Work experience opportunities at Caulfield Hospital

Departments

Students will gain experience in the following departments:

Aged Mental Health

The Caulfield Hospital provides inpatient and community assessment, treatment and ongoing management for people generally over the age of 65 years with psychiatric, psychological, and behavioural disturbance. We offer the following services:

• Baringa Inpatient Unit - an inpatient assessment unit. Acute inpatient services provide a range of therapeutic interventions and programs to patients and their families to learn more about the impact of the illness, explore ways to better manage the illness, improve coping strategies and move towards recovery.
• Mobile Community Aged Psychiatry Service (MAPS) - a community mental health service which operates in business hours and consists of an interdisciplinary team which undertakes community based assessment, treatment and case management of older persons with mental health problems living in the Inner South East region of Melbourne. Community mental health responses use an assertive outreach approach that may result in clinical staff being involved with people for extended periods of time or providing more episodic care.
• Consultation & Liaison (CL) service - consists of medical and nursing staff and operates in business hours and providing mental health assessment, treatment and support to inpatients of Caulfield Hospital and the Transitional Care Program.

Find out more about Aged Inpatient Mental Health and Aged Community Mental Health

Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapists (OT's) aim to empower individuals to achieve and maintain their optimal level of independence when performing daily activities such as showering, cooking, working, recreation, and accessing the community. The Occupational Therapy department provides services to in-patients, out-patients and same day rehab patients. We run a variety of groups and also conduct individual sessions with clients. We work on the wards, in the OT department, in people's homes and in the community.

OT’s are especially interested in gathering information about how people manage to complete their daily activities and we also assess the person’s home, work and community environments to determine if any environmental modifications would increase the person’s safety and independence in carrying out their daily activities. All of this is done with the aim of enabling individuals to manage more independently and to promote participation in meaningful activities.

Find out more about Occupational Therapy

Pharmacy

The Pharmacy department is focused on delivering the best quality medication management for our patients. Our dedicated staff work side-by-side with doctors and nurses to ensure that our patients receive the full benefit from their medication therapy. Many of our clinical pharmacists have post-graduate qualifications specialising in the complex medical conditions that are treated at Caulfield Hospital.

Work experience students will observe the daily running of the department, experience the interaction between pharmacy and other disciplines and see how the delivery of specialist pharmacy expertise impacts the healthcare journey. 

Find out more about Pharmacy

Physiotherapy

Alfred Health’s Physiotherapy department is the clinical school for Monash and Latrobe University. At Caulfield Hospital, the Physiotherapy department provides intensive specialist service to rehabilitation and aged care patients. The service is organised into three clinical streams which include: neurological rehabilitation, orthopaedic, amputee and general rehabilitation and aged care.

Work experience students will spend one day in the physiotherapy department and will have the opportunity to gain some insight into the profession by observing clinicians in action, complete tasks under supervision and ask question about the profession.

Find out more about Physiotherapy

Prosthetics and Orthotics

This is a specialised service providing clinical assessment and evaluation for a wide range of clients with limb loss and deficiency leading to the custom prescription, design and manufacture of prostheses in our facility. We provide prosthetic rehabilitation services as well as comprehensive definitive management. We are committed to working closely with the amputee medical team as well as with allied health professionals including physiotherapists, occupational therapists and podiatrists.

Students can expect to observe the day to day functions of the unit, learn about prosthetic limbs and interact with other Allied Health professionals.

Find out more about Prosthetics and Orthotics

Speech Pathology

Our Speech Pathologist are experts in the assessment, diagnosis and management of problems relating to communication, swallowing and voice. Speech Pathologists treat patients with communication and swallowing disorders that arise from a number of different causes. This can include brain injuries (stroke), deteriorating diseases (Motor Neurone Disease or Parkinson's Disease), cancer affecting the head and neck burns affecting the head and neck, and breathing problems.

Students will have the opportunity to shadow a speech pathologist for half a day, observing clinical bedside swallow exams, language and cognitive assessments, individual or group therapy sessions across the aged care and rehab wards.

Find out more about Speech Pathology