Patient Volunteer Programme: Female Teaching Associates

What is the Female Teaching Associate (TA) Programme?

Volunteers in the current Patient Volunteer Programme provide an opportunity for students to practice their physical examination and communication skills in a simulated setting in the Clinical Skills Centre of the Graduate School of Medicine (GSM). The Female TA Programme is an extension of this programme and has been running successfully for the last 3 years. We will continue to recruit and train women from the community to provide teaching and feedback to medical students, whilst themselves being examined.

Purpose

The programme will provide the opportunity for medical students to practice intimate physical examinations with these women in a controlled, safe, educational setting. By receiving immediate feedback from the Female TAs, the students can learn the skills required in a sensitive and professional environment. The TA Programme enables medical students to:

Gain confidence in both the fine technical skills and the sensitive communication skills required to undertake a genital or breast examination; and
Learn to perform genital or breast examinations in a non-threatening environment with immediate feedback and guidance from an experienced, trained ‘patient’
Maximise learning via a small group setting and standardised method of instruction.

Volunteer Status

As an extension of the Patient Volunteer Programme, the status for Teaching Associates at the University is “volunteer”. This means that Teaching Associates can be covered during their time at the GSM by “UOW Volunteer Workers Personal Accident Insurance”.

Each session will last up to two hours and participants will receive a gift in appreciation of the high level of contribution to the teaching of our students. This is made in the form of a gift card to a well established retail group at a rate of $34.93/hour for training and reserve sessions; and $69.86/hour for physical examination sessions.

Examinations

The intimate examinations include:

Breast Examination – Palpation of breast and surrounding area including under arms
Bi-manual pelvic examination – The student would feel the position and consistency of the uterus and the ovaries and any abnormalities in the pelvic cavity and lower abdomen.
Introduction of speculum to locate and view the cervix – The speculum is introduced to the vagina, opened and locked and the cervix viewed.

Recruitment

As part of the recruitment of more women onto the programme we will conduct interviews and an initial examination. The examination after interview serves a number of purposes:

To give the women the experience of what a good examination should feel like and familiarise both with individual anatomy.
To ascertain the woman’s suitability for the programme.
To ensure there is no pathology present before taking part in examination sessions with students.

Training for participants

To ensure a quality programme, after interview and assessment examination, TA's will participate in intensive, regular and ongoing training. The training before interaction with the students will include anatomy of the pelvis, terminology and constructive feedback techniques.

All sessions and training of Teaching Associates will be medically supervised. Discussion on any potential risks will be covered during the training session e.g. discomfort, tenderness. No medical advice will be given and no treatment given for any condition. If however any problems are identified during a session, this will be discussed with you in private and an appropriate referral will be made.

Further Information

These sessions will be carried out at both GSM campus locations at Wollongong and Shoalhaven. If you are interested in the TA Programme, you will need to complete an Expression of Interest form which can be directly downloaded from this website. For more information please speak to either of the Patient Volunteer Coordinators.