The Mallee: Vanilla Slice & Everything Nice
by Isabella Dimasi & Lily Marwood
As two country girls, Isabella and Lily were very excited to have the opportunity to undertake an Internship at Central Mallee Health (CMH) to learn alongside Louise and the CMH team, as part of our final placement before graduating as Osteopaths. We, also known as the “dynamic duo,” commuted from Melbourne to Swan Hill four times over our final semester, where we experienced three full jam-packed days.
We kicked off the week with an Outreach Osteo trip to Birchip, stopping first for a photo with the giant red bull and indulging in Australia’s award-winning vanilla slice. After an introduction into the clinic space, we got straight into treating our first patients and learnt what it really meant to have “back-to-back patients” and how to navigate this.
We were both extremely grateful for the Birchip community; Isabella even received her first patient gift - more delicious vanilla slice to take back to the team in Swan Hill. Our day ended with a drive back to Swan Hill, passing Central Mallee Health’s birthplace in Berriwillock, where Louise spent her first few years giving back to her community.
Over the next two days we had the privilege of treating many patients in Swan Hill, observing the osteopaths, and participating in team time Tuesdays. The variety of patients and presentations that walked through the door was more than we could have imagined, allowing us to build upon our confidence and develop our hands-on skills in such a short period of time.
Having the opportunity to learn from the team at CMH provided us both with a bundle of knowledge to take away and put into action in our next consults. Both of us left our first week of placement exhausted, full of learnings but more than ever excited for the next trip up to the country in a few weeks’ time.
Our next trip up, we were lucky enough to be involved in CMH’s retreat, where we spent 2 days in a cosy shearing shed in Torrumbarry. We reflected on ourselves as people and what traits make great osteopaths stand apart from good osteopaths. However, it wasn’t all reflection and personal growth; we had great laughs, fun games around the fire, and had a great day on the course playing Ambrose golf.
On the last day of the retreat, before returning to Melbourne, we had a busy book of patients to treat in Cohuna. It was such a friendly community, and we both could really sense the appreciation the community had for our service. Having the opportunity to access small communities who don’t have primary healthcare close to home gave us a sense of gratification, highlighting to us that it is something we both wish to provide in the future.
On what ended up being our last trip to the Mallee region, we had the opportunity to head back to Birchip, following up with some of our patients that we treated on our first visit. Of course, a stop to grab a vanilla slice before our commute back to Swan Hill to finish our placement was a must.
The commute to and from Outreach days gave us the opportunity to debrief on our day and reflect on what was an invaluable experience. We were always welcomed by every community, and found the rural experience a refreshing change from the city.
Despite the floods impacting our last visit, we would like to thank Louise and the CMH team for generously sharing an abundance of knowledge and time to ensure that our experience was nothing short of amazing. We upskilled both as osteopaths and as people, giving us the ability to smoothly transition into our graduate year.
Lily will remember the sunset photo with her vanilla slice in hand and from never swinging a golf club to being taught how to drive by Louise, and Isabella will take home all her golden nuggets! We highly recommend any final year Osteopath student to take this internship experience to the Mallee region if they ever get the opportunity!