MSSBU Report 121

MEDICAL STUDENTS’ SOCIETY REPORT

Semester 121

President – Hashim Abdeen

[email protected]

Bond University Medical Students’ Society

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To all our staff, students, BUSA and sponsors -‐ welcome to our inaugural MSSBU (Medical Students’ Society of Bond University) semester report! Our MSSBU believes that feedback to all members of the Bond Medical community is extremely important, whilst also providing a good summary of the semester.

Over the last 2 semesters (113 & 121) the 2011/2012 MSSBU has strived to provide amazing events that contribute to the Bond Medical Community both academically and socially. We have taken this opportunity to provide academically valuable initiatives such as “Live Well, Study Well,” “Partnering Your Professionalism,” “Barrier Peer Info Sessions,” and our annual “Electives Night”. Furthermore, MSSBU has become more involved in the Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC), in which we hope to streamline the cohort representatives so that we can improve the representation of our students.

While we recognise that academic events and opportunities are vital for our students, our MSSBU truly believes that fostering a strong social environment is equally important in achieving the balance that every medical student needs. Thus, our semester began with the traditional MedEagle, and soon after Trivia Night. This semester we also hosted our annual Medball in which the theme was Cirque du Soleil! As a Medical Student Society we also see the need to raise awareness about medical health issues within the community and how we can facilitate members to give back. In semester 113 we held the Movember challenge where we raised over $8,000 for research in prostate cancer and depression, earning us first place in the AMSA challenge. We also raised over $5,500 for our Medical Ball charity “Helping Children Smile” and recently just raised another $1,000 for the World’s Greatest Shave. Please read the following reports for details of each event, including how each one contributed to the Bond Medical Community.

I would like to take this opportunity to specially thank some key individuals who have been essential in the above-‐mentioned events and academic programs:

Faculty Members: Audrey Chung, Gary Hamlin, Charles Leduc, Peter Jones, Sally Perry, Louise Ruiman, Linda Crane and more recently Tabitha Lauret who have all contributed invaluable advice to all our events and academic programs which have aided them in being extremely successful.

President’s Report 2011-‐2012


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I would like to thank the cohort representatives: Gareth Ng (5th Year), Amy Morrison & Jacqueline Seebold (4th Years), Johnathan Mah (3rd Year) & Andrew Robinson (2nd Year) for their great job in representing our students issues and concerns.

I would also like to thank BUSA, and in particularly Jenna Wong in aiding the process of MSSBU becoming BUSA affiliated, and the help and sponsorship that was provided for our events.

I would also like to the thank the MedBall Convenors, Jasryn Dhaliwal and Amy Nguyen, and also the rest of the Medball Committee on their fantastic job this year.

Of course I cannot forget all our sponsors who without their contributions, none of our events would have been possible: Avant, MIPS, MIGA, Investec & MDA.

Finally I would like to thank all the students for their support over the last two semesters. I know we have called upon a lot of you to help out and participate, and I appreciate that you are so willing to help us achieve the bond motto: Bringing ambition to life.

And last but not the least, our MSSBU 2011/2012 committee, all of you have sacrificed your time for MedSoc including important study and personal time. This has been an incredible two semesters and it wouldn’t have been possible without you. A big thanks to each and every one of you for your amazing hard work

Thank you all for a great two semesters and I look forward to what we have in store for semester 122.

Yours truly,

Hashim Abdeen

President | The Medical Students’ Society of Bond University MSSBU


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Medeagle takes place on the second Tuesday of every semester. The aim of this event is to provide an opportunity for students in different cohorts to connect and regroup after the holidays. This is an important event as it is one of the only times that all five cohorts are brought together, fostering a collegiate spirit in the bond medical community. Semester 121 MedEagle was a success with a turnout of roughly 50-‐70 people throughout different year groups. The night had a fun and relaxed atmosphere, living up to its traditional expectations. MSSBU and all members look forward to MedEagle 122, as another exciting cohort of medical students will join us!

Social Events

MedEagle


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Now an annual event – Trivia night was a fun and competitive evening, in which students competed in teams for the title of ‘Trivia Gods’. Supported by our platinum sponsor Avant, the night was extremely successful and achieved its primary aims to give medical students the opportunity to mingle with students from different cohorts as well as from other faculties and for our sponsor Avant to have the opportunity to interact with students on a personal level. Held at Don’s Tavern, there was a large turnout out of over 90 students. We would like to thank Bond University Students Association (BUSA) who sponsored a ‘Trivia Trophy’ – adding to the quality of the night, and who along with our MSSBU president were able to present the trophy on the night. Based on the encouraging response from all parties involved, MSSBU was extremely happy with the event. Due to its success, we aim for a bigger and better Trivia Night next year, and may even consider holding it every semester.

Live Well/ Study Well was an important event held in conjunction with HMSA, which focussed on raising awareness of wellbeing within the student community. The day aimed to promote issues often faced by medical students and addressed topics such as mental health, stress management and overall welfare. Encompassing the AMSA objectives, this day sought to highlight prevalent problems, which are often swept aside. Sponsored by MDA, this event went over a 3 hour period on Wednesday of Week 10. It featured a seminar from Robert Taylor regarding stress management followed by free healthy lunch for students, a meditation session, a massage station and relaxation activities. MSSBU had a turnout of roughly 100 students. We hope to make this an annual event as MSSBU recognizes the importance of such issues and their lack of emphasis within the student body. Feedback from students was encouraging as all appreciated the different sessions as well as the various information booklets and pamphlets provided.

Trivia Night

Live Well/ Study Well


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Being one of MSSBU’s biggest community events, Movember was a month for the moustache-‐enthusiasts within us all! For the first time, MSSBU participated in a nationwide competition between all medical schools, run by the Australian Medical Students Association (AMSA). Armed with enthusiasm and a commitment to a great cause, 60 medical students and staff arrived with a clean-‐shaven face on November 1st. Over the next 4 weeks, with the help and support of friends, family and the wider community – Team “Bond 007 – License to Mo” raised an astounding $8449, and placed 1st in the AMSA Movember Challenge. Furthermore, the AMSA competition itself raised a total of $36,893 – a great effort from all medical schools. Special thanks go to staff members who joined the MSSBU team, and raffled the opportunity to shave their ‘Mos’:

• Peter Jones • Kuldip Bedi • Jeremy Rogers • Gagan Johar

This was a fantastic achievement for Bond Medical School, especially as we are the smallest medical school! MSSBU are extremely proud of everyone that participated. Without the combined effort from staff, students, BUSA and the wider Bond community, this would not have been possible. MSSBU would like to thank everyone once again, and hope to do as well this year!

Charity Events

Movember


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The Bond Medical Charity Ball began in 2007 when the Medical School was two years old. Every year the ball aims to raise much needed funds for an Australian based charity to which we can make a difference. Previous balls have been highly successful through the generous support from the community.

Students, university academics, local doctors, any associated health practitioners, sponsors and the charity representatives are invited to the event. We aim to create a magical evening of exclusive dining, drinks, entertainment and elegance. This year our charity that we supported was “Helping Children Smile”. They are a voluntary organisation who sends medical professionals to the Philippines to provide pro-‐bono surgeries to children suffering with cleft lips or cleft palates.

We started our mission to fundraise for the charity by holding BBQs and bake sales. We sold baked goods all over the university and raised awareness about the charity while doing so.

We also rang numerous businesses to gain sponsors for the Charity Ball. These sponsors donated gifts that we collated into a raffle and these gifts included one night stay at Jupiters Hotel and Casino, Mount Tambourine Retreat, Mantra Group Hotel and a Seafood Buffet for two at Radissons. In addition the charity kindly added to our raffle prize pool a signed T-‐Shirt by World Ranked Number 2 Tennis Player, Roger Federer. The Medball Committee then set out to sell as many Raffle tickets as we could to raise money for these amazing prizes. The raffle was drawn on the night of the ball and we raised over $1800 in raffle tickets.

After the Charity Ball came to an end, we were happy to announce that we raised over $5500 for the charity. The night was a success as students left with memories that would last them a lifetime. The charity was grateful for the interest that Bond Medical Students took in a small yet worthwhile cause. And the committee were able to look back at the work they achieved to make the night memorable.

Medical Students’ Charity Ball


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It is an alarming fact that today 31 Australians will have their life shaped forever, receiving the news they have leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloma or another blood related disorder. This makes blood cancer the second biggest cause of cancer death in Australia. Since 1998, the World’s Greatest Shave has raised awareness and equally as important funds for the Leukaemia Foundation in order to provide free practical and emotional support to people with blood cancer and their families, as well as pursuing pivotal research in the area. They have raised in excess of $120 million dollars, devoid of government aid, with over a million people shaving their heads and many more colouring their hair. On the 23rd of March, Bond University students, acknowledged the devastating effects of cancer, with many of our students and staff offering to colour or shave their hair for this most worthy cause. A barbeque was put on amongst other things, where we raised $1,520.75, well surpassing our target of $1000!

Special thanks to Johnathan Mah, Ashwin Agnihotri, Hashim Abdeen, Robert Taylor and Peter Johnson who shaved.

World’s Greatest Shave


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Electives Night was MSSBU’s biggest academic event for Semester 121. It was a very special night as its success was based on the willingness of our 5th year students to provide their guidance and leadership. The night was to help students plan their upcoming electives and gather valuable information about the elective process.

Although the event was open to all students, it was mainly targeted to the 4th year students, who are the next cohort to go on elective. In previous years, it has been difficult to achieve this target with clinical years being on rotations in the hospital and more difficult to contact. Recognizing this problem, and the importance of this event -‐ in terms of information and help, MSSBU worked hard to market the night appropriately. This year as an extra opportunity for students, MSSBU introduced a $400 voucher to go towards a 4th year student’s elective. This idea was very successful and we believe much appreciated by the fourth year students. The night went exceptionally well with the entire Gregor Heiner theatre filling up, and approximately half of those students being 4th years. We had five excellent talks from 5th year students with their electives ranging from Melbourne to South Africa and Brazil. MSSBU were extremely grateful for the time these 5th years took to give back to younger students. Additionally MSSBU would like to thank all sponsors for being present on this night: Avant, MIGA, MDA, MIPS and AMAQ. Our sponsor MIGA presented on the night about their elective scholarship. We would also like to thank Work the World for sending a student representative to talk about his elective and the opportunities that Work the World has to offer students.

Academic Events

Electives Night


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On Friday, 10th of February 2012 the MSSBU introduced and held the inaugural “Barrier Peer Information Session” in the Gregor Heiner Theatre. This session was created by MSSBU to further improve the academic support provided to our barrier students by giving them advice from students who have previously sat these examinations, providing a genuine “student perspective.” The MSSBU submitted a proposal to Associate Professor. Hamlin, outlining the initiative’s potential academic benefit for our students, with the anticipation that it would become a longitudinal project. MSSBU’S President Hashim Abdeen and I worked closely with Associate Professor. Gary Hamlin to ensure the information we delivered to the students was both recommended by peers and approved by the faculty. MSSBU’S Academic Liaison Officer Neha Tiwari and I then worked to generate a PowerPoint presentation for Semester 3 barrier students that was highly comprehensive containing:

• Tips for students on how to manage their time • Tips on how to study effectively • What to study and prioritize in each of the SBM subjects (Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology,

Pathology) • How to prepare for the Clinical Skills theme • How to study and do well in their Health and Society and Personal and Professional Development

Assignments • An example of a draft timetable • The percentage breakdown of their assessments and examinations • What resources are available are available to them • Protocol involving re-‐sitting barrier examinations • What textbooks are most helpful (we created a survey that semester 6 students participated in to

recommend which books were found most helpful overall)

The presentation lasted approximately 45 minutes with another 30 minutes at the conclusion where students were able to ask questions. Attendance was notable with approximately 70 students and feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with both student and staff expressing great appreciation for the session. The next session will run early next semester for Semester 7 students – this will be presented by current Semester 9 students and organized predominantly by our Clinical Vice-‐President Zahin Ilahee.

We would like to thank both Charles Leduc and Gary Hamlin for their contribution and support for this event.

Barrier Information Session


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The MSSBU would like to thank our sponsors MDA National and AMAQ for hosting the PYP Event. This evening was aimed at fourth and final year students and covered the topic of recognising and managing burn out as an intern and junior doctor. The evening began with food provided by MDA and the opportunity for students to mingle and talk to sponsors. AMAQ presented on the important issue of doctors mental health and provided good insight into stress management and the pressures of internship. This lead nicely into the presentation given by a doctor with personal experience of burn out who shared her experiences then ran an interactive session in which she invited students to also share their experiences and to disucss ways in which we can deal with burn out and how we can support each other. As part of this session MDA presented a video about a junior doctor, which demonstrated the different stressors that we may encounter in the future.

We had approximately 30 students attend this event. In future we would like to open this event up to all year levels, as it is an important message that students should start thinking about early in their careers. We held this event in the same week as Live Well Study Well. This gave a good theme of wellbeing and raising awareness about doctor’s health issues to the week, which we would like to continue and build on for next year. We would like to promote this week as a “well-‐being” week and work more closely with the faculty to get this message across to students.

Our inaugural Internship & Beyond Night was an outstanding success. The evening began with a recent Bond graduate, Stevie Bray, who shared her experiences of the last 6 months at Bond University and also her first couple of months as an intern. Following this Dr Jennifer Williams, the AMA CDT chair, spoke about the first 5 years after graduation including topics such as potential career pathways, and applying to the colleges. After that Dr Bavahuna Manoharan spoke about the application process in Queensland from the perspective of a student. Finally 3 smaller breakout sessions were held to discuss applying to different states i.e. Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia.

We had approximately 100 students attend this event. Feedback from students indicated that they were very impressed on all the topics that we shared. Most students believed that the sessions on interstate applications were invaluable as they found it hard to find information on their own. We plan to have this event as a regular annual event, and hopefully plan it earlier in the year, so that there is a maximum benefit for our final year students.

The MSSBU would like to thank all their sponsors for their attendance at this event, especially Avant and AMAQ.

Internship & Beyond Night

Partnering Your Professionalism


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Remember Peter Jones nervously pouting his moustache as his son shaved him presumably for the first time? Or

perhaps Kuldip’s grin as he finally did to his face, what he managed to do with his hair a long time ago?

All this was presented by the MSSBU as part of an ‘AMSA’; initiative…

The Australian Medical Students Association is the peak representative body for medical students nationwide. The Association is instrumental in advocating for and representing the interests of medical students at all levels, as well as identifying areas of need and importance such as Twenty-‐First Century Professionalism and Global, Indigenous

and Rural Health. There are many nationwide conferences that bring medical students from all over Australia together to discuss policy, advocate, and to develop invaluable leadership skills for students.

Over the past year, the MSSBU has placed increasing attention to the value of AMSA by introducing a Junior AMSA Representative role on the committee, and ensuring strong presence in AMSA Council meetings. Consequently, the

relationship between the MSSBU and AMSA has improved dramatically, to the extent that the 2012 cohort were recently empowered by the presence of AMSA President Mr James Churchill as part of their Orientation Week activities.

Over the past year, the MSSBU has partaken in many initiatives. Arguably the most memorable, was the month of

Movember in which we raised $8, 449 – the highest by any medical university student body in Australia. Additionally, a Blood Drive has been initiated, with Bond aiming to win the coveted AMSA Vampire Cup. Nevertheless, regardless of positions, AMSA has a significant imprint on MSSBU and the culture amongst Bond medical students, one that will

hopefully continue to develop.

AMSA


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MSSBU is proud to continue our tradition of offering student grants. We reimbursed Michael Dan (5th yr) $350 for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons conference that he attended in San Francisco. Michael has a special interest in Orthopaedics and we are glad to have been able to support him in furthering his academic development.

This semester we granted a $400 voucher to Yanna Lai (4th yr) for a potential elective next year. Yanna has a special interest in rural medicine and wishes to spend her time in Vanuatu and help those less fortunate.

We wish Michael and Yanna all the best for the future.

Thanks to all our sponsors & partners for all their help and support over the last semester.

Student Support

Sponsors & Partners

MSSBU Report 121

Documents

Transcript of MSSBU Report 121