Albury Wodonga Campus
The Rural Clinical School Campus
The Albury Wodonga teaching campus is located at 559 East Street Albury which is adjacent to the Albury Base Hospital. The campus accepts full time students in Years 4, 5 and 6 and short term students in Year 6.
Location
Strategically located on the major inland Sydney to Melbourne corridor – the Hume Highway – Albury Wodonga is three hours from Melbourne and Canberra and six hours from Sydney by road. Albury Wodonga is on the main rail line between Sydney and Melbourne and Regional Express and Qantas have eight flights daily to Sydney return and four return flight daily to Melbourne. By air, Sydney is approximately one hour and twenty minutes away and Melbourne is approximately 45 minutes.
The City
Albury Wodonga is one of the largest inland population centres in Australia with over 90,000 people living within the immediate region. Albury Wodonga services outlying regions north past Holbrook, east to Corryong, south to the snowfields and west to Yarrawonga.
Attractions and Recreational Activities
There are excellent leisure and recreational facilities for winter and summer. Albury Wodonga has more sunshine annually than the Sunshine Coast and the Hume Weir is bigger than Sydney Harbour! Activities include sailing, canoeing, water-skiing, fishing, paragliding, parachuting, kayaking, bike riding on trails from the Murray to the mountains, bush-walking. In winter, skiing and snow sports at Falls Creek, Mount Hotham and Mount Buller are only 90 minutes away by car There is a helicopter service between Falls Creek and Mount Hotham - ski two resorts in one day!
There are festivals throughout the year celebrating local wine and food, sport and jazz. The Rutherglen wineries and restaurants are among some of the best in regional Australia. Albury Wodonga is a centre for art, music and theatre, with its own Hothouse Theatre and Flying Fruit Fly Circus, classical choirs and orchestra. Shopping is great with Myer, Sportsgirl, Freedom and Harvey Norman to mention just a few familiar “big city” names.
Medical Education
The Albury Wodonga hospital campus offers students access to:
- 5 Major hospital facilities
- 100 plus GPs with 25 GP clinics in Albury/Wodonga with additional clinics in the outlying areas
- Low student/patient ratio
- Visiting Neurosurgeon and Cardiologist
- More than 90 specialists including: Anaesthetists; ENT Specialists; General Physicians with interests in cardiology, renal medicine and gastroenterology; General Surgeons; Gynaecologists; IVF; Medical Oncologists; Neurologists; Obstetricians; Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon; Ophthalmologists; Orthopaedic Surgeons; Plastic Surgeon; Paediatricians; Paediatric Surgeon; Pathologists; Psychiatrists; Radiotherapist; Oncologists; Radiologists; and Urologists.
Phase 2
Six students per year are allocated to the Campus to do the four required modules in Society and Health, Ageing and Endings, Health Maintenance and Beginnings, Growth and Development.
It is planned to have Society and Health as the first module followed by Ageing and Endings, Health Maintenance and Beginnings Growth and Development. This is designed in this manner for several reasons. During the Society and Health course there is an opportunity to refresh history and examination skills following a year of the Independent Learning Project before the more patient oriented courses of Health Maintenance and Ageing and Endings. Beginnings, Growth and Development is completed last so it does not clash with the Women’s Health and Children’s Health modules in the Phase 3 programme, which are held during STP and TP 1 – 3.
All of the required lectures and tutorials are taught at the Campus. The Campus days which Sydney students experience are also provided in a variety of ways. There are visiting lecturers in Anatomy, Microbiology and Infectious Disease and Pathology who visit one or other of the Wagga Wagga or Albury Wodonga Campus to provide the teaching programme for the students in both Campuses.
Students are transported to one or other of the Greater Murray Campuses for the teaching sessions and are accommodated in that particular town as it usually involves an overnight stay. The combined study days are very effective and allow for further camaraderie between students of the different campuses.
In addition to this there are several other common campus days including a Farm Safety Day, Aboriginal Health Day, Haematology and Oncology, Rheumatology and Pharmacology.
With the input of the visiting specialists and the local specialists, the clinical programme of Phase 2 can be provided successfully at the Albury campus.
Students are encouraged and are welcome to stay for Phase 3 at the Campus.
Phase 3
The Phase 3 programme consists of 10 modules – Medicine, Surgery, Children’s Health, Women’s Health, Mental Health, Primary Care, two Selectives, an Elective and PRINT. Also included during Phase 3 is four weeks of Critical Care and Emergency. All of these modules can be provided at the Albury Wodonga Campus of the School. The programme is works on a two year cycle. Medicine and Surgery must be completed in Yr V and in combination with a Bio Medical Sciences module. Currently there are two streams for Phase 3. In Yr V Medicine/Surgery, Women’s Health, Children’s Health and Selective are taught in the first stream. Primary Care, Psychiatry, Medicine, Surgery and Selective are offered in the second stream. Student’s progress into Yr VI and whichever modules they have not completed in Yr V will be provided for them in Yr VI leading up to their final exam at the end of TP3. PRINT will then follow to complete the Medicine programme
With such a small cohort of students and large numbers of patients all of whom are only too happy to see students and the enthusiastic teachers, Albury can guarantee a worthwhile experience for students who elect to come for Phase 3. Our aim in this last two years is to give the students as much clinical experience as possible leading up to their graduation and starting work as competent interns.
For further information on either Phase 2 or Phase 3, students should contact the Head of Campus or his representative at the Albury Wodonga Campus: 02 60 421311.
Independent Learning Projects (ILP)
Several independent learning projects are currently available for students to complete their ILP in the Albury Wodonga region and be attached to the Campus. Please see
2013 ILP projects on offer for Albury. Details of these can be obtained by contacting the Head of Campus,
Dr. Peter Vine
Library and Computer Facilities
The Albury Base Hospital maintains an exclusive library service with a full-time librarian. All relevant textbooks from the biomedical library of UNSW are housed in the library for student use. Computers and quiet study areas are also provided.