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Opening Address by Prof Julie Quinlivan, Dean School of Medicine, Notre Dame Sydney at the blessing and opening of the Darlinghurst Campus and Medical School of the University of Notre Dame Australia
13 July 2008 @ 11.00 am @ Sacred Heart Church, Darlinghurst
Cardinal Pell, Vice chancellor, distinguished guests
I acknowledge the Eoro people the traditional owners of this land.
One of the most famous battles in history is Marathon, in 490 BC. It was a battle of opposites. Thames and Hudson describe how the tiny democratic city-state opposed an empire many times its size. It reminds me of the audacity of the small and young Notre Dame University to attempt to develop not one, but two medical schools. The Sydney medical announcement awoke to a hostile eastern states secular university community response, and at time, evoked in the small start up team of medical school faculty, feelings reminiscent of what Militiades must have felt. Militiades, for those less familiar with ancient Greek history, was the commander of the Athens army at the battle of Marathon.
As the Battle of Marathon reflected a clash of cultures, so it was resolved early that the Sydney medical school would not merely copy practices present in other medical schools, even our sister school in Fremantle. Instead, it was decided that it would create its own culture, its own points of difference. Like any rational command team, we readily accepted those educational initiatives that are clearly working, such as problem based curriculum in the preclinical years. However, we sought to be different in those areas of medical education that have faltered and not worked in recent years around the world.
From this came the School's "8 points of difference". I think I have now given this talk to over 100 audiences in the past three years, and the school faculty have certainly given it another 100 times.
So briefly, what are the points of difference?
First and foremost is curriculum. We focused across the preclinical years on a return to basics in biomedical science. We have returned emphasis to key disciplines of anatomy, pathology, pharmacology and physiology. By example, the School anatomy curriculum is now regarded as the finest in Australia, a tribute to Dr Adams, our Head of Anatomy, and the RACS have now adopted it as the curriculum for the 1st part examinations in anatomy for surgeons. In pathology, we sought to align to private enterprise, forming a world first collaboration in teaching undergraduate pathology with a memorandum with DHM [Douglass Hanly Moir] pathology. This agreement will see Notre Dame Sydney medical students access a new $200 million DHM facility that processes 35,000 specimens a day, and receive teaching from 23 of the finest private sector pathologists in Australia, lead by the DHM-Notre Dame Chair in Pathology, Professor Annabelle Farnsworth.
The second point of difference was in clinical skills training, where students receive 2 hours a week of training in clinical skills each week under direct tuition of a senior clinician. This happens every week, every year of the course. We utilize the clinical facilities on this site to provide a solid grounding in clinical skills training, before the students enter the clinical years.
The 3rd point of difference is selection. We extended the Notre Dame University principle of selection to make sure that medical students are selected on their commitment to religious, cultural, social, and community life, their interview performance and their marks. We select students as individuals.
The 4th point of difference is the core curriculum, which has been aligned to the medical course to enable philosophy, ethics and theology to reflect issues raised within the course.
The 5th point of difference has been the inclusion of weekly debriefing tutorials that enable students to reflect upon those factors that make a doctor ethical and a professional.
The final points of difference relate to pastoral care, short courses and our clinical years model. This later incorporates a return of the mentoring model of medical education originally made famous by Cambridge University and which was lost to the medical education model until revived by Notre Dame Sydney. It will be blended with the traditional block rotation model.
The School has been blessed to attract outstanding faculty who, in many cases, left higher paid jobs to join the embryonic medical school. The passion of the school staff brings these buildings we open today, to life. Their enthusiasm and competence are cornerstones to success. Likewise, the SON [School of Nursing] have attracted outstanding faculty, lead initially by Professor Barbara Newman until she became ill, and since 2006 by Professor Margot Kearns.
In 2007, the medical school received 6 years accreditation by the Australian Medical Council, and an acknowledgement of our curriculum initiatives.
Currently, we are looking to select candidates for entry into our 2nd student cohort. It has been gratifying to see marketplace approval for the curriculum with Notre Dame Sydney officially the most competitive medical school in Australia for entry, with more 1st preference applications per place than any other graduate medical school. In describing why they have selected Notre Dame Sydney, the applicants repeatedly state it is due to the curriculum, the selection process, and the Catholic values of the University.
The last area is one where we receive constant comment. The best answer to critics is to remind them that a Catholic University must be an excellent university and likewise, a Catholic medical school, like Catholic healthcare across Australia, must be an excellent organisation. In Jesus we have the ultimate role model and must always attempt to follow his example, even if it means the road is not easy.
As Robert Frost states in my favourite poem,
"2 roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference".
To finish, I return to the Battle of Marathon, where without Greek victory, Athens would not have produced Sophocles, Socrates, Plato or Aristotle. Nor would the Olympics have the marathon as its cornerstone event.
Vice Chancellor and Cardinal Pell, I congratulate you on your audacity to commit to Notre Dame Sydney and to this medical school. Whilst we are unlikely to produce a Plato, if we can produce doctors who are caring, competent, community minded and understand the creed of the Church, then who knows where our graduates will lead us in the future.
Thank you.
Note: These speaking notes were kindly handed to Stephen Milgate, Executive Director, Australian Doctors' Fund by Prof Julie Quinlivan at the opening of Notre Dame University on request by Stephen. They have been retyped by the Australian Doctors' Fund for distribution. The ADF thanks Notre Dame Sydney for the invitation to be part of this historic event.
The buildings of Notre Dame Medical School, Darlinghurst Campus were blessed by His Eminence George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney and opened by Reverend Edward A Malloy CSC, President Emeritus, University of Notre Dame USA.
The ceremony took place in the restored Sacred Heart Church, 180 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst, Sydney (near St Vincents Hospital) at 11.00am on 13 July 2008. The buildings of the University Medical School have been restored from the traditional church facilities and a new building added in sympathy with the heritage architecture. Architect Marcus Collins; Builders Equiset Sydney.
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