A team of 16 Australian doctors and nurses is in Madang attending to the sick and taking valuable lessons in tropical medicine and public health for two weeks in November 2009.
The doctors and nurses from various hospitals around Australia are enrolled in the “Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine” program at the James Cook University in Queensland and were at Modilon and Yagaum hospitals and other healthcare facilities as part of the practical for the course.
The team of 16 is in addition to two final year medical students from JCU that were on attachment at the Modilon General Hospital for eight weeks.
The visit would not have come at a better time when Madang faced a public health challenge with the outbreak of dysentery and cholera and the Australians were assisting and taking lessons on how to deal with such a crisis.
The team brought with it an ultra sound machine that helped with the diagnosis of children and mothers.
The team led by four lecturers, was in Madang under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Divine Word University has with JCU, where exchange of students and staff is encouraged.
The JCU team was accommodated at DWU where university facilities such as lecture rooms, ICT access, lodging and transport were made available while they were doing their practical work at Modilon General Hospital, a teaching hospital, and in other areas in Madang.
Professor Rick Speare, the Director of the Anton Breini Centre for Public Health and Tropical Medicine at the JCU’s Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences said the postgraduate students were in PNG for two weeks for the practical component of the course unit, “Clinical Tropical Paediatrics”.
Prof Speare who was with the team in Madang said the visit was designed to expose the JCU students to what child health is like in a tropical third world setting, where diseases are prevalent and health professionals face challenges in dealing with cases unlike in Australia.
Prof Speare said because the general health of the Australian population is better and health care facilities and services were superior, the students rarely have practical exposure to the diseases of children that is learnt in theory and how these cases were handled. The Madang visit enabled that exposure.
Prof Speare said the doctors and nurses assisted and took valuable lessons from their colleagues at the Modilon General Hospital, Yagaum Hospital, and the Madang town clinic during the cholera outbreak as well as during their visits to the Creative Self Help Centre, the local centre for people with disabilities.
Prof Speare said the practical program was previously conducted in Sri Lanka but was discontinued due to lack of academic facilities in the region they worked in.
He said because of the MOU JCU has with DWU and the excellent facilities of DWU, it was shifted to Madang.
He said Madang is very appropriate for their practical experience.
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