New centre a boost to medical training

18 August 2004

Medicine and health science students at Monash University now have access to the most up-to-date teaching facilities with the official opening of the Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education at the Clayton campus.

The centre will be opened tomorrow, Thursday 19 August at 2.30pm by the Federal Science Minister Mr Peter McGauran.

The centre includes two mock GP surgeries linked to tutorial rooms by one-way glass, 20 rooms with wireless technology including a suite of seminar, tutorial and clinical skills training rooms to better facilitate the education needs of students in the medicine and health science courses.

Centre director Professor Brian Jolly said that in recent years students had started studying practical aspects of medicine, such as scrubbing for theatre, taking blood pressure and conducting physical examinations at first year instead of third year.

"Globally, trends in health care are making it more difficult to learn on people" he said. "There are fewer patients in hospitals now, and those that do attend hospitals often are too sick to see students."

"These new facilities amongst other things, provide a controlled environment for healthcare professionals of the future to learn basic clinical procedures."

The new centre will also facilitate teaching in other courses in the health sciences area including, radiology and biomedical sciences, and will be used for postgraduate studies and research projects.

What: Federal Science Minister Mr Peter McGauran officially opening the Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education.
Where: Building 15, Clayton campus, Wellington Road, Monash University.
When: 2.30pm Thursday August 19.

For further information, contact Ms Ingrid Sanders on 9905 9201 or Ms Diane Squires on 9905 5828 or 0417 603 400.