Every time actress Alexandra Davies features in another dramatic scene as Cate McMasters, Registered Nurse and Ambulance Paramedic at All Saints General Hospital, the phones run hot at Charles Sturt University (CSU). That’s because CSU is one of the few universities in Australia to offer the double degree Bachelor of Nursing/Bachelor of Clinical Practice (Paramedic). Veronica Madigan, senior lecturer and PHC (pre-hospital care) course coordinator, says CSU started pre-hospital care education in Australia and was the first to offer the double degree. This year it was the most popular double degree to enrol at CSU. “The television drama All Saints has a couple of nurses who are also fully trained paramedics.You see them in their two uniforms at different times in the show so one day they might be a triage sister and in the next scene they might be out on the road as a paramedic,”  Veronica Madigan explained. In Menindee (population 980, 110 kilometres south-east of Broken Hill) there are no doctors but there are Advanced Care Nurses who are also paramedics. “At night they instantly revert to the ambulance service. When there’s a call out they are the ones who jump in the ambulance and retrieve the patients and decide whether or not they need to be flown out or taken on-road to Broken Hill. The diversity is amazing and one of the reasons our students are keen about this course.”

Seven Charles Sturt University (CSU) Study Centre Sydney students from countries including Cambodia, Switzerland and Russia received Dean’s Awards for academic excellence this week at a ceremony in Darlinghurst. Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Professor John Hicks presented Dean’s Awards to Bachelor of Business Studies graduate Ruchik Ganghi from India and students Regine Kilmanek, Germany and Daniela Scarcia, Switzerland. Associate Professor John Messing from CSU’s School of Information Studies presented Dean’s Awards to Bachelor of IT students Anatoli Kovelev, Russia; Dara So, Cambodia; Ji Xin Jia from China and Sui Hei Muk from Hong Kong. CSU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Goulter,said the awards reflected CSU’s vision of a national university known for its excellence in education and applied research with a flexible delivery of learning and teaching.

Allied health students from Charles Sturt University (CSU) accompanied by two academic staff leave this weekend to spend up to six weeks working with children in a Vietnamese orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.The students will gain important practical experience working with the children, many of whom have severe disabilities. Organised by the University’s School of Community Health, this is the fourth visit by the health students and staff to the Phu My orphanage which provides schooling and health care for around 350 orphans. The 11 students who are studying physiotherapy, speech pathology and occupational therapy,have raised $2 700 from student clubs and fundraising to purchase resources and equipment for the orphanage and pay for Vietnamese interpreters.  

World renowned film director and creator of Star Wars movies George Lucas has spread a bit of his Force into the Border region this month with official recognition to a special local family for their film Star Wars: Attack of the Webbs. Lucas, Tegan, Grace and Faith Webb, wrote and starred in the four-minute film with assistance from four of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Speech Pathology students and the editorial help of a final-year Albury High School student. The original story, loosely based on the Star Wars movies, includes cast interviews and comic out-takes. All the Webb children involved in the movie suffer from a rare genetic disease that affects their growth and they received the full red-carpet treatment last year at CSU for the world premiere of the movie. The Webb children received autographed awards from Lucas who stated that he enjoyed their movie very much. The signed statuettes of the Star Wars character Yoda were sent to the Webbs in recognition of the efforts of all involved in the movie’s production. Lucas said the Yoda figure was most appropriate, stating “it sounds like all of you are believers in Yoda’s words: ‘Do or do not – there is no try’.”

Fifty-three first-year veterinary science students at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Wagga Wagga Campus were each presented with a free stethoscope last week. The stethoscopes, valued at $159 each, were donated by the manufacturer, Welch Allyn Australia, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of medical diagnostic instruments, and the veterinary wholesale company Lyppard. In presenting the stethoscopes, Welch Allyn’s distribution sales manager, Andrew Petersen and Lyppard’s Andrea Baker said their companies wanted to demonstrate support for CSU’s new Veterinary Science program and its first-year students. CSU is the first regional university in Australia to train veterinary science students. The inaugural intake of 45 students successfully completed their first year of studies in 2005.

Network Ten's Sydney news director, David Breen, is making a hurried visit by helicopter to Charles Sturt University (CSU) Bathurst Campus next Tuesday (4 April) to announce a special opportunity to broadcast journalism students. Kay Nankervis, Associate Lecturer in Journalism in the School of Communication, says Mr Breen will unveil a "competition which is exclusive to our students. He wants ten of our students to visit his news room this year. He will pick the person who performs best over a week and give them six weeks paid work experience at the end of the year." Mr Breen will address those third year journalism students majoring in broadcast, telling them what to expect when they walk into a newsroom fresh from university. Ms Nankervis says it is invaluable information for the would-be journalists. "They learn exactly what news directors are looking for. They get to hear from a person who's working in the industry, who's a hirer and firer. They get to find out what the directors don't like about young journalists, and what they do like about them." The visit is the first in a series of lectures to Communications students from media professionals, including Mark Llewellen, head of news at Channel Nine, and Heather May, ABC’s cadetship co-ordinator.

The future of the universe from the perspective of science and the Christian theological tradition will be explored in a conference sponsored by Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Public and Contextual Theology Research Centre (PACT). From Resurrection to Return: Perspectives from Theology and Science on Christian Eschatology follows conferences on science and theology in Canberra in 2001 and in Adelaide in 2004. The conference will be held on Wednesday 29 March and Thursday 30 March in St Mark’s National Theological Centre and the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Barton, ACT. Among the keynote speakers are renowned theologian and New Testament scholar, Rt. Reverend Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham; Reverend Professor Robert J. Russell, founder and director of the Centre for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley, California; and Reverend Professor Ted Peters, Professor of Theology, Pacific Lutheran Seminary and co-editor of Theology and Science. “The conference is an exciting opportunity for scholars from various disciplines to share insights on an important theme and strengthen our links nationally and internationally in the science and religion dialogue,” said PACT Director, Professor James Haire.

If you are worried by the conflict between providing traditional and computer play experiences for your child then you are invited to a seminar in Albury on Wednesday 22 March. Titled What's Play in the New Millennium?, leading Charles Sturt University (CSU) education researcher Professor Robyn Zevenbergen will discuss what play looks like in a time where digital images dominate so much of the adult world. The CSU academic will also examine whether the digital environment is a quality substitute for play and whether it is real for modern children. The seminar will be held from 6pm in the Robert Brown Room in Albury City Council, Kiewa St, Albury. This is the first of several workshops to be offered during 2006 by CSU's Murray School of Education.

Rural health inequalities will be on the agenda of an international social work conference attended by leading rural social researcher Professor Margaret Alston from Charles Sturt University (CSU). Hosted by Coventry University in the UK from Monday 27 March, the three-day conference will examine building international social work collaboration on health inequalities research. As Professor of Social Work and Human Services at CSU, Margaret Alston will discuss the issue of “Globalisation, rural restructuring and the Australian rural health system: a failure of policy – where to for social work?”. “Unfortunately rural health inequalities are not limited to Australia, but we can do much better in addressing this disadvantage. This conference gives me the chance to share my ideas with others on how we might better respond,” said Professor Alston. The UK conference has attracted speakers from Australia, Canada, China, Estonia, India and the USA.