relaunching of the HOPE4HEALTH AFL team: the Mighty Seamen! With a lot of new blood, the team is chomping at the bit to win a few matches while being actively involved in various community projects down the pipeline. We have recently appointed 4 Special Project Officers who are currently working on some very impressive programs, so keep your eyes peeled for upcoming opportunities to get involved in some new HOPE4HEALTH activities. There is a lot of action and momentum built around HOPE4HEALTH 2012. Ranging from skills weekends in Gundi, to local Teddy Bear Hospital trips or teaching Cherbourg indigenous children about health, HOPE4HEALTH has plenty of opportunities catered for students to enjoy a wholesome experience of life as a health student. To be informed of all these events and many more to come, you have to be a part of our HOPE4HEALTH family. So if you haven’t already done so, sign-up and delve yourself deep into a world of good fun, feel-good activities and clinical opportunities. See you around campus! Ben Wakefield
NRHSN The National Rural Health Students’ Network (NRHSN) is an organisation that aims to support, promote and provide resources for health students who have an interest in rural, remote and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. It is a multidisciplinary health network comprised of the 29 Rural Health Clubs throughout Australia, including HOPE4HEALTH. In order to achieve the aims of the network and represent its members the NRHSN works closely with Rural Health Workforce, government departments and other rural organisations.
and rural areas. We also attend the annual Indigenous youth festival- Deadly Days.
HOPE4HEALTH’s involvement in NRHSN initiatives consists of rural high school visits in which health careers are promoted to high school students in regional
HOPE4HEALTH members can get involved in activities such as these by watching out for emails from the HOPE4HEALTH rural and indigenous representatives!
This year HOPE4HEALTH will send delegates to the National University Rural Health Conference (NURHC), a biannual professional development conference enabling students from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds with an interest in rural health to get together for shared learning and networking opportunities that benefit both the students and their future communities.
www.hope4health.org.au
If you haven’t done so already sign up to the NRHSN members’ database. By signing up it helps us with reporting for funding whilst you then have the opportunity to apply for conference subsidies. To sign up, register at https://hope4health.nrhsn.org.au/. For more information check out the NRHSN website www.nrhsn.org.au, and if you have any questions or would like any matters discussed at a national level then please let me know (dan@hope4health.org.au). Dan Faux Senior NRHSN Representative 2012
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Local Hi! My name is Kevin Twomey and I’m the Local Health Representative for 2012. I’m very excited to be a part of this year’s executive committee and hope to do whatever I can to improve the health outcomes for our local community. We kick this year off with the very successful Teddy Bear Hospital. Many Griffith first years have eagerly put up their hands to be involved which is very promising for its success. Without their support we wouldn’t be able to run such a valuable program. We hope they enjoy it this year and pass on their feedback to continue its improvement.
Lastly, please get onboard and support our very own Felicity McIvor who has bravely volunteered to shave all her hair for this year’s World’s Greatest Shave on March 16! More details are available on facebook. Anyone interested in learning more about these upcoming events, or would like to get involved, please contact me at kevin@hope4health.org.au. Kevin
Other fun activities that we have planned for this year are to start a new “big brother” style program between Griffith University students and ‘at-risk’ school students in the local community. Details are small at the moment but if you’d like to know more or would like to get involved, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are also looking to expand the “Clinical Touch” competition in the second half of the year. This is an event where students from Med, Dent and Allied Health compete in an all-out touch footy competition to help raise funds for charity, more specifically the Ubuntu Project, so stay tuned for more details.
Rural Rural health is so much more than just kangaroos and tractor accidents. My name is David Molhoek and it is my privilege to oversee the Rural Health portfolio for 2012. My number one priority in this role is to ensure that we give students from a variety of disciplines the opportunity to experience rural Australia, gain practical experience and have an incredible time whilst doing so. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved this year! Key events coming soon include: The Midnight Muster: this is one of HOPE4HEALTH’s flagship events of the year. Held on March 17th in conjunction with the UQ and Bond medical societies, over 350 students party together to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctors Service. This year’s Muster features live entertainment, a mechanical bull and costume prizes for the best dressed - all themed around St Patricks Day! Early bird tickets are $30 and selling fast!
PRESENT THE SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND HEALTH STUDENTS’ ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR FUNDRAISER
Coming up in May is the Joint Rural Health Club Weekend, this year to be held in Stanthorpe. This event brings allied health students from across Queensland together for workshops and a number of social events. Ideally, we would love to see students from a number of disciplines attending this weekend. Applications open soon. April is going to be an insane month for rural health. A team of five students are going up to Rockhampton for Rural High School Visits to talk about health careers. We will also be hosts to the Rural Awareness Dinner held in Toowoomba this year. Other key upcoming events include GO Rural Skills workshop in Brisbane and clinical skills trips out to Gundi and Kingaroy. More to come later in the year as well...if you are keen to be involved or would like further information, email rural@hope4health.org.au
BEAUDESERT RACE CLUB
Camping from 4pm for 6pm start • LIVE MUSIC • Includes dinner, recovery breakfast & FREE camping (BYO tent)
TICKETS $35 ONLINE ($40 AT THE DOOR)
Theme: The Lucky Country...come dressed in your outback best this St Patrick’s Day
NO PASSOUTS AFTER 9PM Buy your tickets online at www.hope4health.org.au
David
Dentistry Dentistry is up and running with what seems to be many more active members this year, with a great turnout of dental students at the first monthly meeting and at the information session held by David and Lizzie. Those of you who missed out can catch up on what we have planned for the year by speaking to Lizzie, David, Heidi or Laura AND especially by turning up to meetings held at the Courthouse on the first Monday of every month.
to dentistry@hope4health.org.au and start coming to meetings, more active members get priority! Keep a look out for further emails on events for the year such as rural skills weekends and rural high school visits. We’re looking forward to seeing you all get involved. Laura, Lizzie, Heidi and David
It was also fantastic to see the numerous dental hot air balloons, hunters, hockey players, hobos and Heidi who came to the H party launch earlier this year. We hope to be able to see more of you at the up coming Midnight Muster on 17th of March. Dentistry holds the best dressed title for a couple of years running now, so get thinking on this year’s Irish theme ‘The Lucky Country’, coinciding with St Patrick’s day. We will once again be running four trips to Cherbourg this year for 4th and 5th year students who will volunteer their time in providing free dental treatment to the Aboriginal community. The Cherbourg trip now includes an oral health educational project where Lizzie will be taking 3rd year students to provide OHI and toothbrushes to students of the local primary schools. The dates are April 4-9, June 18-22, September 24-28 and November 19-23. So if you would like to get involved, email your interest
International As this is the first publication of the year, we would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves. Both Nimai Etheridge and I (Jack Henderson) were elected to the role of international coordinators at the end of last year. This year, we plan to engage the student body on international health issues, with a focus on preparing them for careers in developing health systems. Central to this will be our newly established HOPE4HEALTH language school, which will be teaching French and Spanish to health students interested in working within international health organizations. We are also looking to reproduce last year’s very successful Horizon’s seminar. Many professionals in the field of international health attended the seminar (i.e. Medicins Sans Frontier), providing invaluable information to students interested in becoming involved the international field of health. Another goal of ours is to establish a database of information from students who’ve participated in overseas placements. We hope this collated information will prove useful for future students, increasing the likelihood that they will study, and later pursue a career in international health. Later in the year, we will be organizing the Red Party. This fun event is a global initiative, with all funds raised going to help fight HIV/AIDS in developing countries. More details are to come in future emails. Finally, we wish to continue HOPE4HEALTH’s support of the Tesfa Oz organization. Last year, with the help of HOPE4HEALTH, they successfully raised the required funds to build their health clinic in Bure, Ethiopia. This year’s goal is to raise enough funds to supply the clinic and employ the
required health workers. We hope that you have been enticed by the various events that we have in store. For anyone who would like more information on what we do or would like to get involved, feel free to contact us at: jack@ hope4health.org.au or nimai@hope4health.org.au. Jack & Nimai
Indigenous In recent times the health of Aboriginal and Torres Islander people has received much deserved attention in political, health care, and education sectors. With the commencement of the Close the Gap campaign, change has been progressing slowly, but there is still a long way to go to close the gap in health and life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The HOPE4HEALTH Indigenous Portfolio is striving towards this goal in our own small way through community driven programs with an emphasis on community engagement and consultation and working with the strengths of both the students and the community. Through these programs we aim to spark the passion and enthusiasm of medical, dental and allied health students in working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people and support cultural awareness. There are already some great events planned such as Teddy Bear Hospital in Cherbourg, Close the Gap celebrations and plenty of fresh ideas in the pipeline. We are looking for people interested in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health or culture to form a ‘subcommittee’ (this is really a relaxed, regular get-together to share ideas and knowledge). We want to bring together a range of experience, ideas and enthusiasm to make 2012 a great year for the Indigenous portfolio. Please contact Andrea (andrea.coleman@griffithuni. com.au) or Lena (magdalena.parkes@griffithuni.edu.au) if you are interested. Lena & Andrea
2012 HOPE4HEALTH Jazz Dinner Dance The 2012 HOPE4HEALTH Jazz Dinner Dance will be held on Saturday September 15 at Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast. Following the success of last year’s Jazz Dinner Dance, we expect a marvellous night for guests and an amazingly successful night for our beneficiary. The Jazz Dinner Dance will be HOPE4HEALTH’s 6th annual charity ball; a gala event with a three-course dinner, quality beverages, live jazz band, and plenty of dance floor to showcase your moves. There will be unique auction items to bid on, raffle tickets with generous prizes and even lucky door prizes! Further information about the HOPE4HEALTH Jazz Dinner Dance will be available in the near future. Keep updated through www.hope4health.org.au or contact jdd2012@hope4health.org.au if you want more information. Bri & Lee
www.hope4health.org.au
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IGHT MUST 17TH E MON MARCH 20 R T 1 H 2 LY 2ND A PRIL 2 MEETINGS 0 : 1 2, 3 2012, 4TH J 0TH APRIL UNE 2 012