The 2022 Tasmanian Rural Health Conference that was planned for March 2022 has been postponed until late 2022 due to the anticipated increase of COVID cases in Tasmania in early 2022.
In This Edition:
- From the Director
- Director Rural Generalist Training and Development - North West
- Escape to the Country: Lessons from Interviews with Rural General Practice Interns
- Rural GP Named Tasmania's Outstanding Palliative Care Professional
- Advanced Skills Posts in Palliative Care
- Additional Skills Training for RGs and GPs
- New Statewide ACRRM Coordinator
- ACRRM Skills Workshop
- RG Recognition through REEF Training
- Rural Health Webinars
- REST Course coming to Tasmania
- New Look Website
- Tasmanian Rural Health Conference 2022 - POSTPONED
- Growing Your Own Rural Generalists
From the Director
Exciting news for everyone wanting to train and recruit to rural practices. Doctors training and working rurally will be able to get their HECS and HELP debt paid off as of January 2022. Doctors working in MMM3-7 will have their training debts wiped off while they train; a benefit that may be as much as $100,000. Junior doctors will be able to train in our rural practices and both the North West Regional Hospital and Mersey Community Hospital.
We welcome that all MMM3-7 locations will automatically be classified as a Distribution Priority Area from 1st January 2022. This is great news, particularly in Tasmania where a few anomalies were creating huge issues with recruitment and retention.
Developing a centre for training Rural Generalists has begun with the advertisement for a new Rural Generalist post based at the Mersey Community Hospital. We are keen to hear from any suitable candidates; further details are included in this newsletter.
Our Tasmanian Rural Health Conference is a vital networking and learning opportunity for those of us that work rurally. We are really hoping that we can have a face-to-face conference next year and plan to postpone the conference from March 2022 to later in the year to allow this to happen. As we recognise, we may all be busy with COVID in March.
Take some time to also read about the innovative training model that Dr Natalie Burch has developed in Scottsdale to encourage and support young doctors to become Rural Generalists. We are keen to encourage more rural training sites, so if you are interested in taking on more learners please get in touch.
Congratulations to all the UTAS medical students who graduate this week. We are pleased that so many of them are staying on rurally and are choosing to be part of our rural intern program.
Lastly, thank you to all our rural doctors who have worked tirelessly this year preparing for the state border opening this week and with vaccination clinics, as well as supervising the next generation.
Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and all the best for 2022.
Professor Lizzi Shires – Director, Tas Rural Pathways
Director Rural Generalist Training and Development - North West
We are looking for an experienced Rural Generalist with a passion for clinical leadership!
Tasmania's beautiful North West is seeking a leader to establish and develop the North West Rural Generalist Training Hub centred around the Mersey Community Hospital in Latrobe.
This is a new role, created to operationalise the existing Tasmanian Rural Generalist Pathway in the North West with significant additional new funding for the program following the 2021 Tasmanian State Government election commitment. The successful applicant will work in close collaboration with the state-wide Tasmanian Rural Generalist Pathway Collaborative. The University of Tasmania Rural Clinical School in he North West offers opportunities for medical education and conjoint appointments.
For further details and to apply, visit the Tasmanian Government Careers website.
Escape to the Country: Lessons from Interviews with Rural General Practice Interns
Congratulations to Jess Andrewartha and Ben Dodds for their award-winning paper on Rural Junior Doctors in Tasmania. The team won the accolade of 2021 Best General Practice Research Article in the Australian Journal of General Practice Awards.
To read the paper, visit the Australian Journal of General Practice website.
Rural GP Named Tasmania's Outstanding Palliative Care Professional
Congratulations to Tim Andrewartha who was awarded Outstanding Palliative Care Professional at the 2021 Palliative Care Tasmania Awards.
Tim undertook his medical school training at the Rural Clinical School in Burnie and returned to the coast for his postgraduate training.
Tim undertook his advanced skills with the North West Palliative Care Service. He now works with the service across the North West Coast and as a GP in Wynyard.
Advanced Skills Posts in Palliative Care
Are you interested in an advanced skill in Palliative Care?
Tim Andrewartha's advanced skill in Palliative Care was combined with an academic post with the Rural Clinical School. We have three registrar posts in Palliative Care working across the North West Coast, at the Mersey Community Hospital and in the nursing homes. We have now had more than 11 registrars complete advanced or extended skills in these posts.
If you are interested in undertaking further training in this area, please contact us as tasrural.pathways@health.tas.gov.au.
Additional Skills Training for RGs and GPs
GP registrars and existing GPs may want to undertake additional skills training so they can upskill in a clinical area for their community or work more remotely. The Tasmanian Health Service is keen to support these posts and many of the clinical terms have accreditation for advanced skills.
HR+ offers scholarships and bursaries to undertake additional courses for health care workers working in MMM3-7.
Registrars should talk to their training providers about when it's best to undertake their advanced skills training. If you are a Fellowed GP and interested in developing an advanced skill and finding a post that meets your training needs, please contact us as tasrural.pathways@health.tas.gov.au and we can work with you to find the right post.
For more information on the scholarships, visit the HR+ website.
New State-wide ACRRM Coordinator
Welcome to Robyn Rose who has joined ACRRM as the first ACRRM Tasmanian Coordinator. Robyn brings with her over 20 years of experience from GPTT and we look forward to working with her in her new role.
Robyn can be contacted at r.rose@acrrm.org.au.
ACRRM Skills Workshop
ACRRMS registrars had a busy day at their skills workshop held at the Rural Clinical School on Saturday 4th December. The day focused on those skills that we need, but don't always see enough of to get practice in a clinical setting. Dennis Pashen, Nat Burch and Mel Venn provided expert facilitation of these successful skills workshops focusing on joint relocations and injections, airway and ultrasound skills. Aaron Hawkins and Ben Dodds did an amazing job organising this inaugural skills event and creating some amazing simulation trainers. It was a brilliant opportunity to network and upskill. Many thanks to everyone involved: RDAT for their sponsorship, the Rural Clinical School skills team for their work in organising set up and Robyn Rose for her photography.
RG Recognition through REEF Training
Rural Experienced Entry to Fellowship (REEF) recognises rural GP's existing skills and experience and provides an accelerated pathway to achieve Fellowship with ACRRM (FACRRM). REEF is specifically designed for doctors who hold specialist registration in General Practice in Australia.
If you are interested in joining ACRRM through this route, visit the ACRRM website.
Sponsorship will be available through the Tasmanian Rural Generalist Pathway in 2022. If you are interested in taking up this opportunity, please email us at tasrural.pathways@health.tas.gov.au.
Rural Health Webinars
The Rural Health Webinar Series presents free monthly webinars on rural and remote health topics, held on the first Thursday of the month. GPs can participate without leaving their practice or community, with relevant content tailored to their needs. They are run by RACGP rural and are available to members of both colleges and rural students and registrars.
We have had some amazing speakers on topics including burns, dental emergencies, climate change and the art of rural locuming.
To access the webinars, visit the RACGP website.
REST Course Coming to Tasmania
The Rural Emergency Skills Training (REST) course has been booked to be delivered in Tasmania in 2022. This course is designed by ACRRM to give rural GPs the emergency skills they need to practice rurally and remotely.
For further details and bookings, visit the ACRRM website.
Subsidised places will be available for registrars and GPs working in Tasmania RA3-5 via the Tasmanian Rural Generalist Pathway.
New Look Website
We are excited to announce that we have started an upgrade of our website and have some amazing stories to share from our RG registrars. Please take some time to visit the site. We welcome any feedback that would help existing and future RGs navigate their rural pathway.
In line with the Department of Health's upgraded website, the Tasmanian Rural Generalist Pathway webpage will be further updated in the early half of 2022.
To view our new look website, visit the Tasmanian Rural Generalist Pathway homepage.
Tasmanian Rural Health Conference 2022 - POSTPONED
The 2022 Tasmanian Rural Health Conference that was planned for March 2022 has been postponed due to the anticipated increase of COVID cases in Tasmania in early 2022.
Our Tasmanian Rural Health Conference is a vital networking and learning opportunity for those of us that work rurally. We are really hoping that we can have a face-to-face conference next year and plan to postpone the conference from March 2022 to later in the year to allow this to happen. Further announcements on expected dates are to be made shortly.
Growing Your Own Rural Generalists
The workforce crisis faced by Scottsdale prompted Dr Natalie Burch to explore a new model of supervision to grow their own Rural Generalists.
Dr Natalie Burch, the Medical Lead at Ochre Health Scottsdale, is a passionate teacher and has been a supervisor and medical educator for many years. Natalie is piloting a new model of supervision that allows her to supervise a team of doctors in training, thereby addressing the workforce and doctor training needs simultaneously. The new model has allowed Natalie to work across the spectrum of up-and-coming rural generalists from 4th year medical students through to senior registrars and international medical graduates to create a continuum of rural experience and training.
Since commencing this model 12 months ago, two PGY1-2 doctors have returned as rural GP registrars and some students have returned as junior doctors.
This model depends on the principal supervisor having no patient load of their own. The supervisor will wave (or parallel) consult with the students, PGY1 and PGY2 doctors. In this model, the junior doctor sees the patient independently then together with the supervisor to make a shared decision and management plan. This also leaves the supervisor more available for the registrars to ask questions and gain support for their learning in practice as needed.
On top of wave consulting and case-based feedback, Dr Burch has also developed a personalised education program.
"I've created a website that has an education program for each different doctor," says Dr Burch.
"Our interns, RMOs and students have training on Tuesdays, registrars on Thursdays and then there's a state-wide intern training program that I run as well."
The collaboration at Ochre Health Scottsdale encourages a socio constructive style of learning which is focused on group experience.
"Often the registrars lead the teaching sessions, and I might just pipe in and say, well this is my experience, and this is what I know," says Dr Burch.
"Instead of being a lecturer, I act as a guide to their learning."
Dr Ben Dodds, a 3rd year registrar chose to go to Scottsdale, due to the new training model.
"I chose Scottsdale because of the supportive teaching and learning environment," says Dr Dodds.
"Day to day, I know that Dr Burch is always available, whether you need her to come and see patient immediately, or if you're not too sure about something or whether you just want to ask what she would do differently in a situation."
Dr Dodds said there's a culture of talking about cases and learning from each other.
"The good thing about this model of supervision is that it is still evolving, and it will continue evolving based on who comes through the practice."
The model has been supported by Ochre which is keen to develop the Rural Generalist workforce for rural practices across Tasmania.
If you are interested in supervising junior doctors in practice please contact us as tasrural.pathways@health.tas.gov.au.
The Tasmanian Rural Generalist Pathway is supported by funding from the Australian Government under the National Rural Generalist Pathway Initiative.