New developments

Life does keep popping up with things to keep it interesting. I have been corresponding a little bit with Flinders University and on Friday I received a call from the aphasia lecturer there. We had a chat about potential roles for me and she said she would get back to me once she had spoken with her manager. It was a really good conversation - it lasted for awhile and we found out we know many of the same people (as you will when you're speech pathologists in Adelaide). Anyhow, yesterday I got an e-mail from her offering me the chance to do a guest lecture at Flinders and provide tutorial support for the third year students in their aphasia course! So there you go...me, lecturing at a university, and getting paid for it...madness! The Flinders program is structured differently than the one at UQ and I think universities are starting to head more towards the model Flinders is using, which is problem based learning. Instead of stuffing around and trying to describe this, I'm going to search for a definition and slot it in here: WHAT IS PROBLEM BASED LEARNING? Traditionally, students learn by listening to lectures and reading, and are assessed on their ability to recall and communicate what they have learned. With problem-based learning, students are assessed on their ability to go through a problem solving process. WHY PBL? Research shows that PBL gives the learner greater long-term benefits than traditional learning, and many successful and progressive universities around the world use it in their courses. Graduates of PBL courses advance faster and further in their careers. Other benefits of PBL: Develops critical and creative thinking; Creates effective problem-solvers; Increases motivation; Encourages lateral thinking; Improves communication and networking skills; Is based on real-life situations. WHAT IS INVOLVED? Every PBL project is carefully designed by experts to expose you to the information and skills that we want you to learn. When assigned a project, you are given: A statement of the problem (eg. diseased animal; failing business; anorexia case study); Questions to consider when solving the problem; A framework for the time and effort you should spend on the project; Support from the school. The problems that you will solve in your course will relate to what you are learning. They are problems that you might encounter when working that field, adapted to your level of study . I think it's definitely a good model and I'm looking forward to being involved with it. The reason I bring this up is that this is where my tutorial support comes in - I will be the person who guides the group as they discuss the case. Flinders has also offered me the chance to come in any time and use a "hot desk". This could be very useful as sometimes it's difficult to fully focus at home, where it is easy to go make another cup of tea or have a nap. It will also be nice to be in an academic environment. Besides all that, I'm still plugging away at my PhD. I sent in the draft of my introduction to my narrative review for my advisors to read/critique. I have started recruiting for my first studies. It's all rolling along. Jeremy is busy at the practice in Clare. Currently, the practice consists of Jeremy's boss (the consultant), another registrar with a bit more experience than Jeremy, and Jeremy. Unfortunately the other registrar will be leaving just after we return from our holiday (early August) and there will be no one replacing him. This means things are about to get very busy for Jeremy...but I suppose it will be a good learning experience?? I have less driving to do these last weeks because Jeremy is often in Adelaide for courses. LAst Saturday he did a full day course on shared care, which enables him to look after pregnant women as a GP in conjunction with the obstetrician. This week, he has another course with AOGP and then will go out to the Coorong National Park for some Aboriginal cultural awareness training. This will involve camping and sounds pretty cool! That's pretty much it at the moment. I just have to complain again - I DO format these posts into paragraphs, but for some extremely annoying reason this blog program has started publishing it as one giant block and this irritates me to no end :/

Another weekend is coming to an end. Not my favourite time of the week, but it's inevitable. This weekend happens to be Father's Day, which is a bit disconcerting because in Australia they celebrate Father's Day in September so none of the usual reminders are out there at the moment. Nevertheless, I do know that in Canada, it's definitely Father's Day. These are the things you miss when you live overseas. Birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, anniversaries, holidays, and just the normal day to day stuff. When you go home to visit, it's always a visit or a vacation, never the same routine that would normally be happening if you had stayed or come back. But that's the choice you make when you decide on this lifestyle. Sometimes I feel sad, nostalgic, or like I'm missing out...but I don't feel regret about this decision. I should talk about my dad for a minute. Dads really are special. When I think of mine, I remember countless hours spent running around playing baseball, soccer, football and hockey. He was the dad who was out with the neighbourhood kids throwing a ball around and having a great time. Sometimes just him and I would go out and spend hours tossing a football around, or practising batting skills. I loved it. When I think back...no other dads in the neighbourhood were doing that, just mine. He had some wacky ideas, like tuna surprise or experimenting with getting us kids to go in and buy romaine lettuce at the grocery store on our own. I called into a radio show during "Ice Storm '98" to tell the host about how my parents had a new fireplace installed and my dad had us running in circles around the house to try and circulate the heat faster. We went on long bike rides, including one particularly great one in Ireland from Roundstone to Clifden as well as tons of local ones. The first time I ever went in the ocean was with him, in Ireland. I guess with my traveling back and forth between Adelaide and Clare I've been thinking a lot about his travels for work and the sacrifices he made. I think that when you have a family to provide for, it's important for your mental health to work at a job that you like or even better, love. For my dad, his ideal job opportunity was in Toronto. For many, many years he traveled back and forth between Toronto and Ottawa, coming home on the weekends. It must have been exhausting. It must have been difficult for him and my mum. I think only now do I realize how hard it must have been. I am pretty free to do whatever I want, with not a lot tying me down. Certainly not a family of three kids and all the responsibilities that go with it. But I still find it draining to live in two places at once. Anyway, I just want to recognize my dad and thank him for everything. Love you, Dad.

I am also fortunate to have an awesome father outlaw. I was absolutely terrified the first time I met Ross and Jeremy didn't help matters by immediately rushing off to the store in Athens to pick up some things for his parents and leaving me there alone! It's crazy to think that was about 9.5 years ago at this point. I have managed to become slightly less intimidated and get to know my father-in-law since then. I'm not sure who else regularly exchanges e-mails with their father-in-law or who gets detailed feedback from book recommendations...but I do. Visiting the farm is always a great time and I am typically greeted with the Ross special "sin and passion". I really am just a lucky person with these wonderful dads in my life :) So, Happy Canadian Father's Day!

Onwards and Upwards!

Since my last post, I have... - applied to a Country SA Health job in Clare (which I don't expect to get since they're looking for full-time, and I have this whole research thing which gets in the way, but at least I'll be in the system). Holy moly though, the application was incredibly time consuming! The selection criteria were intense, and I don't even really intend to GET the job. - decided that after our July holiday, I will move to Clare permanently and if I'm not working for SA Health, will work privately...on my own! - had a conversation with the country SA allied health manager which was very positive and indicated that as a private practitioner I could do locum work for them as well as other work on the side, which suits me very well. - hiked 30 kms and my whole body is so incredibly sore from the massive climb up to the highest peak of the Flinders Ranges (St Mary Peak) and then the brutal climb down. So many muscles. All sore. I have been hobbling around today but still feeling quite impressed with myself. - hit a kangaroo with our bloody new car! Okay, new = 2009 but that is VERY new to us. We drove about 15-20 kms from Wilpena Pound to Rawnsley Park Station for dinner Sunday night after our hike. After hearing that someone had written off his car the night before on a kangaroo, I was extremely nervous and contemplating cancelling our booking and having dinner at our accommodation...but we decided to risk it. I can't even tell you how insane and suicidal the kangaroos are. I'm not sure what it is - are they attracted to the lights on a vehicle? Anyway, Jeremy was driving more slowly than he normally would have because of the aforementioned story and we saw heaps of kangaroos at the side of the road, looking like they might just bounce out in front of us any second. We also saw tons of kangaroos ahead on the road just hopping away. Those were okay to deal with, as you just slow right down and honk and wait for them to get off the road. But our special kangaroo just launched itself from the side of the road and collided into the side of our car! It was a pretty big one and made a really dramatic THWACK/THUD noise and because I'm a terrible person I was more worried about our car than the kangaroo (BECAUSE IT SLAMMED ITSELF INTO OUR CAR!!) But when we arrived at the restaurant and took a look, the car seemed to have escaped unscathed and on our way back we didn't see any kangaroo bodies at the location where the incident occurred...so hopefully we were both okay! Anyway...apparently we are now getting a 'roo bar' for the new car. - received confirmation of ethical approval for my PhD study! This may not sound like a big deal, but I submitted a 160 page document and it took forever to write everything up. All to do some semi-structured interviews and surveys. BUT we all know ethics is very important from the horror stories of completely unethical and damaging studies carried out in the past. So I think that I have been pretty proactive in trying to solve these things which have been making me feel stressed and anxious. I'm not looking forward to telling the boss that I'm finishing up, but when it comes down to it...it's a job. One that I loved at a great hospital, but it's not working any more for many reasons. So watch this space...we shall see!