Facilities at Nepean clinical school

Nepean Hospital is the newest major teaching hospital of the University of Sydney. The clinical school building was designed specifically for teaching medical students and fellows and consists of:

• Tutorial rooms
• Level 2 auditorium
• Level 3 auditorium
• Seminar room
• Student computer room
• Clinical skills centre
• Nepean hospital library service

The rooms are located on level 5 South Block. Each room has a capacity to accommodate approximately 10-12 students with computer access in each room. Most Pt-Dr and PBL tutorials are held in these rooms.

Level 2 Auditorium can accommodate 113 people and has the latest audio-visual and video conferencing equipment.

Located on Level 3, West Block. It can accommodate 70 people and is fitted with excellent audiovisual technology and an adjunct kitchenette.

Located on level 5 South Block, the seminar room has the latest video conferencing and audio-visual technology . It can seat approximately 35 people.

The room comprises of 8 computer stations and a networked printer. USydMP students are provided with 24 hour access.

The Nepean Clinical Skills Centre is located on Level 5 in the South Block of Nepean Hospital. The Centre provides a safe and supportive environment for medical students to obtain their clinical skills training. The Clinical Skills Educators provide most of the Procedural skills training at Nepean. Some of our training is provided through collaboration with our colleagues from appropriate Clinical specialties.
Nepean Clinical Skills Centre offers students a comprehensive range of procedural skills that aim to enhance their overall experience. Skills range from, but are not limited to, routine general observations, intravenous cannulation, Basic Life Support, seizure management and spinal immobilisation.
The Skills centre has an extensive range of equipment available for teaching procedural skills including simulation and anatomical models as well as diagnostic equipment. In addition Nepean provides students with access to an extensive library of videos and books.
The coordination and organization of special events that involve patients and relevant clinicians is an integral part of medical students training here at Nepean. Some events are:

• Drug and Alcohol SCORPIO
• Psychiatric teaching program
• Paediatric Allied health workshop
• Sexual Health workshop

The Wentworth Area Health Service provides library services for all employees and students while on attachment to the Area Health Service, this includes students of the Western Clinical School. The Library is a relaxing place in which to work and study and the small team providing the services work hard to make sure the collection is relevant to the information needs of those who use the collection and the services. The main collection is located at Nepean Hospital on Level 5, Spurrett Building (South Block) and there is another collection at the Blue Mountains Hospital at Katoomba. The focus of the collection is medicine, nursing, allied health, mental health, community health issues, health promotion and health administration. An effort is made to include the latest editions of recommended texts in the collection for student access. The collection is primarily print based and has around 8,000 books, subscriptions to around 200 journals and about 500 videos. The books and videos may be borrowed but as a general rule the journals are not for loan. When particular books are in heavy demand the borrowing period may be limited by refusing to extend loans during the demand period.

The Library is open Monday – Wednesday 8.30 am – 6.00 pm, Thursday 8.30 am – 7.00 pm and Friday 8.30 am – 5.00 pm. The Library has no after hours access. A close but discrete relationship is maintained with the libraries in Western Sydney Area Health Service but library policies and procedures are not necessarily the same.

All borrowers must register as a library client before they may borrow material from the collection. WAHS ID must be presented at the time of registering. To ensure the collection is available for all borrowers in a timely way, a loan period of two weeks with the possibility of one extension of a further two weeks is allowed per item. A fines policy is in place for overdue returns. After hours returns can be made by returning material through the after hours chute in the library’s front door. Items returned overnight are taken as being returned at closing time the previous working day

Reference material may be borrowed overnight. It can be borrowed an hour before closing time and must be returned at or before the next time the library opens.

Reservations can be requested for items on loan to another borrower. This will ensure a renewal cannot be made on the loan. You will be advised when the book is available for loan and it will be held awaiting collection for one week.

Computer access
There are four public access computers available in the Library for use by all staff and students on attachment to the Area Health Service. These computers are designed to supplement those specifically installed for student use in the Clinical School.

CIAP (NSW Clinical Information Access Program)
The library staff provide assistance in effectively using the databases and other information resources available through CIAP, and are able to assist with the performance of literature searches. CIAP is available via the intranet and externally via the Internet on the NSW Health website.

Photocopying
Two colour enabled photocopiers are available for public copying in the library. Both machines are card operated and the copy cards must be purchased at the library desk. All students are required to pay for the copying they do on the Library’s copiers. One of the copiers also acts as the printer for the four PCs in the Library.

All copying must be in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Copyright Act 1968. Among other things the Act prohibits multiple copies being made of articles or extracts from books. If you are uncertain about the restrictions imposed by the Act please ask a member of the library staff.