Last Update: 17/05/2013 15:10
There are practical tools and resources available to assist
Fellows in everyday practice.
Please refer to the Position papers section of this website
for a list of guidelines and position papers developed by the
College.
Approved Continuing Medical Education (CME)
activities
Cancer Learning
Clinical handover
College Insurance
Conferences
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) tools
and resources
Correct patient, correct side and correct site
surgery
Guide to College Services and Programs
Digital diagnostic imaging
Fellowship Survey
FRACS corporate identity
Informed consent
Infection control
Keeping the doctor alive
Loans for travelling Fellows
Pain medicine
Patient education pamphlets
Sedation guidelines
Social media and the medical
profession
Support for surgeons
Surgical Safety Checklist
Travel
management
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) guidelines
Webmail
Website
Wireless
network
Approved Continuing Medical
Education (CME) activities
Access the list of educational activities that are
approved in the College's Continuing
Professional Development (CPD) Program and are awarded credit
points.
Cancer Learning
Cancer Learning is an online professional
development website designed specifically for health care
professionals, including surgeons working in cancer care. It was
developed by Cancer Australia in association with leading
Australian professional bodies and cancer organisations.
Conferences
View a list of conferences available to surgeons, to
assist with planning for attendance at major educational
activities.
Clinical
handover
College Insurance
The Insurance and Claims Manual for 30 June 2012 to 30
June 2013 has been compiled by Aon Risk Services which provides
a broad outline of the Colleges Insurance Program and offers
general information and assistance in understanding the various
insurance that have been arranged for the College.
Contact
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
College of Surgeons Gardens
250-290 Spring Street
East Melbourne VIC 3002 Australia
Telephone: +61 3 9249 1220
Fax: +61 3 9249 1219
Email: resources@surgeons.org
Continuing Professional
Development (CPD) resources and tools
The College has resources and tools to assist
with participation in the College's CPD Program.
Correct patient, correct
side and correct site surgery
The College has developed implementation guidelines for ensuring
correct patient, correct side and correct site surgery. The PDF
file with the guidelines is available in the Position
Papers section.
In addition, the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in
Health Care has developed a correct patient, correct side and correct site
protocol, consisting of brochures and fact sheets aimed at
doctors and patients.
Digital diagnostic imaging
The Australian health care system is experiencing a fundamental
change in the way diagnostic images are produced and transmitted,
with a transition from diagnostic images exposed or printed onto
film to images produced and transmitted digitally. This transition
has proven to be a challenge for both clinicians and radiologists.
View further resources in digital diagnostic
imaging.
Guide to College Resources and
Programs
The Guide to College Services and Programs (PDF
1Mb) provides a comprehensive overview of College services and
programs for Fellows.
Fellowship Survey
The 2010 Fellowship Survey (members
only; login required) was completed by a large and representative
sample of Fellows and provides important information to inform
College strategy, budgets and
operations. The Fellowship Survey was presented
to Council in June 2011.
FRACS corporate identity
The College has introduced new corporate identity guidelines,
including a logo and stationery templates specifically for the use
of Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS).
These guidelines provide information about FRACS corporate identity
and the use of logos and templates as a Fellow.
For further information please refer to FRACS
corporate identity (members only; login required).
Informed consent
The College has a policy on informed consent (PDF 42Kb). Other resources
include:
Infection control
The College has developed a position paper on infection control. Other
resources include:
Keeping the doctor
alive
Keeping the Doctor Alive: A Self-Care Guidebook for Medical
Practitioners has been developed by the Royal Australian College of
General Practitioners (RACGP) .
- The purpose of the guidebook is to provide medical
practitioners with information and resources on strategies for
self-care as an essential element of their professional life.
- The guidebook is intended to facilitate discussion and
exploration of the personal and professional issues facing medical
practitioners.
- The information and exercises are best used as tools for peer
support groups (or individuals) to stimulate debate and develop
strategies for self-care which suit each individual.
- Fellows who complete the exercises in the guidebook are
eligible to claim one point per hour in Category 7 of the College's
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program.
For further information, please visit the RACGP website
or telephone +61 3 8699 0488.
Loans for travelling
Fellows
Read information about loans for travelling
Fellows.
Pain medicine
A Fellowship of Pain Medicine is available to Fellows of the
College to build on existing surgical qualifications. The College
is a parent body of the Australian
and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) Faculty of Pain
Medicine.
The establishment of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, incorporating
true multidisciplinary representation from medical specialties, is
an important and innovative advance in dealing with the management
of acute, chronic non-malignant and cancer pain, which collectively
remain one of society's major problems.
Fellows of the faculty will be expected to have a wide knowledge
of the clinical, biopsychosocial and humanitarian perspectives of
all aspects of pain and should be well placed within the next
millennium to follow what will most certainly be a developing and
challenging career path.
For more information, access the Faculty of Pain
Medicine website.
Patient education
pamphlets
Patient education pamphlets have been developed in a range of
surgical specialties to:
- assist communication with patients
- provide a tool for achieving informed
consent.
The pamphlets are developed, published and distributed by
specialist publishers in this field whose pamphlets are selected by
the College to carry the College crest. The publishers (Mi-tec and
Specialist Management Services) employ expert Fellows to ensure the
pamphlets are of the highest quality.
Patient education pamphlets for surgical procedures are
available from Mi-tec Medical Publishing and Specialist Management
Services (SMS). To order pamphlets, please contact:
Mi-tec Medical Publishing
Mi-tech order form (PDF 147Kb)
PO Box 24
Camberwell VIC 3124 Australia
Telephone: +61 3 9888 6262
Fax: +61 3 9888 6465
Mitec
website
Email: orders@mitec.com.au
Specialist Management Services (SMS)
Suite 2, Level 1, 47-51 Camberwell Road
Hawthorn East VIC 3123 Australia
Telephone: +61 3 9813 2025
Fax: +61 3 9813 2163
SMS
website
Email: info@smservices.net.au
Please note:
- The information in these pamphlets is general and does not
contain all known facts about the treatment or complaint.
- The benefits and risks of the treatment will depend on your
medical condition and may vary from person to person.
- These pamphlets are not a substitute for advice from your
doctor. Your doctor will answer your questions about diagnosis and
treatment.
Sedation guidelines
The College has approved the revised Guidelines on Sedation
and/or Analgesia for Diagnostic and Interventional Medical or
Surgical Procedures produced by The Australian and New Zealand
College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA).
This document is intended to apply wherever procedural sedation
and/or analgesia for diagnostic and interventional medical and
surgical procedures are administered, especially where sedation
and/or analgesia may lead to general anaesthesia. ANZCA recognises
that practitioners with diverse qualifications and training are
administering a variety of medications to patients to allow such
procedures to be performed. This document addresses pertinent
issues for all practitioners involved in such activities.
The guidelines are available on the ANZCA website.
Social media and the medical
profession: A guide to online professionalism for medical
practitioners and medical students
Although doctors and medical students are increasingly
participating in online social media, evidence is emerging from
studies, legal cases and media reports that the use of these media
can pose risks for medical professionals. Inappropriate online
behaviour can potentially damage personal integrity, doctor-patient
and doctor-colleague relationships, and future employment
opportunities. Our perceptions and regulations regarding
professional behaviour must evolve to encompass these new forms of
media.
A joint initiative of the Australian Medical Association (AMA)
Council of Doctors-in-Training, New Zealand Medical Association
Doctors-in-Training Council, New Zealand Medical Students'
Association and Australian Medical Students' Association has
developed a guide to assist doctors and medical students to
continue to enjoy the online world, while maintaining professional
standards. The guide is available through the AMA
website.
Support for surgeons
The College encourages all surgeons to recognise and discuss the
challenges facing them and to ensure that self care is part of
managing professional life. View a list with sources of support for
surgeons.
Surgical
Safety Checklist
To improve surgical safety worldwide, the World Health
Organization (WHO) has released a safety checklist for surgical
teams to use in operating rooms. The checklist identifies three
phases of an operation, each corresponding to a specific period in
the normal flow of work. In each phase, the checklist helps teams
confirm that the critical safety steps are completed before it
proceeds with the operation.
The College has approved a revised Australia and New Zealand
edition of the Surgical Safety Checklist. This edition has been
developed following consultation with specialty
societies/associations and other key stakeholders, including:
- Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists
- Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists
- Royal Australian and New Zealand College of
Ophthalmologists
- Australian College of Operating Room Nurses.
The expanded Surgical Safety Checklist and implementation manual
are part of a Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative supported by the
College:
The College is consulting with specialty societies and
associations to ensure that the checklist is relevant to all
groups. Following this consultation process, protocols will be
developed to support the implementation of the checklist in all
Australian and New Zealand hospitals.
For more information, visit the WHO website.
Venous thromboembolism (VTE)
guidelines
Fellows are encouraged to have an appropriate plan for the
prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE). View
resources to assist with reviewing practice protocols:
The fourth edition guidelines and poster have been produced by
the Australia and New Zealand Working Party on the Management and
Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) to assist in the
identification and management of patients at risk of developing
venous thromboembolism: