Hey JCU Med Family

First off, congratulations to Years 1-3 on finishing your SP1 examinations! We sincerely hope you enjoy your well deserved break. For our clinical students, hopefully you feel some relief now that you have reached the midpoint of the year. 

We are pleased to release the latest edition of our executive reports. JCUMSA has changed the way we will be doing these reports, opting to complete quarterly reports as opposed to monthly reports. This is the 2nd Quarterly Report comprising the months of April, May and June. The reason for this decision was that monthly reports became diluted by a lack of events happening across multiple portfolios, and the JCUMSA team decided that this was not a quality way of providing updates to you! We hope you like this new format and as always, if you have any questions about the following please do not hesitate to contact us via our website or social media. 

– The JCUMSA Executive

President

• Medlabs renovation confirmed by the Division of Tropical Health & Medicine (DTHM)! Following a written submission, the DTHM have agreed to fund renovations of the computer lab opposite SEPU in the Bebegu Yumba Campus in Townsville. This space will be turned into a General Access & Teaching Computer Facility (GATCF), similar to other computer labs on campus. One key provision required by the DTHM in order to obtain funding was that this space became available to all JCU students. However, unlike other GATCF spaces it is not possible to book it and hence will remain a student study space. This outcome has had years in the making and we are so excited to finally bring this to you. More information will be released in terms of when this renovation will take place. 

• The Australian Medical Council have just finished conducting their site visit as part of the accreditation process for James Cook University’s medical program. JCUMSA has spent a considerable amount of time and effort to advocate on important issues on behalf of students for improvement in all aspects of the MBBS course. This was a very successful process which was reflected in the AMC team’s preliminary findings delivered to all CMD staff and myself. For more information, please consult the JCUMSA AMC report which will be released alongside this quarterly report, and do not hesitate to contact me personally if you would like to discuss it further. 

• Joint review of Student Support services between JCUMSA & CMD – Following a lot of discussion between JCUMSA and CMD staff, the process of initiating a medical student evaluation of support services within the CMD has begun. This is a great advocacy win as it will allow students to participate in a first-ever qualitative, ethically approved evaluation that will be taken into consideration much like academic feedback each year. 

• We will be publishing a flowchart outlining how to access student support at the CMD in the next two weeks. We hope that this will reduce any confusion and give people an easy-to-follow approach to accessing help.

• Parking @ JCU – JCUMSA has joined efforts to petition the university to provide affordable, reasonable and accessible parking to all students. JCUSA have spearheaded this initiative and we will do everything possible to ensure that this ever present issue comes to some resolution. It is unacceptable that the parking situation has been impacting students’ ability to attend class and we are committed to getting a fair result. 

• Merchandise has been ordered and is currently on the way.

• Hand in hand peer support is currently being planned and will hopefully get underway in the early second half of the year.

Events VP

• A wonderful first half of the year, with very minimal COVID19 interruptions! (Well, in North Queensland at least…) 

• Have had 2 successful clinical cocktail events in Mackay and Cairns. Planning to make that 3 with Townsville’s Clinical Cocktail on the 25th of June 

• Unfortunately Med Camp 2021 did not go ahead due to lack of interest this year. The Events team are looking to plan a more tailored event for our first years to enjoy in Sem 2 2021. The team is also brainstorming was to make Med Camp a more accessible and appealing event for future Med 1 cohorts

• We’ve heard your questions and we are happy to announce that MED BALL IS HAPPENING! Tickets will be available on Monday the 28th of June. Our 2021 venue will be the beautiful Quayside Terminal. Keep an eye on the JCUMSA Facebook and website for updates!

Academic VP

• After several meetings with staff we were able to come to a resolution for this year’s 4th and 5th year OSCE format.  These changes should be communicated to you from JCUCMD. 

• As previously mentioned, I was able to play an active role in the AMC site visit by advocating for important changes that will address common student concerns.  Myself and other students were able to provide insight into our university experience.

• Currently organising the Semester 2 Academic events including Clinical Skills Night (hopefully in Cairns and Mackay too), the Maggie Grant Guest Speaker Night and practice OSCE/MSAT.

Treasurer

• Have formalised the ‘Terms of Use’ policy page on the website, which includes a revised ‘Refunds’ section making it easier to understand what has admittedly been a complex, contradictory and arduous process in the past

• The new automated process of refunding purchases made via the website store has now been fully implemented and I’ve received positive feedback on its use

• 2021 Half Yearly Financial Report is almost complete, and will be internally discussed at the Executive level, looking at how well (or poorly) we’ve kept to the 2021 Budget to guide our financial planning next semester

  • A summary of the outcomes of these discussions will be published on the JCUMSA website

• Have raised the possibility of GOLD membership increases (starting 2022 if approved) from $10/year to $15/year given shortfalls in funding from sponsors and the fact that most students will utilise more than $10/year of subsidies from events → however as stated in an earlier Financial Report, I am very open to hearing student feedback on this!

• The process of getting registered with the Australian Charities and Nonprofits Commissions (ACNC) has been an ongoing process – unfortunately it has not been straightforward as we initially anticipated and may require some more work on tidying up our constitutional and legal requirements first

• I have redesigned and set up the ‘JCUMSA Health Club Store’ (www.healthclubstore.jcumsa.org.au) which is an online marketplace linked to the JCUMSA website which allows other student clubs, namely subsidiary organisations of JCUMSA (ie. MINT, JCU InPsych) to operate their own online stores (to sell tickets, etc.) and collect the money securely and independently of JCUMSA – this is currently in the final stages of testing and I will have more to talk about this when it is likely to be implemented early next sem

Secretary

• Not usually a lot from me but I finally have some news (woohoo)

• We have set a date for the JCUMSA Annual General Meeting!! 

  • The AGM will be on the 16th of September at this stage but of course stay tuned for more information as this may change. 

  • We are hoping for an in person meeting this year and a chance to get the gang together in person but of course this is subject to the COVID situation at the time

AMSA Liaison Officer

• Vampire Cup: JCU continued our phenomenal success in Vampire Cup, saving almost 1500 lives. We extended our 4 year streak of achieving the most number of donations, and came 2nd to Newcastle in the % of cohort donated. Thank you to everyone who donated. We strongly encourage that you keep the donations coming!

• Meetings with 2022 Executive bid teams: Sachin and I have had the pleasure of meeting with Jasmine Davies and her bid team for the 2022 AMSA Exec. We voiced our concerns regarding the increased isolation JCU is facing due to COVID. While other universities have had the opportunity to host hybrid events with other universities, our location in FNQ has made this harder for us. The team agreed that advocacy for more events in FNQ / subsidies for JCU students to attend events in SE QLD are necessary

• Council 2 policy: Policy review teams unfortunately could not be organised this review period due to clashes with preclin exams. However the policy survey released earlier this month will be used to guide JCUs voting at the upcoming Council 2

• QLD Convention: The QLD AMSA reps were able to work together to organise a QLD Convention node to be held in Gold Coast this year. This involved live viewings of the 3 days of Convention academics at Bond University, 1 official ticketed social to be held at The Island Gold Coast, 2 unticketed socials, and a sports day. This would have been a great opportunity for students to meet peers from the other QLD universities at the fraction of the cost of the official convention. Unfortunately, very recent COVID outbreaks in SE Queensland have disrupted these plans, leading to the cancellation of the event. I wanted to thank all the JCU students who supported the event and were intending to go. It was under very unfortunate circumstances that the event was cancelled. However, rest assured that the QLD reps will be continually looking for ways to host a 

• AMSA Rep meetings: AMSA reps convene every couple of months to discuss issues within their universities. Our main issue at JCU is lack of engagement with AMSA events  due to COVID restrictions. Event nodes in TSV don’t engage students like similar ones in major cities do, as we are the only university in FNQ. Push to help involve JCU in Brisbane / Gold Coast nodes has been sought, however, as seen by the late convention, even this is hard to organise.

• MedEd MCQ cup: JCU ended the MCQ cup placing 7th out of the 19 Australian universities.

• AMSA advertisement: A number of callouts have been advertised, from policy authors, MedEd research symposium, GHC21, NLDS21 and other event subcommittee callouts

Publications and Promotions

• Not usually much to report from this portfolio other than the normal day to day operations

• A lot of content has been created for our social media channels, which you will have seen over the last few months

• We are currently in the process of creating Med Ball related advertisements and designing the Wellbeing flow chart that the President referred to in his points above