UNSW Medical Students

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Planning to commence ILP project for UNSW Medicine student  2025.

Discipline of Critical Care  -advertised

Planning to commence Medical student simulation on Critical Bleeding  2025.

Discipline of Critical Care  

Planning to commence Year 1 of the new programme for UNSW Medicine in 2027.

Discipline of Critical Care will hold three Meetings in June 2024 

This year I am co-supervising an ILP student on the Pelvic Floor Tension Myalgia Project along with Dr Erin Nesbitt-Hawes and Prof Abbott.

This year I will be allocated 12 student projects to read and assess within the CTU format in the eMED portal.

 Adult Health #1 Respiratory: Phase 2 (3rd Year) -Respiratory Assessment tutor with 12 students per group. August 8th and September 19th 2023. I ran a 2 hour tutorial commencing in Edmund Blackett Building where the medical students discuss and role play respiratory symptoms, such as stridor and wheeze. I then take them to the post cardiac surgery ward (Dickinson 3S) to listen to clinical signs including basal crepitations and pleural effusions, both common findings after cardiac surgery. Often there is also a preoperative cardiac valve patient happy to allow students to listen to their murmur, whilst they await their surgery 

For more than 5 years, Prof. Abbott has had UNSW GRACE ILP students present in the Tuesday gynaecology theatre awaiting endometriosis specimens for their laboratory research. 

I teach them critical care skills including IV cannulation, general Anaesthesia with discussion of medications, endotracheal intubation, ventilation and discuss analgesia and post op care.  

 2013 - present: 65 documented assessments on Anaesthesia registrars are visible in my training supervisor portal. These are on cardiac, obstetric, and thoracic cases where the episode of teaching was followed by a formal discussion. The registrar then reflects and writes up the episode, it appears in my portal, and I do a formal assessment online.
 

 I am an active member of the Prince of Wales Department of Anaesthesia, teaching at general and cardiothoracic department meetings regularly largely on the topic of optimising transfusion management for surgery using viscoelastic “point of care” assays. 

I have presented this twice to the intensive care grand rounds. Attendees at such meetings range from students to senior clinicians. 

My teaching passion is that more education programmes could be implemented, in a multidisciplinary way, to improve management of massive transfusion across many scenarios.

 I have worked with the registrars, creating 6 poster presentations at national conferences and 4 online modules shared nationally through the ASA. 

I continue to provide regular informal teaching in the operating theatre two days per fortnight in the cardiothoracic operating theatre directly teaching registrars and students from many disciplines. 

This teaching is largely on Anaesthesia for cardiothoracic surgery and on Transoesophageal ECHO which I learnt in my Masters’ degree at University of Melbourne in 2017-2019.

Feedback on my approach to teaching is provided through formal and informal evaluation with many of the sessions I have provided having either written or electronic feedback. This includes feedback from Conferences where I have presented. Feedback on my informal teaching, and lecturing style has been extremely positive.
 

Examples (from my 2021 Multi Source Feedback forms from mixed members of staff, including registrars):
 

“Cath is always happy to answer any questions that you may have, it is very evident that she loves to teach”
 

“Doctor Downs is a superb communicator who gives excellent handovers and manages all situations with ease and extraordinary care”
 

“Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Treats all members of the team with utmost respect, and professionalism. Assists junior nursing staff in professional development”
 

“Dr Downs is an outstanding advocate for her patients and manages all aspects of their care. She is respectful of patients and staff who have diverse cultural backgrounds. She is approachable at all times.”
 

“Excellent teacher and always explains current trends in anaesthesia, equipment and pharmacology. She is an outstanding clinical resource, giving education to all staff.”
 

“Catherine is highly professional and very ethical, a perfect role model” “Catherine is always keen to teach and to share experiences.”
“If conflict arises, she always tries to hear both sides of the story before helping to resolve”

 

 In this role I formally supervised 4-5 registrars per term, meeting with them during the term and collating written assessments on their skills, then writing their end of term reports. Between 24 and 30 registrars formally overseen, educated, assessed as competent for obstetric Anaesthesia and signed off for their ANZCA training during these years.

 1999-2005: I was involved in sourcing and coordinating patients for the Anaesthesia fellowship examinations on 3 occasions when the ANZCA exams were held in Randwick.
 

 I have been the conference convener for 3 post graduate NSW Anaesthesia meetings in my time on the ACE Committee, and spoken many times at these meetings, usually held at the Hilton hotel, Sydney.

2012-2023-I organised quarterly M&M meetings for POWPH along with chairing POWPH anaesthetic committee for 11 years, total 44 M&M meetings .  This has included many Emergency response workshop education sessions, meeting ANZCA college approval for CPD for my participants, on the management of anaphylaxis, cardiac arrest and massive haemorrhage under Anaesthesia 

 2017-current: I published a book chapter in Australasian Anaesthesia in 2017 on how to implement ROTEM guided transfusion into new hospitals. Since then, I have mentored 6 major new sites. The NSW committee for ROTEM/Viscoelastic Assay guided transfusion had its first meeting in March 2023 and attendees included Port Macquarie, Wollongong, Concord and Nepean campus leaders. At this meeting I presented Randwick campus protocols and challenges and largely mentored these new sites as they implement ROTEM guided changes to local transfusion practices. I am working with Werfen to establish a formal mentor/mentee programme for ROTEM based transfusion practice so that we can recruit more mentors to this task and help new sites as they come on board.  

Over 25 years in this department, I have mentored at least one ANZCA trainee per year over this time.
 

 In both 2002 and 2003 I completed annual 2-week trips to Yangon Myanmar (Burma). On each of these trips I was allocated two junior anaesthetists to mentor. Interplast trips were largely doing paediatric and neonatal lip and palate surgery.

 In terms of patient Blood Management, I have taught at all levels from nurses to JMOs to include my senior surgeons and intensivists at department meetings and Grand Rounds and I am the instigator and architect of the ROTEM education program for Randwick Clinical Campus, and I chair the working party. I published a book chapter in 2017, on Introducing the Point of Care ROTEM technology to new hospitals. I was on faculty at the WERFEN India certificate course in Patient Blood Management and I am also mentoring Nepean, Port Macquarie, and Wollongong Hospitals as they implement point of care testing for massive transfusion. 

 I have created the Critical Bleeding Protocol orientation video and other resources used for new staff, JMOs and Nurses and done many teaching sessions with the students, junior and senior doctors and nurses on the topic of Patient Blood Management.
This video is available under educational resources on this website or at:

https://youtu.be/QQxQEBWifUQ