Help and
Support

The Deakin School of Medicine has a focus on producing graduates to serve rural, regional, Indigenous and marginalised communities and individuals. Our curriculum is aligned with the Australian Medical Council’s Graduate Outcomes Statements and the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand (MDANZ) Core Competencies for Graduating Medical Students. We also have a strong focus on several learning Themes integrated across all four years of the MD course, including: Indigenous Health; Public Health Medicine; and Ethics, Law & Professionalism. Assessment of our graduating students includes authentic Workplace-based Assessment to allow students to demonstrate true work-readiness.

The Program Overview page provides more detailed information about the course content. 

We appreciate that our educators have varied amounts of previous experience with teaching. To support you, visit the  Resources page on this website, which contains specific information about key clinical concepts and conditions to tailor your teaching to the relevant year level. There are several useful short videos from our educators on teaching across various contexts, from General Practice to the operating theatre. This page also contains links to a curated collection of very useful, concise general teaching resources including the The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne Education Hub – Learning on the Wards and the Teaching on the Run Tips – articles series, which are applicable to educating all levels of learner from medical student to senior registrar.

 

Please contact the Professional Staff for the relevant Deakin Learning Campus or Deakin Medical School clinical site, who can provide you with the necessary information (link, password if required) to join the Zoom tutorial room. Dr Debbie Baldi shares a video with some quick tips for engaging students in lectures/during online teaching on the Resources page of this site. The following resources may also be helpful:

• Engaging students in Zoom lectures and seminars 
• Optimizing Remote Learning: Leveraging Zoom to Develop and Implement Successful Education Sessions – Sarah Ohnigian, Jeremy B Richards, Derek L Monette, David H Roberts, 2021 
• Your Guide to Getting Started with Zoom Meetings 

Our medical students across Year 1-4 are also assessed with various forms of assessment, and you may have the opportunity to participate as an examiner, item writer or standard-setter. For more details on the ‘system of assessment’ we use within the Deakin MD Program – please see the Course Overview page. You can also review specific information about the assessment types utilised under each Year level page: 

Firstly, we thank you for agreeing to participate in assessing our students. Students in Years 3 and 4 complete a large number of Workplace-based Assessment tasks (WBAs) each year which forms a year-long clinical assessment portfolio to demonstrate their acquisition of clinical knowledge, skills acquisition and professional behaviours. Each type of assessment has its own focus, however, there are a number of over-arching themes across all, including: 

• Clinical knowledge 
• Communication skills 
• Professionalism 

The Resources page provides further information and “Quick Start” guides to support each of the Workplace-Based Assessments (mini CEX, CbD, DOPS, ITA, and DEC) that our Year 3 and 4 students need to complete during their rotations. Interestingly, your postgraduate learners are also likely to complete WBAs as part of their specialty training!

Your judgement of clinical performance and feedback during WBA assessments for students is THE MOST important aspect of this type of assessment. Students use this feedback to consider their learning in “real time” – assisting with development and progress in learning activities which are authentic, clinically applied and relevant to their future clinical practice as junior doctors.

Your judgement of a student’s clinical performance, and your written feedback is also critical to the Clinical Assessment Panel review process at the end of the year as it helps to convey a complete and detailed picture of each student’s ability. At the end of the year, the WBAs are reviewed by a Panel of clinical experts, who look at them holistically to understand the student’s progression and performance across the year. This approach allows for more useful, developmental feedback to be provided at the time of assessment, and a more objective and holistic assessment of student achievement and readiness for the next stage in their learning (moving from Year 3 to Year 4, or moving from Year 4 to Intern), based on both performance and development over the year.

See the Resources page for more information on how to give feedback. 

A TIPS assessment or Targeted Intern Performance of Skills Assessment is designed to assess high-frequency skills that junior doctors perform in the workplace and allow students to demonstrate that they are performing at the required level in all domains of the curriculum. The skills assessed in TIPS align with those identified in the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand (MDANZ) Core Competencies for Graduating Medical Students.  

There are four TIPS tasks: 

• Task 1: Reasoning for Investigations/Referrals 
• Task 2: Clinical Documentation and Handover 
• Task 3: Simulated Targeted Intern Performance of Skills (SIM TIPS) 
• Task 4: Pre-Internship Reviews (PRINT Reviews)

TIPS assessments differ from WBAs in that all students are assessed on a common subset of core skills that junior doctors are expected to be able to perform prior to internship. Students need to successfully complete the TIPS in order to pass Year 4. 

If you would like to become a TIPS assessor, please contact the relevant Deakin Medical School Clinical Education Lead or Deputy Lead. See the Help and Support page for contact details.

 

Visit: https://au.kaizenep.com (please note that whilst Kaizen has now been renamed ‘risr’, this address will take you to the correct log in page).

If you have any questions or difficulties, including with logging in, please contact the WBA team. 

The  Resources page contains a number of “Quick Start” guides for each of the WBA assessment types, and includes this “Quick Start Guide for Assessors – Starting Forms in Kaizen (risr/Advance)”

If you have any questions or difficulties, please contact the WBA team. 

Your Rotation lead at your Deakin Medical School site is a first line of support. Your Clinical Education Lead or Deputy Lead are also good points of contact. These staff, along with the DMS Professional Staff, will have a list other approved assessors. Use the contact information listed under ‘Help and Support’  to get in touch.

All MD students undertake training in the principles of research through the Research Scholar Program, a core component of the MD course.  

However, some students wish to follow a more research-focussed career path, either alongside their MD studies or through a separate research qualification. Students wishing to undertake extracurricular research activities whilst they complete the MD program must enrol in the Extracurricular Research Program (ERP). As such, it is recommended that you involve the relevant Unit Chair or Deakin Medical School site Clinical Education Lead/Deputy Lead when discussing research opportunities.  

Please be reassured that your contribution to our students is highly valuable.  

Students overall have a busy schedule with a diverse range of clinical activities as part of their learning experience. Aside from their clinical rotations, students also have a number of learning areas that are delivered longitudinally across the academic year (for example: learning in the Indigenous Health; Ethics, Law and Professionalism; Public Health Medicine; and their research work during their Research Scholar Program studies in Years 3 and 4). Despite all attempts to avoid scheduling conflicts, they will occur from time to time. When this happens, ideally students will attend the learning activity that best aligns with their learning needs at that time. In keeping with Deakin’s learning design principles, students may also access alternative forms of learning content (e.g. previously recorded tutorials and online resources) to supplement their learning in these circumstances. 

However, if you have concerns about the attendance of a student – please contact the Unit Chair or your local Clinical Education Lead/Deputy Lead. Students with multiple absences from the learning environment receive a check-in from a senior member of the academic team, as absenteeism is frequently a sign that students need additional support or may need to intermit their studies to address issues in their life outside of their studies. 

There are number of points of contact if you have concerns about a student for any reason. 

At any time, please feel free to contact the Unit Chair for that student’s Year level and semester. For Deakin Medical School Year 3 and 4 students, an alternative contact is the Clinical Education Lead/Deputy Lead. Contact details can be found under ‘Help and Support’

Student learning needs and wellbeing are a focus at Deakin University, and we appreciate being made aware of any concerns to be able to individualise our student support. The School of Medicine also has a Professionalism Discussion process and you are encouraged to make contact as above if you believe a student’s professional behaviour has not met the standard expected. See the Resources page for further information. 

Deakin University has a number of student wellbeing resources that may also be useful.