Yaseen

I am excited to see more complex and high risk cases, and further my cultural competency.

Husein

I would like to experience how biomechanical assessment and treatment may differ in a regional/rural setting.

Samvedna

I hope to see more nail surgeries, high risk patient cases and improve my overall cultural understanding of the patient demographic and long term treatment goals.

Hien

Just happy to be here.

WEEK 1

Falls Prevention with Joyti

We spent the morning learning about falls, and had the opportunity to demonstrate a podiatric neurovascular assessment to the physio students.

Cultural Competency

We learnt about the diverse languages and mobs around the Eyre Peninsula.

Clinics

On Tuesday and Friday we saw clients at DRH Clinic which was intensive and challenging, but rewarding. We learnt about variations in Doppler waveforms and started to consider more holistic patient care with long term planning.

Welfare Check

While in Wudinna we joined Loc on a welfare call and assisted with re-dressing wounds.

To futher our understanding of limitations in outreach work, we visited the local pharmacy to see the range of podiatric consumables available – there weren’t many!

WEEK 2

Cowell and Cleve

We all took turns driving a mini van to our placements sites in Cowell and Cleve, accompanied by podiatrists Loc and Chi in different car.

Cultural connection : Hien and samvedna spent their mini lunch break connecting with the locals in mini Op- shops. They found a variety of charity items- which included shoes people could purchase. This enabled us to further expand on our list of resources to offer patients with financial inability to seek footwear.

Clinics

The highlight of our clinic in Cowell was an elderly gentleman who had presented with “Lipodermatosclerosis” which was an opportunity for us students to learn more about this condition and help this gentleman with compression therapy of his legs. We were humbled by this experience and it made us appreciate more the work as a podiatrist.

Sunsets and Strolls

This week was full of beautiful sunsets on the Hummock Hill lookout, Samvedna is an excited sunset seeker and found it therapeutic after a long clinic day. Highly recommend catching the golden hour in Whyalla.

WEEK 3

Cleve & Kimba

Monday student centered learning

Biomechanical assessments were completed on each student with Loc’s guidance – uncovering some surprising limb length differences, and laterally deviated Achilles tendon insertions.

Yaseen was keen to experience how compression bandaging felt and Julie guided us through the application process. She also discussed wound dressing choices and demonstrated alternative scalpel techniques to reduce fatigue.

Cleve

We were very fortuate to see a client with CRPS and learnt about new management techniques targeting brain neuroplasticity such as mirror and VR therapy.

At sunset, Loc took us to see the canola fields. It looked surreal

– reminiscent of the Windows XP desktop background.

Yaseen cooked a delicious dinner and we rounded off the night with a YouTube movie courtesy of Husein.

Kimba

We spent the day at Kimba Medical Centre and reviewed a client with Charcot Foot – this was a great learning experience as we had never seen a real life Charcot Foot presentation.

During our lunch break, Samvedna scored some bargains at the local Op Shop, and mulberry jam from the bakery.

WEEK 4

Cummins

We watched the Smith+Nephew Hard To Heal Wounds in The Lower Leg Synopsium courtesy of Loc during dinner.

We were able to treat more patients as we had access to the Mobile Clinic Van. Samvedna and Hien experienced more challanges in outreach work – the lights didn’t work so Samvedna used her mobile flash light to assist Hien during her treatment.

Coffin Bay

We performed a Partial Nail Avulsion with phenolisation with Loc’s guidance. The patient reported only 3/10 pain on local anesthetic administration and left the surgery happy! Patient stated we made a great team and she felt very cared for.

DRH clinics

Finalising our last day with five surprise wounds, and Hien’s first pathology swab. It was an exceptionally eventful day for Husein 👀

And finally, our bittersweet goodbye to Loc and Julie; thank you very much for sharing your knowledge, time, and patience and these past four weeks.