Department of Rural Allied Health facilities

Our clinical learning environments are located at La Trobe’s Albury-Wodonga, Bendigo, Mildura and Shepparton campuses. These spaces replicate those encountered in real clinical settings, specifically hospital wards and treatment centres. They allow collaborative, experiential approaches to learning and teaching for Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy students.

The facilities feature hospital electric beds; linen, medication and dressing trolleys; piped oxygen and suction systems; intravenous infusion, syringe drivers, feeding pumps, epidural and patient-controlled analgesia pumps; portable and invasive and non-invasive ventilators.

Our simulated birthing suite includes a birthing bed, resuscitator and Cardiotocography (CTG) machine. We also use a wide range of high and medium-technology manikins and simulators including SimMan 3G high-tech simulator, SimMan essentials high-tech simulator, SimMom, SimNewB and nursing resuscitation manikins.

This laboratory supports students to learn how to assess exercise capacity and prescribe exercise. Cameras allow teaching staff to monitor student performance.

The laboratory includes a main strength training and aerobic conditioning area, a private consultation and assessment room, and a small kitchen, which is used by students to investigate how eating before exercise impacts metabolic health.

This laboratory supports students to perfect exercise and health assessments, and to understand how the body reacts to exercise under different environmental conditions. Students also get to meet with Bendigo athletes and junior competitors.

This laboratory opens onto the La Trobe Bendigo campus’s basketball court, where researchers use it to establish the physical capacity of elite athletes.

These laboratories at La Trobe’s Bendigo campus give Sport and Exercise Science and Exercise Physiology students hands-on experience in motor control. Specialist equipment includes electromyography, electroencephalography and transcranial magnetic stimulation to measure proprioception, and muscle and neural activity.

Our Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy students also use this space. These laboratories mimic realistic clinical settings for neurological rehabilitation, and musculoskeletal and cardiovascular physiotherapy, giving students the opportunity to practise their assessment and intervention skills.

This laboratory gives our students the opportunity to practise their skills in collecting, analysing and interpreting motion data from walking, jumping and squats. They can also assess muscle function and body composition, using equipment like ultrasound probes and electromyography, to determine responses from acute and chronic exercise training. Researchers also use this equipment to measure changes in bone density, fat and muscle mass, and to discover the best rehabilitation practices for people with osteoarthritis.

The laboratory features an eight-camera system that tracks full body motion and two force platforms to provide information on impact forces. It also has a wireless electromyography system, a pressure mapping system, an instrumented walkway to analyse gait and a portable motion tracking system.

This laboratory is a key teaching space for Paramedicine students to establish their clinical skills. It is fully equipped with industry-standard medical equipment that is used in ambulance services around Australia.

This outdoor space supports students to develop and test their paramedic skills in realistic simulated motor vehicle accidents and other outdoor incidents. It features an open concreted area, bordered by high concrete walls, and up to three non-registered motor vehicles. Real emergency vehicles are also able to access the space via the carpark, to assist with scenarios.

The simulated residence at La Trobe’s Bendigo campus supports our Occupational Therapy and Paramedicine students to practise their skills in a realistic home environment.

The facility includes a simulated bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, lounge and entry space. A wall-mounted television screen is connected to a computer system in the control room of the paramedicine practical laboratory. Ceiling-mounted cameras and microphones are integrated to allow staff and students to record scenarios and skills sessions, giving students detailed feedback on their performance.

La Trobe's telehealth training facilities ensure best practice training for Allied Health students and equip clinicians undertaking professional development. The facility features a telehealth audiovisual setup including microphone, cameras, display screens and computers; technology to stream or record video for larger groups of students or professionals; and mobile telehealth hardware to allow for high-quality offsite telehealth consultations.