Year 5D cardiology rotation

Cardiology

Rotations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Mildura Base Hospital, Mildura Cardiology
Clinical Supervisor:
Adjunct Associate Professor Alan Soward

Mildura Cardiology is a private medical practice offering ECG, echocardiograms, exercise stress testing, 24 hour Holter monitoring, 24 hour blood pressure monitoring, pacemaker and defibrillator testing and loop ECG monitoring. Students will shadow the cardiology registrar between the public and private hospital and the private rooms, and will also have the opportunity to sit in with consultant cardiologists for private consultations.

What our students say about cardiology

I was placed at Mildura Cardiology for my elective rotation, and without a doubt this was possibly the best rotation I have ever had. While I initially thought it would be difficult for me to adjust to a very different rural environment far away from family and best friends, the team at Mildura Cardiology was quick to prove me wrong. Everyone at the clinic was very hospitable, inclusive and willing to teach. They often invited me to their team lunches, occasional after-work dinners and even weekend community footy matches. Even though I was only there for six weeks, I felt that I was part of the great team that is Mildura Cardiology.

Unlike experiences in metropolitan hospitals, Mildura Cardiology is unique as it is a private clinic that provides services to the public hospital. I spent most mornings alone with the registrar interpreting ECGs and these one-to-one private tutoring sessions, accompanied by the weekly ECG tutorials held by my supervisor A/Prof Alan Soward, have definitely enabled me to interpret ECGs confidently now. I also had the opportunity to sit in for consults with different Cardiologists (including a few from Adelaide) and eventually ran a few supervised consults. Other learning activities include interpreting Holters, manually performing INR checks and ECGs, observe pacemaker checks and insertion procedures. I also got to perform my very first cardioversion on a patient with AF, and sit in on echocardiography sessions. The echocardiography sessions are a truly unique experience where I learned so much about interpreting cardiac anatomy on the different ultrasonographic windows. Also, it was definitely very cool to attempt performing echocardiography on my own heart!

Alston Ong 2019