Famulatur in Down Under

Late autumn 2000 I decided to go to Australia to visit friends and do one part of my medical electives in Alice Springs.It was not easy to find enough information about the Alice Springs Hospital (ASH) as it has not got a homepage for themsleves (Links at the bottom of this report). Later I learned that the student section of the ASH is part of the Flinders University, N.T Clinical School, Adelaide.

ASH has got their own student coordinator, who is a very nice person and very helpful as well. All inquiries should be adressed to her!

• Anita Rogers
• Academic Services Officer
• Flinders NT Clinical School
• Alice Springs Hospital
• P O Box 2234
• Alice Springs NT 0871
• +61-(0)889517982
• +61-(0)889517556 (fax)

The ASH is frequently visited by students (medical, nursing and allied health) most prominently Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania and New Zealand. Elective students apply from all over the world and Alice Springs Hospital hosts more than 60 elective students each year. Students must stay a minimum of four (4) weeks in any one department, with Anaesthetics / ICU being six (6) weeks.

“running noses” and “running ears”

The department is very small, in fact there is only the senior doctor and a nurse. This makes it a very personal atmosphere and the doctor does take his time to explain things and gets a feeling for your knowledge. Twice a week there is surgery and the rest of the week outpatients were seen and treated. I was even able to accompany the senior doctor to Tennant Creek for a week, doing outpatient clinic and minor surgery.

Common diagnosis was “running noses” and “running ears”, but there were also “benign positional vertigo” or “Osler-Rendu-Weber disease”.There are a lot of Aboriginal people in Alice Springs and therefore in the hospital as well.
The patient ratio is 70% indigenious. Communication is not always easy, but there are interpreters for most aboriginal languages available and all medical students attend the ACAP (Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Programme) course which has four (4) stages. I attended Stage 1. The catchment area around Alice Springs covers at least 50+ different languages groups! Working and living in Alice Springs brings you into close contact with the Aboriginal community and the social problems they try to master.