Associate Professor Jan Coles
Associate Professor Jan Coles leads the ground-breaking PACTS program.
Name: Jan Coles
Title: Associate professor
Faculty: Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Campus: Notting Hill (on Ferntree Gully Rd, behind the Clayton Campus)
How long have you worked at Monash?
15 years.
Where did you work prior to starting at the University?
I was a General Practitioner in Cheltenham prior to starting work at Monash.
What do you like best about your role?
The best thing about my role is teaching students who are training to be primary health care practitioners. They are so enthusiastic about their future roles and “making a difference” to their communities. I don’t think we emphasise the importance of a strong primary health system in improving community health.
Why did you choose your current career path?
My change from clinical medicine to an academic role came because I couldn’t answer a particular patient’s question about her childhood sexual abuse and her experiences as a new mother. I went back to university to develop the research skills I needed.
My husband became unwell and I needed to study less and work more. I took a clinical skills tutoring job here at Monash. I loved teaching and it all unfolded from there. My parents, both teachers, think me ending up an educator is really funny because as a teenager the one thing I never wanted to be was a teacher!
What project are you currently working on and what does it involve?
My main focus at the moment is family violence education. I am particularly interested in the education of professionals who are the “first responders” to those in the community who have experienced family violence.
I started PACTS - An innovative Primary care program Advancing Competency To Support family violence survivors - in 2010. Many of us in primary healthcare had the same problem. Violence teaching kept dropping off the radar because the champion teachers left or because our students had placements in areas where expert teachers were not available.
I organised a meeting between my Monash colleagues from nursing, occupational therapy, paramedics and social work and the community-based organisations responding to family and sexual violence. We started talking about developing an interprofessional teaching and learning resource and PACTS grew from there.
Our piloting finished last year and we already have over 2000 healthcare students using PACTS and are in discussion with the police, paramedics and Victorian hospitals to expand into these areas. We are also looking to develop PACTS further here at Monash as an education module for students across faculties. We hope to pilot new initiatives later in 2016.
Tell us a little bit about why you launched the PACTS project and where your interest in family violence stems from?
I had a very personal experience working in clinical practice and not having enough information on family violence to help “Meg” a young patient I was seeing. I don’t want students to find themselves in the same position as practitioners.
Given the high rates of family violence, child abuse and dating violence we must remember that a significant number of our students will have experienced family violence personally as victims and as perpetrators. It is important to consider student safety in the content we deliver and the way we teach, modelling safety and respect in our teaching.
What’s next in terms of the work you are doing around family violence?
I am currently working towards a state-wide Centre of Educational Excellence in family violence. I “imagine” the Centre being across disciplines, faculties and from pre-service to in-service training.
I am also working towards a cross faculty workshop for students from health, law, education and business that will run at the Peninsula campus at the end of the year. If there are students and staff interested in being involved in the development phases I would be more than happy to hear from them.
First job?
My first job was in selling fruit and vegetables at an Italian green grocers. My employers taught me an enormous amount about good multicultural food.
Worst job?
Working as a cleaner while I was studying as an undergraduate at Monash.
What is your favourite place in the world and why?
Inverloch beach in Victoria. I love the sand, sea and the light down there. Unlike just about everywhere else in the world, I can have the entire beach to myself. I think because I work in family violence I need a space to heal after the pain from my work. For me Gippsland is real soul country.
What is your favourite place to eat and why?
Da Noi in Toorak Rd, South Yarra. When Pietro cooks for you, it feels like you’re family.
What is the best piece of advice you have received?
From my mother: “Intellect and heart work best together”.
Tell us something about yourself that your colleagues wouldn’t know.
I hate beetroot in any of its forms…shame it’s fashionable food!