Past Educator Studio Sessions
2024
September 2024
Presenter and Topic: Associate Professor Caroline Dowling: Unaccredited Specialty Surgery ‘Training’, the impact of the ‘pre-SET’ years
Session Recording: Available for Academy Members to view here
About the Topic:
Many PGY3+ doctors spend more than two years in clinical and research posts accruing ‘points’ before applying for selection to surgical training. This group has become vulnerable to exploitation as there is no formal oversight of their progress. Our questionnaire based study presented at RACS ASM 2024 in Christchurch aimed to assess the impact of these circumstances for unaccredited plastic, orthopaedic, ENT, urology, and vascular surgical registrars (USRs) in Australia. In this session we will go through the findings of the study and explore ways in which we can improve the process, from selection onwards, to ensure fairness while maintaining quality.
About the Presenter:
Associate Professor Caroline Dowling graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1994, the top student at the Royal Melbourne Hospital Clinical School. She completed her Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Urology in 2003.
She then completed post fellowship training in neuro-urology and incontinence at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Whilst working at Melbourne Health (the Royal Melbourne Hospital), and Southern Health (now Monash Health) urology departments as a consultant urologist and as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery at Monash University, she completed a post fellowship training year in urogynaecology.
Associate Professor Caroline Dowling was joined by study co-authors Associate Professor Jenepher Martin and Ben O’Gorman, with moderator Dr Kathryn McLeod.
August 2024
Presenter and Topic: Dr Ganesh Shiva: Developing an objective assessment of performance for lumbar microdiscectomy: Delphi methodology
Session Recording: Available for Academy Members to view here
About the Topic:
Lumbar microdiscectomy is the most commonly performed spinal surgical procedure worldwide. It is an operation that every neurosurgical trainee in Australasia should be competent in by the completion of intermediate training. Despite a move towards competency based training, the availability of assessment tools for surgical operations is limited, and there is still significant subjectivity in the way in which competency is assessed. In other surgical specialties, and operations, when an assessment scale has been developed, objective feedback can be delivered and therefore performance improves. Therefore, we set about the task of developing an assessment scale for lumbar microdiscectomy.
About the Presenter:
Dr Shiva completed his medical degree at the University of New South Wales and went on to attain his Master of Surgery at the University of Sydney. He recently completed his Neurosurgery Fellowship in 2021. He has achieved further subspecialty qualification in spine surgery through a 12-month Post Fellowship Education and Training (PFET) Program in Spinal Surgery at Liverpool Hospital under A/Prof Mark Sheridan. He is a visiting medical officer in Neurosurgery at Sydney Southwest Private Hospital, St George Private Hospital and Liverpool Hospital.
Dr Shiva was recently awarded the RACS Jenepher Martin Surgical Education Research Prize at the 2024 Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) in Ōtautahi Christchurch.
July 2024
Presenter and Topic: Dr Victoria Brazil: Connecting simulation and quality improvement: how can healthcare simulation really improve patient care?
Session Recording: Available for Academy Members to view here
About the Topic:
Improving quality and safety in healthcare requires more than just excellent clinicians. The systems in which we work have a profound influence on patient outcomes and provider experience. Healthcare simulation has long been used as a training modality but can also be a powerful tool to explore and improve the processes and systems in which we work.
In this session we’ll explore some examples of how simulation can be used in this way – as translational simulation. We’ll reflect on the practicalities of design and delivery of simulation for this purpose and consider where this approach is going in the future.
About the Presenter:
Victoria Brazil is an emergency physician, educator, simulation specialist and healthcare team coach.
She is Professor of Emergency Medicine and Medical Director of the Simulation Service at Gold Coast Health, and leads the Bond University Translational Simulation Collaborative. Victoria’s main interests are in connecting education with patient care - through translational simulation in healthcare, and in developing high performing healthcare teams.
She has authored over 80 peer reviewed publications in health professions education, simulation and teamwork in healthcare. Victoria also writes for the International Clinician Educators Network blog and is Senior Editor at Advances in Simulation. Victoria is co-producer of Simulcast, a podcast about healthcare simulation.
Follow Victoria at @SocraticEM or look her up at drvictoriabrazil.com
Further Reading:
Brazil V, Purdy EI, Bajaj K. Connecting simulation and quality improvement: how can healthcare simulation really improve patient care? BMJ Qual Saf. 2019 Nov;28(11):862-865.
Brazil, V., Reedy, G. Translational simulation revisited: an evolving conceptual model for the contribution of simulation to healthcare quality and safety. Adv Simul 9, 16 (2024).
June 2024
Presenter and Topic: Dr Andrew Huang: Talking about video - how does using video of clinical practice influence your feedback to the trainee?
Session Recording: Available for Academy Members to view here
About the topic:
From as early as the 1960s surgeons have been recording their trainees operating and then using that video to have learning conversations with the trainees. Dr Andrew Huang has been researching how the video influences these learning conversations. This talk will focus on the results of his literature review (accepted for publication in Focus of Health Professions Education) and some of the insights he's gained about how to use video to its fullest effect.
About the presenter:
Dr Andrew Huang is an anaesthetist and specialist pain medicine physician with multiple eclectic interests. He developed an enduring passion for medical education after being inspired by Professor Ken Hardy at the Austin Hospital as a medical student in the late 1990s.
After paying back his Defence Force scholarship with the RAAF, Andrew trained in anaesthesia at Liverpool Hospital, Sydney. Post-exams he spent fellowship time at CareFlight NSW in retrieval medicine and St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne. He became a dual qualified Specialist Pain Medicine Physician after further training at the Royal Melbourne. He works at Austin Health where was the Pain Medicine Supervisor of Training from 2015 to 2021, and is now the interim Supervisor of Intern Training.
Demonstrating he is a sucker for punishment, Andrew embarked on a PhD research project just prior to Covid. He is researching the utilisation of video technology in feedback in the postgraduate medical education context and he is currently in the late data analysis and early write up phase of his PhD.
May 2024
Presenter and Topic: Dr Ishith Seth: Investigating the impact of innovative AI chatbot on post-pandemic medical education and clinical assistance. A comprehensive analysis.
Session Recording: Available for Academy Members to view here
About the topic:
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted clinical experience and exposure of medical students and junior doctors. Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration in medical education has the potential to enhance learning and improve patient care. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of three popular large language models (LLMs) in serving as clinical decision-making support tools for junior doctors.
About the presenter: Dr Ishith Seth is a senior plastic resident at Frankston Hospital with a great interest in clinical research. He holds honorary senior researcher affiliations with Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The Royal Children’s Hospital, and The University of Melbourne and is a clinical tutor at Monash University. He led pioneering research into the utilization of 3D-printed trapezium implants as a novel treatment modality for thumb-base arthritis and has an extensive research portfolio of over 100 peer-reviewed publications. He is an Editorial Board Member for Gland Surgery, Journal of Clinical Medicine, Precision Surgery and the Annals of Joint as well as the Resident Advisory Board for PRS Global Open. Additionally, he has contributed as a guest editor to the Lancet, PRS and Aesthetic Surgery Journal.
April 2024
Presenter and topic: Dr Thomas Neerhut: Easing the path to surgical training: Perspectives of Surgical Residents and SET Registrars.
Session Recording: Available for Academy Members to view here
Gaining entry to accredited surgical training is not easy. Developing both the surgical and professional skills required to become a proficient surgeon requires many years of training. While technical skills are often the focus of training, the professional skills, and behaviours essential to successful surgical practice sometimes receive less attention. The journey toward honing these skills begins as a junior doctor in the role of the Surgical Resident. Surgical residency provides insight into the essential skills required to become a successful surgical registrar and ultimately, a successful RACS Fellow. Optimising preparedness for the RACS surgical education and training (SET) application is an essential component of the surgical resident’s development. These are the vital formative years of every surgeon’s training. However, with many competing interests and often busy schedules, life for the surgical resident pursuing SET training entry can be challenging.
Despite the importance of these years the role of the surgical resident remains largely undefined. While the RACS JDocs framework provides a useful guide, no published research explores what defines the highly performing surgical resident. In an attempt to both ease the pathway toward SET training, improve patients care and ensure surgical residents are on a path toward becoming valuable surgical team members, Dr Thomas Neerhut sought to decipher what constitutes the ‘highly performing’ surgical resident. Answers are received from both the surgical resident and accredited surgical registrar perspectives.
Dr Thomas Neerhut is an unaccredited urology registrar working at Werribee Mercy Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria. He has a keen interest in optimising the professional skills of surgery and seeks to emphasize the importance of these skills in improving the individual, the surgical team and ultimately patient care.
Tom has worked closely with Barwon Health Urologists Dr Richard Grills (FRACS) and Dr Kathryn McLeod (FRACS). Dr McLeod has achieved her masters in Surgical Education and is currently undertaking her PhD in this area. Working with Drs Grills and McLeod, Tom has published qualitative research exploring perspectives on the highly performing surgical resident and is currently undertaking further research investigating surgical consultant’s perspectives on both the highly performing surgical registrar and surgical team. He hopes to publish these additional works in the near future and thus give additional voice to the diverse ideals, expectations and priorities of the surgical team.
March 2024
Presenter and topic: Dr Poppy Redman: Exploring surgeons' use of the "Surgical Education Checklist" in the operating theatre
Session Recording: Available for Academy Members to view here
There are numerous factors affecting surgical trainees’ operating experience,. We need to maximise the potential learning opportunities that already exist within the operating theatre by improving goal setting and contemporaneous feedback. The Surgical Education Checklist (SEC), a tool made freely available via twitter @SurgEdChecklist, was designed to do just this.
In order to explore the lived experience of consultant surgeons who had chosen to use the SEC, a qualitative research project employing phenomenological methodology was undertaken. It found that the SEC formalises what, for many, is intuitive. It acts as a prompt, providing structure for conversations around goal setting and feedback and is perceived to improve the consistency of these behaviours. The trainer-trainee relationship unsurprisingly plays a central role. Trainers are aware of the value trainees places on this relationship, and often feel protective of their trainees. Trainers recognise that discussion around objectives and surgical plans pre-operatively can reduce anxiety and increase the potential for learning. The importance of feedback is universally acknowledged. However, finding the time, and getting the timing right, for feedback is challenging; having a prompt doesn’t necessarily fix that problem.
The SEC is an easy to use tool that acts as a prompt for education focussed discussions within the operating theatre and may have a role to play in maximising pre-existing learning opportunities.
Dr Poppy Redman is a General Surgery trainee, currently working in Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand. She recently completed a Masters in Medical Education and is particularly interested in how we can build on and improve surgical training, in Aotearoa and around the world.
February 2024
Presenter and topic: Associate Professor David Kok: Innovation in medical education – time to get ahead or be left behind.
Session Recording: Available for Academy Members to view here
When it comes to clinical medicine, our health system has a strong culture - and processes - for identifying and implementing innovations that improve outcomes. However, the same can not be said for medical education. Despite being a vital enabler of quality healthcare, education is poorly resourced and often the responsibility of already over-committed clinicians who therefore struggle to find the time to invest in improving teaching methods, much-less education curricula. This talk will discuss how to put educators back on the front-foot and to build a culture of innovation and renewal in medical education for the benefit of students, educators and, ultimately, our patients.
Associate Professor David Kok is a radiation oncologist at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Head of the Cancer Education Unit at the University of Melbourne where he led the development of the multi award-winning Master of Cancer Science degree. It is a multidisciplinary, flexible and fully-online degree including fully animated lessons, branching case scenarios and clinically applied assessments. Launched in 2019 it managed to be ideally positioned ahead of Covid-19 when most other degrees were forced to react and rapidly accommodate to online education. He also serves as Chief of Training and Assessment for RANZCR, Chair of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre’s Education and Training Committee and Director of Peter Mac’s Monash Moorabbin Campus.
2023
November 2023
Speaker and topic: Paul Gretton-Watson: What is the nature, extent and impact of bullying in surgical settings? Insights of surgeons in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
A significant body of literature has examined the impact of verbal and non-verbal bullying in surgical settings, where a central focus has been on the experiences of trainee and junior members of the surgical team, women in surgery and other health professionals, such as nurses. Research on how surgeons’ perceive or experience bullying is more limited. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the views of surgeons on negative and disrespectful verbal and non-verbal behaviour and bullying in surgical settings, including its impact on surgeons themselves and the surgical staff they oversee.
Paul has over two decades of experience in the field of workplace behaviour and anti-bullying initiatives. His expertise in high conflict personalities and workplace behaviour led to his invitation to collaborate on the early phases of development and assessment of the pilot Operating with Respect (OWR) anti-bullying training program, which was launched by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) in 2016-17 and subsequently rolled out across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand in 2018-19. Paul is currently immersed in doctoral studies, with a dedicated focus on exploring the contemporary landscape of workplace behaviour and bullying in surgery. His research endeavours include an exploration of the root causes driving bullying behaviour and an examination of its far-reaching consequences. Moreover, he has been actively evaluating the efficacy of the OWR training program and various interventions initiated by RACS and employers since 2015, contributing significantly to the advancement of workplace respect and safety.
September 2023
Speaker and topic: David Seignior: Designing and teaching wholly interprofessional education
Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (IPCP) is now commonly used to address increasingly complex and chronic clinical scenarios such as cancer, to improve patient care and professional wellbeing. Interprofessional Education (IPE), where students learn ‘with, from and about’ other professions, is one way to facilitate better IPCP. To overcome logistical challenges such as cost, scale and timetabling, online IPE is becoming increasingly popular, more so because of the pandemic. In this presentation David will draw upon his insights as a learning designer and qualitative researcher of the Master of Cancer Sciences, to share his thoughts on how to create an effective online interprofessional learning and teaching experience.
David is a senior learning designer with the Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education (MSPACE) at the University of Melbourne. He works across faculties and disciplines but has worked extensively in designing online health professional education, including the Master of Cancer Sciences (MCS) with the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance (VCCC). He is currently completing his Doctor of Education at Melbourne Graduate School of Education (MGSE), where he is investigating the interprofessional online learning experiences of health professionals undertaking the MCS. David is also a teacher/tutor in the Master of Teaching program at the MGSE. David has a Bachelor of Arts, Graduate Diploma in Writing, Graduate Diploma of Education, Master of Education and is soon to complete a Doctor of Education.
August 2023
Speaker and topic: Colin Kavooris: Life's like that - a personal account of dealing with mental health issues.
Colin Kavooris has held numerous middle management positions across the energy, manufacturing, and primary industry sectors, operating as a change agent where his efforts have been acknowledged with him presenting at two national industry conferences. Colin is a lifelong learner undertaking his first course at the diploma level at age 50. He now has four diploma qualifications including a Diploma of Life Coaching.
Colin is a volunteer for Beyond Blue, a national organisation that works to raise awareness about anxiety and depression, reduce the associated stigma and encourage people to get help. He became a Beyond Blue speaker because, having a personal experience of anxiety and major depression, Colin wanted to share his journey, including recognising signs and symptoms, the strategies to manage his mental health (productive and otherwise) and achieving harmony with oneself and others.
July 2023
Speaker and topic: Associate Professor Martin Richardson on “Should surgeons have a coach, if not, why not?”
About Martin’s topic: Atul Gawande, General surgeon and author of The Checklist Manifesto and Complications, also wrote a very important article in the New Yorker in 2011 entitled Personal Best: Top athletes and singers have coaches. Should you?
This inspired Associate Professor Martin Richardson, Orthopaedic Surgeon, to explore the concept of coaching as a way to improve as a surgeon, an educator, a team member, and a father. Martin challenges the audience to consider what their goals are and how they plan to achieve these. Others in society who aspire to excel, reach out to a coach to help them achieve their goals. If we as surgeons strive for similar improvements in our performance, shouldn’t we also have a coach?
About Martin: Associate Professor Martin Richardson is an Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Epworth Hospital Clinical School, University of Melbourne. He has also undertaken his Master of Surgical Education, at the University of Melbourne and is currently studying for his Master of Coaching Psychology at the University of Sydney. He is a Surgeon Commander in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and a leadership coach with the Directorate of Navy Culture (DNC). He has recently developed a short introductory course, Fundamentals of Clinical Coaching (FCC) at Monash University for clinicians interested in understanding the concepts of coaching.
2023 Educator Studio Sessions: "Should surgeons have a coach, if not, why not? (surgeons.org)
April 2023
Speaker and topic: Associate Professor David Storey on “Design and Use of Realistic Meshed Silicone Models in Surgical and Endoscopic Teaching”
About David's topic: Over the last six years at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Institute of Academic Surgery, Sydney, we have designed over twenty different models using silicone, usually reinforced with fine elastic mesh. The first step is an anatomically accurate mould, created either manually or using 3D printing, that is rotated on a simple spit while silicone mixture or silicone impregnated mesh is applied. Using this technique, we have created realistic hollow organs including all of the gastrointestinal and urinary tracts as well as vessels and skin. Solid organs use a 3D printed mould into which silicone is poured. The organs can be used in table top practice, or incorporated into a vacuum moulded abdominoperitoneal shape for laparotomy and laparoscopy practice. The hollow gastrointestinal organs can be joined to create convincing models for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy including ERCP, and for colonoscopy. All models are incorporated into regular and ad hoc training sessions for medical students, early surgical Trainees and operating theatre nurses; some have been subject to validation studies. They also form the focus for surgical hybrid crisis simulation sessions.
Opportunities for Trainees to use human cadaveric or animal tissues are increasingly rare and expensive, and these models can fill an important gap in training.
About David: Adjunct Associate Professor David Storey was the head of the Department of HPB and Upper GI Surgery, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital until 2013. Since then, he continued as Director of Training, Sydney South West Surgical Skills Network (under HETI), and when the RPAH IAS opened in 2015 he became the Director of Surgical Education at the IAS. He has now left those roles but remains the Director of the David Storey Surgical Skills and Simulation Centre, RPAH Institute of Academic Surgery.
February 2023
Speaker and topic: Richard Canter on "Teamwork in Health Care"
Teamwork in Health Care has been developed using over a hundred stories of good and bad leadership and management obtained from medical Trainees. Key issues were identified from an analysis of these stories: Leadership, Teams, Negotiation and Communication. This online session will cover the following:
Introduction and overview: Course objectives and a generic model of management and leadership.
Working styles: Examination of your own, the working styles of others, suggestions for improving your own working style and why different styles improve the quality of decisions.
Communication: Improving communication with others at work, e.g. in difficult situations when you feel unable to speak out and also useful for interviews, exams, writing PhDs etc.
Negotiation skills: Elements of good negotiation by identifying what makes negotiation effective.
About Richard Canter:
Appointed as a consultant surgeon at the Royal United Hospital, Bath in 1987, Richard Canter completed a PhD in Management at the University of Bath (1998). He was a faculty member in the School for Health then Social Policy at the University of Bath from 1991 until 2007 before his appointments in the Nuffield Department of Surgery at Oxford in 2007 and emeritus consultant at Oxford University Hospitals in 2015. He is also a Fellow at Green Templeton College, and Hon Research Fellow in the Department of Education, University of Oxford. He supervises postgraduate students exploring organisational change.
Richard's motto became: "success is fine but failure is far more interesting". Indeed, he now regards success and failure as no more than different forms of data. Success leads to repetition and failure leads to innovation and creativity. Perhaps you might agree. Simply by being enthusiastic, and refusing to give up, he has managed to turn things around somewhat, which should be an encouragement to all those for whom life is not straightforward endless success.
1. Teamwork in Health Care: Topic 1 - Tasks of leadership and working styles
2. Teamwork in Health Care: Topic 2 - Bringing about change
3. Teamwork in Health Care: Topic 3 - Communication and negotiation
2022
February
Dr Damir Ljuhar on 'Paediatric Surgical Training in ANZ: A bi-national needs assessment to identify and prioritise procedures in paediatric surgery for simulation-based training'
The following research involved the completion of a needs assessment to identify and prioritise procedures in paediatric surgery in Australia and New Zealand that are suitable for simulation based-training. The paediatric surgery curriculum lists 211 procedures that trainees are required to gain proficiency in, to varying levels, by the end of their training. However, not all procedures are made the same and not all are amenable to simulation-based training. By using a modified three-round Delphi technique, we have identified and prioritised key paediatric surgical procedures that can form the basis of a simulation-based training programme or guide simulation-based curricula.
About Dr Damir Ljuhar
Damir Ljuhar is a Paediatric Surgery Mid SET trainee from Victoria, having worked at Monash Children’s Hospital, Perth Children’s Hospital, Peninsula Health, and Royal Hobart Hospital. He has a passion for educational research and in particular the intersect between emerging technologies and surgical training. He is currently completing a Master of Surgical Education by thesis.
Dr Amiria Lynch on 'Are surgeons superheroes or mere humans?'
In the process of completing her Master of Surgical Education, Amiria has performed a qualitative project interviewing SET trainees about how they experience surgical trainers displaying vulnerability, and the tension between vulnerability and credibility. Amiria will be presenting the findings of her study.
About Dr Amiria Lynch
Amiria Lynch is a Paediatric Surgeon and Supervisor of Training working at Monash Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. She trained throughout New Zealand before completing her training in Melbourne in 2011. Amiria completed post Fellowship training in Paediatric Colorectal Surgery in Leeds, UK before returning to Melbourne. She has a passionate interest in surgical education, particularly in teaching professionalism and human factors..
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Dr Ljuhar's presentation
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Dr Lynch's presentation
March
Dr Brenessa Lindeman on 'Bias in Surgical Education: Explicit, Implicit, and Moving Beyond It'
The following research involved the completion of a needs assessment to identify and prioritise procedures in paediatric surgery in Australia and New Zealand that are suitable for simulation based-training. The paediatric surgery curriculum lists 211 procedures that trainees are required to gain proficiency in, to varying levels, by the end of their training. However, not all procedures are made the same and not all are amenable to simulation-based training. By using a modified three-round Delphi technique, we have identified and prioritised key paediatric surgical procedures that can form the basis of a simulation-based training programme or guide simulation-based curricula.
About Dr Brenessa Lindeman
Brenessa Lindeman, MD, MEHP, is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). At UAB, she also serves as the Section Chief and Fellowship Director for Endocrine Surgery, Wellness Champion for the Department of Surgery and Co-Director of the Multi-Disciplinary Endocrine Tumor Clinic.
Dr. Lindeman earned a Masters of Education in the Health Professions from Johns Hopkins University and completed Surgical Education Research Fellowships with the Association for Surgical Education and Massachusetts General Hospital. She served as a member of Drafting Panels for EPAs with the AAMC Core EPAs for Entering Residency, the American Board of Surgery, and American Association of Endocrine Surgeons. She is a Councillor for the American Board of Surgery, Director of the General Surgery Board, Associate Member of the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators, and member of the Editorial Board for Academic Medicine and Associate Editor for Education at American Journal of Surgery. Her research interests are in development and assessment of competency in surgical trainees and evaluation of the learning climate/physician wellbeing.
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Dr Lindeman's presentation
April
Dr Tony Dunin on 'What Mindfulness Can Do for Surgeons'
Tony will discuss his own personal journey as a surgeon and how mindfulness meditation helped him overcome depression and burnout. The benefits of mindfulness for doctors include improved listening skills, greater empathy and improved cognition. It may also lead us to better technical surgeons . Mindfulness may also overcome emotional exhaustion commonly seen among surgeons. The presentation will include the the neuroscience of mindfulness and scientific evidence of its benefits.
About Dr Tony Dunin
Tony is a senior orthopaedic surgeon working at Knox Private Hospital in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. He was the founder of Knox Orthopaedic Group. He was a visiting medical officer at St Vincent’s Public Hospital Melbourne for over 30 years. He has held leadership positions with the Australian Orthopaedic association including being Chairman AOA Victorian branch . He was the chair of the Medical Advisory Committee at Knox Private Hospital for 8 years.
Tony first participated in a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course in 2008 in order to deal with the stresses and anxieties he was experiencing in his life as an orthopaedic surgeon. He found this a life changing and most rewarding experience. He subsequently trained as a MBSR teacher in 2012.
Tony has been teaching MBSR to staff at St Vincent’s Hospital since 2012. Tony and his spouse, Jo set up The Melbourne Centre for Mindfulness in East Melbourne in 2016 and conducted mindfulness courses for the general public as well as specific courses for doctors .
Tony has recently retired from providing regular 8 week mindfulness courses but is very happy to talk on the benefits on having a mindful practice especially to health professionals.
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Dr Dunin's presentation
May
Dr Tracey Barnes on 'Leadership in surgical training: Preparing to lead the way?'
In this presentation we will explore what surgical trainees are currently learning about leadership and how leadership is being developed during training both in Australasia and internationally. We will briefly consider the deficiencies in current leadership development and how we might overcome these in every day practice within the SET training program.
About Dr Tracey Barnes
Dr Tracey Barnes is a SET 4 trainee in General Surgery based in Christchurch, NZ. Tracey started her training in the UK at the University of Leeds where she became involved in teaching and medical education. Whilst in the UK Tracey was a representative of the British Medical Association at a local, regional and national level and on the UK Foundation Program Committee. On moving to New Zealand Tracey combined her passion for teaching and leadership by completing a Research Masters in Clinical Education through Auckland University exploring leadership development in undergraduate medicine. As part of her SET research project, Tracey has taken her leadership research a step further to explore leadership development within surgical training in New Zealand.
Tracey is currently a New Zealand Representative on the RACS Women in Surgery Committee. Tracey is currently researching the use of a novel educational model integrating digital learning and professional skills development into the undergraduate surgical curriculum for which she is the recipient of the RACS Academy of Surgical Educators Research Scholarship 2022.
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Dr Barnes's presentation
June
Dr Sarah Rennie and Dr Joy Rudland on "Learner neglect; implications for the surgical training setting"
Drawing on research and a personal narrative this presentation will define the elements of learner neglect with a focus on how the ‘absence’ of support can be insidious and detrimental to learning development. The session will involve attendees to consider how to avoid neglecting the learner in a busy and demanding profession.
About Dr Sarah Rennie:
Sarah Rennie is a general surgeon and surgical endoscopist with dual fellowships, FRCSEd and FRACS. She is an academic with a focus on surgical education and is the Clinical Skills Director for the University of Otago, Wellington. She has a PhD in surgical education and also works as one half of the Aotearoa NZ Surgical Advisors for RACS.
About Dr Joy Rudland:
Joy Rudland has been a Medical Educator for over 25 years. She has published over 50 peer reviewed journal articles and written several book chapters. Her research interest is in eustress, feedback and learning neglect. However, her passion is in staff development and support. She is the Director of Educational Development and Staff support at Otago Medical School and the Principal strategic educational advisor for the Medical Council of New Zealand. She is also the lead for the successful ANZAHPE online professional development series, an organisation focussed on Health Professional Education.
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Dr Rennie's presentation
July
Dr Fiona Reid on "Effect of gender on the award of intra-operative autonomy in Australian General Surgical trainees"
This is a large retrospective study examining logbook data for all SET trainees in general surgery in Australia from 2013-2020. The number of cases performed with meaningful autonomy (surgeon mentor not scrubbed) was examined by trainee gender.
About Dr Fiona Reid:
Fiona Reid is a colorectal surgeon in Melbourne's west. She is also a fellow of the University of Melbourne, member of the Academy of Surgical Educators and Director of Clinical Training for surgery at Western Health.
Dr Angus Gray on "Delivery of High Stakes Orthopaedic Surgery Exit Examinations during the Covid-19 Pandemic and the Candidates’ Perspective"
The Covid-19 pandemic created major disruptions in surgical training and assessment. For the Australian and New Zealand Orthopaedic Surgery exit examinations (FEX) in 2020 and 2021, it was necessary to make several modifications to both the delivery and format of the written and viva-voce components. Clinical patients were replaced with video-based scenarios for two clinical examination sections of the exam. Australian candidates in these high stakes assessments were asked to participate in a survey about their challenges, adaptations and experiences before, during and after the examinations were explored.
About Dr Angus Gray:
Angus is a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon who works at Sydney Children’s Hospital and Prince of Wales Private Hospital. He trained in Sydney and did Fellowships in Italy and the US in 2000. Apart from his subspecialty in spinal deformity, he is interested in education and human factors. He is a facilitator for the Pam MacLean Centre, Instructor in Professional Skills and Senior Examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and lecturer at UNSW. He completed a Masters in Surgical Education at the University of Melbourne in 2022.
In 2020, he received the AOA Award for Service to Orthopaedic Education and in 2022, the Surgeon General John White Medal for Service to Health in its Many Forms.
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Dr Reid's presentation
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Dr Gray's presentation
August
Dr Warren Hargreaves: What are the Enablers and Barriers to teaching on RACS Courses?
As part of the University of Melbourne’s Master of Surgical Education course, Warren has undertaken a qualitative research project interviewing surgeons to study the enablers and barriers to Fellows teaching on RACS courses.
About Dr Warren Hargreaves:
Warren is a General Surgeon in public and private practice in Sydney. He trained in NSW then pursued post-fellowship training in Soft Tissue Tumours at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London, UK.
He is a keen teacher and has been heavily involved with teaching on RACS courses, in particular ASSET and TIPS. He is the current Chair of the ASSET committee.
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Dr Hargreaves' presentation
September
Prof Alkis Psaltis on “Advanced 3D manufactured 3d Models - from concept to product”
This talk will discuss our department's development a 3D printed model to teach anatomical dissections to surgeons of all levels. The talk will also discuss the recent use of this model in conducting a remote surgical workshop in Japan.
About Prof Psaltis:
Professor Alkis Psaltis MBBS, PhD FRACS, is the Head of Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide, Australia and Professor of Surgery at the University of Adelaide in South Australia.
He is currently the Vice President of the Australian and New Zealand Rhinological Society. He has authored over 190 peer-reviewed journal articles and 19 book chapters and delivered over 300 national and international presentations. He sits on the editorial board 5 major international ENT journals. He has served on the board of training for ENT in South Australia and currently serves on the Board of Training for the Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and the Research and Scholarships Committee for the Royal Australian College of Surgeons.
Dr Cecile Bergzoll: Inter-disciplinary collaboration for exenterative and advanced Gynae-oncology procedures, a qualitative analysis
This study explores how expert surgeons involved in the care of patients requiring inter-disciplinary procedures prepare for these, and how safety and quality of the processes could be improved. Gynae-oncology, colo-rectal and urology specialists from Australia and New Zealand reference centres were interviewed. A reflexive thematic analysis of the findings demonstrated difficulties in the domains of leadership, communication and resources, affecting patients’ optimal care and challenging surgeons’ professional identities.
About Dr Cecile Bergzoll:
Cecile is a French and Australia-New Zealand trained Gynae-Oncologist. She is the director of training in Gynae-Oncology in Auckland Hospital, New Zealand. Her interests are radical surgery for ovarian cancer, surgical education and clinical leadership. This research project constitutes the minor thesis completing her Master’s degree of Surgical Education with the University of Melbourne.
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Professor Psaltis' presentation
Log in to RACS Portfolio to view Dr Bergzoll's presentation
October
Dr Paul Howat: The second victim - a narrative literature search
The term “second victim” was coined in 2000 by Wu, who proposed that the doctor involved in a poor clinical outcome could be regarded as a second victim in addition to the patient. The narrative literature review looks at the lived experience of doctors as second victims, what helps and what harms their recovery.
About Dr Paul Howat:
Paul is an obstetrician and gynaecologist graduating from University of Melbourne in 1986 and received his fellowship in 1996. He has recently semi-retired after 9 years as Divisional Director of Women’s and Children’s Services at Northern Health in Melbourne, and another 10 years prior to that as Clinical Director of O&G in Cairns in Queensland. He has held clinical associate professor roles at James Cook University and the University of Melbourne. He completed the Masters of Surgical Education in 2022 and hopes to further his interest in education now he has stepped down from leadership and management roles.
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2021
Melbourne - February
Dr Alexander Papachristos on 'Learning in the operating theatre: a thematic analysis of opportunities lost and found'
This presentation will summarise the work Dr Papachristos completed as part of his master thesis, examining the experience of general surgery trainees with intra-operative learning.
About Dr Alexander Papachristos
Dr Alex Papachristos is a general surgeon from Melbourne, currently undertaking a fellowship in endocrine surgery at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. He has an interest in surgical education and recently completed a masters degree by thesis that explored teaching and learning in the operating theatre.
Associate Professor Ramesh Nataraja on 'Can Simulation lead to a Long-Term Change in Clinician Behaviour in Myanmar for the Treatment of Intussusception?'
Mixed methods study examining whether the application of a low-cost simulation-based educational intervention for the introduction of the air enema technique has led to a sustained change in both clinician behaviour and clinician outcomes in Myanmar. This technique is used for the non-operative treatment of an intussusception a common cause of bowel obstruction in infants. The factors that wither enabled or hindered the utilisation of this technique in Myanmar, and the current perspective of the clinicians towards Simulation-Based Medical Education were also explored.
About Associate Professor Ramesh Nataraja
Ram is a dual-trained (UK & Australia) Academic General Paediatric Surgeon working at Monash Children’s Hospital. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at Monash University and coordinates paediatric simulation-based educational activities at MCH in his role as the Director of Surgical Simulation and Co-Chair of MCH Simulation Service. He has been a pioneer in both minimally invasive surgery in children and surgical simulation for many years having designed the first validated paediatric surgical bench trainer model in 2002 at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. He has an educational and clinical research background with 70 peer reviewed publications including RCTs, 69 international conference presentations, two textbooks published by Wiley-Blackwell and 8 book chapters. He is also passionate about educational reform in Low- and Middle-Income countries having been the Monash Children’s Hospital International country lead for Myanmar, successful conducting a simulation-based medical education programme for the last five years with his local in country colleagues. This work also has led as temporary advisor to the World Health Organisation, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
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March
Dr Bridget Clancy on 'Rural Health Equity: select for rural, train for rural, retain for rural'
Dr Bridget Clancy MBBS FRACS GAICD is an ENT, Head and Neck Surgeon with more than 17 years of experience in practice in rural Victoria. She chairs clinical governance and medical advisory committees, is chair of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Rural Surgery Section and Diversity and Inclusion Advisor to the Australian Society of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgeons Federal Council. Her interest include rural health equity, governance, policy and communication. Dr Clancy was a 2019 Telstra Business Women’s Award state finalist.
With Shireen Kumar, she published a systematic review in the Journal of Public Health 2020, Retention of Rural Physicians and Surgeons in Rural Areas: What Works? With the Rural Surgery Section Committee and secretariat, Dr Clancy produced a 4 part strategy for equitable and sustainable surgical systems for rural Australia and New Zealand (Select for Rural, Train for Rural, Retain for Rural, Collaborate for Rural). These papers form the basis for the RACS Rural Health Equity Strategic Action Plan November 2020. Dr Clancy will introduce elements of the strategy related to surgical education and training and continuing professional development.
April
Dr Riccardo Caniato on 'Personality disorders in doctors and other professionals'
Obsessive compulsive personality disorder is the most common but under diagnosed personality disorder. It is commonly mistaken for narcissistic personality disorder. Doctors have high rates of obsessive personality disorder or traits. If correctly managed an obsessive personality can be an advantage and an asset, if incorrectly managed it can cause psychological distress, work problems and marital issues. Doctors should be aware of their personality traits and have insight into the effects and should be willing to seek treatment when needed.
About Dr Riccardo Caniato
Dr Caniato is a Queensland trained doctor. He graduated from the University of Queensland in 1993 and commenced his psychiatric training in Townsville. He passed his psychiatric final exam on his fourth attempt, after realising that he had been over thinking the questions. He worked as the Director of Forensic Services in North Queensland until leaving the public system in 2009. Since that time, he has worked in private practice. His areas of interest include medicolegal work, forensic assessment and transgender states. He especially enjoys treating doctors and medical students and helping them pass their exams.
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Brisbane - May
Dr Brian McGowan on 'Leadership, Culture, Professionalism, Patient Outcomes, Staff Wellbeing – Joining the Dots'
Brian is a General Surgeon with experience in both Public and Private Practice and from 2007-19 he was Director of Surgery at Logan Hospital. He has been a long-time member of the QLD Surgical Advisory Committee and until recently a member of the RACS QLD State Committee serving as Deputy Chair and Chair. He is also a member of the RACS Surgical Directors Section Committee. His experiences as a Director of Surgery and member of the hospital executive stimulated an abiding interest in Leadership, Hospital Culture, Patient Safety and Staff Wellbeing.
In this context he believes we are overdue in Healthcare for a change from our current Directive Leadership model to one of Compassionate Leadership to Drive Compassionate Patient Care and Staff Wellbeing. The transition to a Post-Covid world is an opportunity for change in Healthcare not to be discarded and this is the topic of discussion this evening.
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June
Dr Bryan Ashman on 'Old dogs, new tricks: what motivates experienced surgeons to learn new surgical techniques'
Embarking on a learning pathway to gain competence in a new procedural skill is a major undertaking for experienced surgeons. Their expertise in the surgical procedures they routinely use has been obtained through years of practice. To step outside their comfort zone and risk harming their patients while they gain expertise in a new procedure requires strong motivation. This presentation is a summary of the final thesis of Dr Ashman's MSurgEd looking at motivation and change of practice through a qualitative research project based on interviews with senior spine surgeons.
About Dr Bryan Ashman
Dr Bryan Ashman is an orthopaedic surgeon working at Canberra Hospital. He completed the Master of Surgical Education degree in 2016 and last year was awarded the RACS Educator of Merit for the ACT. Dr Ashman has served as an examiner in orthopaedics from 2009 to 2018. and is also a Fellow of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. His clinical interest is spine surgery and he is currently the Program Director for the Global Spine Diploma Program of the AO Foundation in Davos, Switzerland.
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July
Dr Bernadette Eather on 'Teamwork and Communication in Patient Safety'
Issues with communication remain the single biggest factor impacting patent safety. Understanding what makes effective communication, and how to successfully engage with clinical teams will be presented. What makes and breaks an effective team, and how team work is an essential component of clinical care to keep patients safe will be discussed.
About Dr Eather
Dr Bernadette Eather is the Chief Nurse and Clinical Services Director for Ramsay Health Care Australia, where she is responsible for the strategic oversight of clinical incident management, quality improvement, data analytics in patient safety, and development of clinical policy and procedure for the 73 Ramsay Hospitals. She was the former Director of Patient Safety for NSW Health at the Clinical Excellence Commission, where she was responsible for the State-wide patient safety program. She has worked in health care for more than 25 years in a range of clinical, operational, and clinical governance roles. Dr Eather’s Doctoral research focused on Patient Safety and Clinical Quality Systems in acute hospitals. She is passionate about patient safety, sharing lessons learned, and promoting the safe, high quality care Ramsay Health Care provides
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August
Dr Bryan Ashman on 'Narcissism or empathy: should personality traits be assessed prior to selection for surgical training?'
A strategy for selection into surgical training should begin with a clear idea of what constitutes a good surgeon. What parameters describe the ideal attributes of competent and compassionate surgeons? What character traits of potential surgeons can be relied on to select only those trainees who will complete the training program and go on to be good surgeons? Are cognitive and operative skills more important than personality? Can being an excellent technician compensate for being a difficult person to get along with? Do we need surgeons to be self-centred in order to cope with the demands of surgical practice or is empathy more important? This presentation explores the relationship between competence and character and poses the question – is some degree of narcissism a desirable attribute for a surgical career or not?
About Dr Ashman
Dr Bryan Ashman is an orthopaedic surgeon working at Canberra Hospital. He completed the Master of Surgical Education degree in 2016 and last year was awarded the RACS Educator of Merit for the ACT. Dr Ashman has served as an examiner in orthopaedics from 2009 to 2018. and is also a Fellow of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. His clinical interest is spine surgery and he is currently the Program Director for the Global Spine Diploma Program of the AO Foundation in Davos, Switzerland.
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Dr Claudia Villanueva on 'The odds were stacked against me: a qualitative study of Underrepresented Minorities in surgical training'
This presentation will summarise the work Dr Villanueva completed as part of her master thesis, examining the experiences of self-identified minority SET Trainees and Fellows to identify barriers and enablers for minorities in the Australian and New Zealand SET program.
About Dr Villanueva
Dr Claudia Villanueva is a Cardiothoracic SET Trainee from NSW, currently training at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle. She has a special interest in surgical education, diversity and inclusion as well as patient safety. She has recently completed a masters degree by thesis that explored the experiences of minority trainees in the SET program.
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Dr Marc Seifman on 'COVID-19 impact on Junior Doctor Education and Training: A Scoping Review'
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant upheaval of the medical workforce. The changes to clinical exposure of junior staff affected not only service provision but also education. The results of a scoping review into this field are presented, with focus on the RACS surgical competencies.
About Dr Seifman
Mr Marc Seifman is a specialist Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon and Supervisor of Training for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Peninsula Health. He currently holds appointments at multiple private and public institutions. Marc Seifman has a particular interest in research and surgical education, and is currently completing a Master of Surgical Education.
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September
Dr Hercules Kollias on 'What is connection? Why is it important for a surgeon to be a good connector?'
About Dr Kollias
Dr Hercules Kollias is someone who has created a unique path through two successful careers. One as a doctor, and one as an executive leadership expert, trainer, and coach. He has worked with high performing leaders and their teams in both the private sector and government, across a wide range of industries and settings, including clinical, corporate and business, sports, and the entertainment industry. He now brings the insight of a 20+ year career in leadership to doctors with coaching programs designed for all stages of their career, from coaching them on interview skills to enter Med School or specialty training programs, to helping established doctors build better teams and more functional practices. Hercules is passionate about helping leaders navigate through their challenges so that they can go from survival to success, and then from success to significance. He can be contacted at www.doctors.coach
2020
Melbourne - February
Dr Kathryn McLeod on 'The struggling urology trainee: A qualitative study into causes of underperformance'
Urological surgical trainees who underperform are difficult to identify, manage and, require significant resources in an already stretched system relying on pro bono supervisors that often have no formal training. Whilst there are commentaries on how to manage underperforming surgical trainees, there is a lack of data detailing the complex reasons for underperformance. It is important to understand the complexities contributing to underperformance so that improved remediation plans can be developed which can better help trainees meet expectations and succeed.
About Dr Kathryn McLeod
Dr McLeod completed her medical training at the University of Adelaide and then went on to complete Urological training in 2013. Dr Kathryn McLeod is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and a member of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand. Throughout 2014, Dr McLeod spent 12 months completing further training under the supervision of Professor Helen O'Connell, gaining experience in voiding dysfunction, female urology and neurourology.
Dr McLeod is a consultant Urological Surgeon at the Geelong University Hospital. Her private practice is based in Geelong at the St John of God Specialist Centre. She also provides a monthly consulting and operating sessions at Colac Hospital. Dr. McLeod treats patients with general urological issues including voiding dysfunction, urinary tract stones, prostate problems, lower tract oncology and female urology.
Dr McLeod is currently completing her Masters in Surgical Education at the University of Melbourne, and has received the 2019 Academy of Surgical Educators Surgical Education Research Scholarship. She is on the Victorian Training Committee and is the SET trainee supervisor for urological trainees at University Hospital Geelong. She is involved in the Education Committee for USANZ and currently involved in a curriculum re-design. Kathryn has an appointment as a Senior lecturer at Deakin University Medical School. Her and her husband have two boys, three-year-old Lachie and Jack who is six months old.
Professor Gerry Gormley on 'When right could be so wrong: right/left confusion in healthcare'
Wrong‐sided procedures represent some of the most catastrophic errors in health care. In this talk, Professor Gormley will explore reasons to why individuals can confuse right and left. More importantly he will consider measures to reduce such errors happening in practice
About Professor Gerry Gormley
Professor Gormley is a clinical academic at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and a General Practitioner in Belfast, Northern Ireland. At the intersection between teaching, research and clinical practice, he is in a privileged position to identify, generate and apply new knowledge relating to educational practice
He has two main streams of research interest. Firstly, gaining a greater understanding of the complex socio-cultural dimensions of clinical competency assessment and medical students’ professional development, particularly relating to the OSCE. His second area of research relates to uncertainty and complexity in simulation based learning. By harnessing dramaturgical and psychological techniques, he is exploring new ways to afford learners a more embodied and immersive simulated learning experience.
He has also developed a research curiosity into why some individuals confuse their right from left and how this applies to healthcare – such as wrong sided surgery.
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Melbourne - March (in conjunction with International Women's Day)
Professor Sanziana Roman on 'Diversity and Belonging in Medicine: Practical Approaches to Moving the Needle'
About Professor Sanziana Roman
Dr Sanziana A. Roman, M.D., FACS is Professor of Surgery with a clinical interest in endocrine and minimally invasive surgery, with a focus in thyroid and adrenal diseases, including paediatric and adult endocrine tumors. She is one of few high-volume adrenal surgeons around the USA performing posterior retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomy. She is the author of more than 180 peer-reviewed publications in outcomes analysis, cost-effectiveness/decision analysis, meta-analysis, and survey-based methodologies, as well as stem cell research.
Dr Roman currently serves as the Director of Learning and Teaching in the Procedural Specialties and the Dean's Diversity Leader for Leadership Equity and Inclusion in the School of Medicine at UCSF. She has a national and international reputation in endocrine surgery and education, having served as the Co-Director of the Fellowship Programs of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and is an active member of leadership committees of several national academic societies, including the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, the Association for Academic Surgery and the American Thyroid Association.
Prior to her arrival at UCSF, she was a tenured Professor of Surgery at Duke University, where she served as the Director of the Endocrine Surgery Fellowship Program and the Associate Chief of the Division of Advanced Oncologic and Gastrointestinal Surgery.
Dr Roman organized a symposium about women in surgery, reported on in the World Journal of Surgery in June 2018. The result was powerful testimonials from women surgeons, from Europe to the United States, from Africa to Australia and Asia, reflecting the culture of the place where their career took place. Despite their cultural differences, they all had in common the struggle to establish themselves in the surgical profession, traditionally a male-dominated field.
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April - Special Educator Studio Session
Professor Spencer Beasley and Professor David Watters on 'Leadership and followership: How they are connected and why they are important to ALL surgeons'
About Professor Spencer Beasley
Spencer is a Professor of Paediatric Surgery and the Clinical Director of the Department of Paediatric Surgery, Christchurch Hospital. Until 1996, he was a consultant paediatric surgeon and paediatric urologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and Senior lecturer at Melbourne University.
He is the former Vice-President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Chairman of the Governance and Advocacy Committee, Chairman of the Board of Surgical Education and Training, Deputy Censor-in-Chief and Chair of the Court of Examiners of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and has been responsible for the governance of the surgical training programmes in all specialties in Australia and New Zealand. Also, he is a former New Zealand Censor, Chair of the Board of Paediatric Surgery and Senior Examiner in Paediatric Surgery RACS.
He is a previous president of the Australasian Association of Paediatric Surgeons (now known as the Australia and New Zealand Association of Paediatric Surgeons) and is the current President of the New Zealand Society of Paediatric Surgeons. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons. He is a former member of the Male Champions of Change STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) group, working towards removing the impediments to gender equity.
He was a founding member of the Child Cancer and the Developmental Genetics Research Group, and was a board member of the Rainbow Children’s Trust. He is a current trustee of the Children’s Cancer Research Trust (Canterbury). He has developed a regional service for paediatric surgery throughout the South Island, providing outreach regular clinics and operating sessions in every South Island public hospital.
His clinical research has involved development of measures of outcome in paediatric surgery, gender equity, assessment of skills through simulation and the effect of configuration of surgical services on clinical outcomes.
He recently retired as the specialty editor for Paediatric Surgery of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery, but remains a Senior Editor of the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. He has written or edited nine textbooks on paediatric surgery and related subjects. He is currently editing the Oxford University Press textbook on Paediatric Surgery.
About Professor David Watters
David Watters is the Chair of the Victorian Perioperative Consultative Council, established in 2019 as a multidisciplinary Council to promote safety and quality for patients undergoing surgery and anaesthesia. Since 2000 he has been Professor of Surgery for Barwon Health in Geelong, initially with Melbourne (2000-2010), and then Deakin University (2011-). He is an active general surgeon with interests in general, colorectal and endocrine surgery. He is a former Councillor (2007-2016) and Past President of RACS (2015-16). He has been one of the founding faculty for the General Surgeons of Australia (GSA) Management of Surgical Emergencies (MOSES) course, the RACS’ Clinical Decision Making, Surgeons as Everyday Leaders and Training Standards courses.
He is actively engaged in advocating for global surgery, having spent almost 20 years in developing countries including Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, Zambia and South Africa. He is an Edinburgh University graduate, and in addition to the FRACS, a fellow of the Edinburgh, Hong Kong, and East Central and Southern Africa Colleges of Surgeons. His research interests include surgical audit, outcomes and performance, digital health (information systems and metrics), colorectal surgery, perioperative mortality and global health. He was a co-author of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and has over 180 peer reviewed publications and 6 books; four on clinical topics in low-middle income countries - includingNeurosurgery in the Tropicswith JV Rosenfeld, now in its 2019 second edition - and two on surgical history: Stitches in Time - Two centuries of Surgery in Papua New Guinea (Xlibris, 2012)andAnzac Surgeons of Gallipoli (RACS, 2015). Deakin University appointed him the title of Alfred Deakin Professor (August 2016) and he was awarded Life Membership of the Medical Society of Papua New Guinea in September 2017. He is an honorary Member of Asian Surgical Association (2015) and in recognition of his contribution to surgery and surgical training in PNG he was awarded the OBE (Queen’s Birthday 2012), and Membership of the Order of Australia (AM, Queen’s Birthday 2018) for his contribution to endocrine and colorectal surgery and professional organisations. In PNG, he was awarded Rotary's highest honour – a Paul Harris Fellowship in 2000 for his contribution to Rotary’s Overseas Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC). In September 2017, he gave the Guthrie Lecture to the British Society of the History of Medicine, on “Daring to Dream of Equal Opportunity in Medicine” which presented a history of the struggle experienced by women to train as doctors and specialists and to be treated with equity in the medical profession.
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April
- Speaker: Dr Stewart Flemming
- Topic: Teaching Professional Skills on the Run
About Dr Stewart Flemming:
Stewart Flemming is a hand surgeon working at Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals. His background, and original training, was in plastic surgery, but towards the end of his training he developed a deep interest in hand surgery and was awarded the British Society of Surgery of the Hand's Pulvertaft hand surgery fellowship. He spent 6 months working with Professor John Stanley, one of the UK’s leading expert on arthroscopy and surgery of the wrist. Thereafter he studied under Harold Kleinert at the internationally renowned Louisville Hand surgery service, Kentucky, USA, where many of the UK’s and Australia’s leading hand surgeons have been trained. On return to the UK he helped to develop the hand surgery service at St Andrew’s Billericay, which was to become one of the largest and busiest centres in the UK.
He migrated to Perth in 2008, following his heart, and worked at the Fremantle hospital and health service. He married Barbara in 2009. He established a weekly hand trauma service (one day a week) to reduce the workload on Royal Perth Hospital. When the Fiona Stanley Hospital was opened the service lapsed but its reinstatement was recommended, as part of the Plastic Surgery review of South Metro and, together with Mr Paul Jarrett, he set up a combined plastic / orthopaedic hand trauma day surgery service at Fremantle, unique in WA and one of only a few in Australia.
He has a special interest in Non Technical skills and teaches on the RACS NOn Technical Skills for Surgeons (NOTSS) courses, for senior trainees and consultants, and on the RACS Training in Professional Skills (TIPS) courses for trainees. He is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at UWA and teaches on the “Cutting Edge” courses at CTEC, where he has also established a microsurgical training course for nurses. He has published more than 30 articles in peer reviewed journals and book chapters, and has made over 100 presentations to learned societies in Europe, USA and Australia. He is undertaking research into “Communicating in the Operating Room” and “Fatigue in Surgeons” with Professor Sharon Parker of UWA’s Business School. In his spare time he walks his dogs, paints, and dances Tango and modern jive with his wife.
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May - Special Educator Studio Session
- Speaker: Dr Rhea Liang
- Topic: Five myths about unacceptable behaviour in surgical education
About the topic:
Despite accumulating evidence of the adverse effects of unacceptable behaviour in clinical practice, many surgeons continue to embrace false perceptions about appropriate professional behaviour, interactions and approaches to teaching within surgical departments and more generally within healthcare institutions. This presentation explores five misperceptions about unacceptable behaviour in surgical education. This session is intended to complement therecently published article in ANZ Journal of Surgery and will include ample time for questions.
About Dr Rhea Liang:
Rhea is a general and breast surgeon on the Gold Coast, surgical educationalist, and Chair of the RACS Operating With Respect Education Committee. She researches and advocates in diversity and equity issues. She tweets at@LiangRhea
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June
- Speaker: Professor Gregory Phillips
- Topic: Cultural safety, racism and unconscious bias in medical education
About the topic:
This presentation will define cultural safety, including how it is different and similar to cultural competence. We will review the evidence about racism, discrimination and unconscious bias as a public health issue. This presentation will also cover how medical schools and colleges have and could respond more effectively.
About Professor Gregory Phillips:
Professor Gregory Phillips is a Waanyi and Jaru medical anthropologist. He leads change in cultural safety and decolonisation in community, academic, government and corporate organisations. He wrote a world first Indigenous health curriculum framework for all medical schools in Australia and New Zealand, founded the Leaders in Indigenous Medical Education (LIME) Network, and established the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation in the wake of the federal apology to Indigenous Australians. He recently wrote and launched AHPRA’s national strategy for better regulation of health professions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and cultural safety. His PhD examined culture, race and power in medical education, his research masters in medical science investigated PTSD and addictions in remote Aboriginal communities, and his Bachelor of Arts was in Aboriginal Studies and Government. He is CEO of ABSTARR Consulting, chairs the Ebony Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Institute, and is Professor of First People’s Health in the School of Medicine at Griffith University.
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June - Special Educator Studio Sessions
- Speaker: Ms Debbie Paltridge
- Topic: Modifying teaching and supervision during COVID-19
About the topic:
The COVID-19 situation is bringing with it not only personal and professional challenges but also challenges to provision of teaching and supervision. This seminar will explore ways to support your trainees and student learning during this difficult time. Specific topics will include;
- Using technology to facilitate learning
- Supporting independent learning
- Assessment and feedback in the virtual environment
About Ms Debbie Paltridge:
Debbie Paltridge is the RACS Principal Education Advisor. She has more than 20 years’ experience in medical education and has held national and international roles. She has a particular interest in supporting learning in the workplace through teaching, supervision, feedback and assessment. She also has experience in delivering education remotely and online.
June
- Speaker: Mr David Bartle
- Topic: Number 8 wire approach to surgical education
About the topic:
The term ’Number 8 Wire’ has come to represent a ‘can-do’ attitude of ingenuity and resourcefulness. As surgical educators it is important for us to be aware of the various resources we have available - often the simplest are the most versatile and effective. This session will promote a practical 'No. 8 wire’ approach to surgical education which is based on relevant theory and evidence.
About Mr David Bartle:
David is an Orthopaedic and Spinal surgeon based in Tauranga New Zealand. David has a Masters in Surgical Education and is a member of the Academy of Surgical Educators and Fellow of the Edinburgh Faculty of Surgical Trainers.
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July - Special Educator Studio Session
- Speaker: Mr Paul Larkin
- Topic: Conflict without casualties - Compassion skills for improved outcomes and wellbeing
About the topic:
Research shows that the use of compassion skills in clinical settings has positive outcomes for patient experience, clinical outcomes and clinician wellbeing. Research also show compassion skills can be effectively trained. This presentation will introduce not just research, but the 'Leading Out of Drama' model for training compassion skills that can be immediately applied and generalised to any setting.
About Mr Paul Larkin:
After a career managing professional and national sporting teams at the highest level, and practise as a commercial solicitor, one thing became clear to Paul - at the root of high performance rests with mindset and skills. After completing a Psychology Graduate Diploma, Paul has spent the last decade working with educators, athletes, teams, corporates and in healthcare to train and coach effective conflict, communication, motivation and distress management.
Paul is a certified Process Communication Model trainer and Leading Out of Drama Master Trainer (Oceania).
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July
- Speaker: Professor Jeff Hamdorf
- Topic: Paradigm shift in surgical education
About the topic:
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented individuals, institutions and countries with challenges that have tested the resources and resilience of the most capable and well prepared.
Educationally there is an imperative that universities graduate capable and prepared medical students to be next year’s interns, that hospitals provide robust quality supervision and training opportunities and colleges and specialty societies need to find ways to graduate senior trainees to support the medical workforce.
Jeff will demonstrate some of the ways that the challenges are being met in the university sector for students who were until mid March in clinical placement settings and who been unable to access clinical material since. Modified education and training sessions have been developed, students are engaged in flipped classroom approaches and standardised cases have been used for modified structured clinical assessments. The evaluation of these programs has provided interesting food for thought.
About Professor Jeff Hamdorf:
Jeff is an Academic Surgeon (Upper Gastrointestinal and Bariatric) based at The University of Western Australia and Hollywood Private Hospital in Nedlands, Western Australia.
He was the inaugural Professor of Medical Education at The University of Western Australia (UWA), Jeff is the Director of CTEC, a world-class skills training centre and is UWA’s Professor of Surgical Education.
Over an extended period of time he has been influential in teaching and learning, curriculum development, summative assessment and student progress. At the postgraduate level he has been involved with the education of trainees through simulation. Awarded Member of the Order of Australia, 2019, for services to medical education and surgery, particularly in the area of bariatric surgery.
Research interests include PhD, Masters of Surgery and medical student supervision in medical, surgical and nursing education, and obesity especially relating to interprofessional team care. Publications include 3 book chapters and over 60 publications.
He is also the:
- Founding partner Indonesian Clinical Training and Education Center (ICTEC), Jakarta
- Former External Examiner (2017) and current External Assessor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya
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August
- Speakers and topics:
- Dr Vivian Yu FRACS on 'First steps into the operating theatre – a qualitative study of learning in the operating theatre from the perspective of the novice'
- Dr Henry To FRACS on 'Remediation of surgical trainees'
About the 'First steps into the operating theatre – a qualitative study of learning in the operating theatre from the perspective of the novice':
The operating theatre constitutes a novel learning environment for medical students. A study exploring the earliest experiences of attending the operating theatre was conducted to identify what is learned from the perspective of the novice. The details of this study and potential strategies to enhance medical student learning in the operating theatre will be presented in this session.
About Dr Vivian Yu:
Vivian Yu is a consultant breast, endocrine and general surgeon with a public appointment at Eastern Health in Melbourne and private practice based in Mount Waverley. She completed her undergraduate medical degree along with a Bachelor of Science through The University of Melbourne prior to undertaking general surgical training through the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. After being awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons she completed three years of post-fellowship training in breast, endocrine and general surgery in Australia and New Zealand.
She has an appointment as senior lecturer and surgery rotation co-ordinator at the Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University and is a senior instructor for the Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient (CCrISP) and instructor for the Management of Surgical Emergencies (MOSES) courses for surgical trainees. She is currently completing studies towards Masters of Surgical Education.
About the 'Remediation for surgical trainees':
Surgical trainees with significant underperformance require formalised support to return to the expected standard, termed remediation. We have performed a scoping review to understand the current evidence base for remediation interventions, approaches and contexts. We have also determined areas that require future strengthening and research
About Dr Henry To:
Henry To is a practising breast/endocrine and general surgeon in Melbourne, Australia. He has published and presented on innovations in genomics and novel surgical techniques. He has an interest in surgical education and research particularly in trainee wellbeing.
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August
- Speaker: Mr Neil Price
- Topic: A surgeon reflecting on insight
About the topic:
As a Paediatric Surgeon, Neil hears comments made about the Insight of surgeons, trainees, even medical students who seem to be performing poorly or unprofessionally. This led him to wonder what exactly do we mean when we talk about Insight, and if it is so critical what are we doing to ensure surgeons have it?
About Mr Neil Price:
Neil Price is the Board Chair of Paediatric Surgical SET. Neil is a practising Paediatric Surgeon at Starship Hospital in Auckland (NZ) and a professional teaching fellow in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. Neil is currently a PhD candidate in the Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education. Neil’s research focus is the concept of Insight as it relates to the practicing Paediatric Surgeon.
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September
- Speaker: Associate Professor Bryan Ashman
- Topic: Developing a spine surgery training program using EPAs
About the topic:
Spine surgeons begin their careers as either orthopaedic or neurosurgeons. Most training programs in spine surgery around the world are based on surgical apprenticeships through fellowships at hospitals specializing in spine surgery, supplemented by continuing medical education activities. Very few of these fellowships have a curriculum or formal training program.
The starting point for a curriculum planning process using entrustable professional activities (EPAs) begins with analysing the professional work of the specialist medical practitioner. This analysis identifies the essential activities that can be entrusted only to those who have acquired the requisite abilities to work independently in a given healthcare context to achieve a desired outcome. In a training program, EPAs can be subdivided into entrustment milestones where trainees move from high levels of supervision to more autonomous levels as they are deemed to have gained the necessary competencies.
A curriculum that focuses on the final level of autonomy, independent practice, which is the level at which spine surgeons perform their clinical activities was developed for AOSpine, the Spine Division of the AO Foundation.
About Associate Professor Bryan Ashman:
Bryan is an orthopaedic surgeon working at Canberra Hospital since 1989. His main interest is spine surgery education and he is currently the chairperson of the AO Spine Education Commission, a division of the AO Foundation. He is a clinical associate professor in surgery at the Australian National University and a Fellow of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He has been an examiner in orthopaedics for the RACS.
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October
- Speaker: Associate Professor Prem Rashid FRACS
- Topic: Surgical Education & Training: Journey to the future?
About Associate Professor Prem Rashid:
Prem Rashid started the Port Macquarie Urology Centre in 1997. It has rapidly grown to become a referral centre for urological care. He shares a broad interest in urological topics with rehabilitation following treatment as a focus. His main research area is education and training fostering the next generation. His role in surgical education started as the Supervisor of Urology Training in Port Macquarie Base Hospital (1998) which lead to his Chairing the NSW Urology Regional Training Committee (2009-2012) and then Chairing the Board of Urology between 2012-14. During that time, he led the re-design of the urology SET program. Following this he completed his 2nd doctorate, this time in Surgical Education at Sydney University. He has also authored several patient guide books with the 4th Edition of Your Guide to Prostate Cancer due for release in 2021.
He is:
- Vice-President, Urological Society of Australia & New Zealand
- Conjoint Associate Professor, University of New South Wales.
- Fellow, Faculty of Surgical Trainers, Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh
- Member, Section of Academic Surgery, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
- Team Lead for Operative Surgery and Anatomy, Court of Examiners (Urology),
- Member, Programs in Surgical Education Reference Group, The University of Melbourne
- Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors
- Member, Advisory Panel (NSW), Medical Insurance Group of Australia
- Member, Academy of Surgical Educators, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
- Paul Harris Fellow (Rotary).
November
- Speaker: Dr Hercules Kollias
- Topic: From Coping With COVID To Defining Your New Normal. The Surgeon As Champion
About the topic:
The human brain is designed to help us survive, or thrive. It is difficult to do both at the same time. Very often the impact of things that threaten us is ameliorated by the life experience and wisdom collected from dealing with similar things. A pandemic sits outside the usual range of experiences for most people. It is an extraordinary occurrence that requires an extraordinary response. New clusters. New outbreaks. New consequences to your work and livelihood. Constantly putting out fires you didn’t start can be exhausting and demoralising. In this presentation, we will explore how to cope with these kinds of situations and go from surviving to thriving, by becoming deliberate about defining our respective new normals. We can learn from the pressure-tested strategies of champion survivors. We can learn to be surgeons and champions.
About Dr Hercules Kollias:
Dr Hercules Kollias is someone who has created a unique path through two successful careers. One as a doctor, and one as an executive leadership expert, trainer, and coach. He has worked with high performing leaders and their teams in both the private sector and government, across a wide range of industries and settings, including clinical, corporate and business, sports, and the entertainment industry. He now brings the insight of a 20+ year career in leadership to doctors with coaching programs designed for all stages of their career, from coaching them on interview skills to enter Med School or specialty training programs, to helping established doctors build better teams and more functional practices. Hercules is passionate about helping leaders navigate through their challenges so that they can go from survival to success, and then from success to significance.
2019
February - Melbourne
Speakers and topics:
- Dr Sean Stevens: Surgical education and training in Timor-Leste: What are the challenges and how they are interrelated?
Dr Stevens is a general surgeon from Austin Health with an interest in public health and education. This research project on surgical education and training in Timor-Leste represented a minor-thesis for completion of Master in Surgical Education. This research is being continued as part of a PhD
- Dr Ian Incoll: Evaluation of The Effect of a Smartphone-Based Feedback App on Trainees and Trainers in Orthopaedic Surgery
Dr Incoll is the Past President and the current Dean of Education for the Australian Orthopaedic Association (AOA). AOA introduced a smartphone-based Training App at the beginning of 2017. One component is a Trainee Feedback App designed to facilitate in-the-moment feedback between trainers and trainees. We look at the feedback practices and perceptions before introduction of the Feedback App, and raise questions about its effects on the feedback conversation.
- Dr Rhiannon Bousonnis: Evaluation of SEAM in General Surgery: opinions on an e-learning curriculum
SEAM are a new e-learning initiative developed by GSA for general surgical trainees. The purpose of Dr Bousonnis's study was to evaluate current trainees' opinion of SEAM and e-learning in general surgery as well as the opinions of recent fellows on e-learning in surgery.
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March - Canberra
Speaker and Topic: Professor Russell Gruen - Harnessing technology in surgical training and continuing education
Professor Russell Gruen is the newly appointed Dean of the College of Health and Medicine at The Australian National University (ANU), and is soon to join the Department of Surgery at The Canberra Hospital. Professor Gruen brings a wealth of experience in medical education, research and clinical practice.
Most recently he was Executive Director of the NTU Institute of Health Technologies and the founding Professor of Surgery at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He was previously Professor of Surgery and Public Health at Monash University, Director of the National Trauma Research Institute and a trauma surgeon at The Alfred Hospital.
The focus of his work has been on trauma systems, haemorrhage and brain injury management, and access to safe surgery globally. He has published over 200 peer reviewed publications and two books. Among his many awards are an NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship, the 2013 RACS John Mitchell Crouch Fellowship, the General Surgeons Australia Medal, and the Victorian RACS GJ Royal Medal, and he was twice PBL Tutor of the year at Monash University.
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April - Sydney
Speaker and Topic: Dr Peter Harris - Portfolio assessment in medical education
Dr Peter Harris is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at the University of New South Wales. He co-ordinates the medical Faculty's Assessment Development and Evaluation Working Party and continues to work part time as a general practitioner. He was convener of the Masters Program in Clinical Education at UNSW and supervised Masters and PhD candidates.
His research interests include influencing professional behaviour, teaching and assessment in workplace settings and programmatic assessment. Peter has been engaged in medical and health professional education and development in the Asia Pacific region for 20 years and is currently working with a Medical University in Myanmar on curriculum re-development.
He has been heavily involved in rebuilding the UNSW undergraduate medical program to an outcomes based program driven by a portfolio based on linked assessments. He has advised a number of specialist Colleges on curriculum and assessment, was an International adviser for the 2015 re-writing of CanMEDS and is a member of the International Collaboration on Competence Based Medical Education.
He is Chair of the Population Heath and Ethics panel for the AMC Assessment Committee.
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May - Adelaide
Speaker and Topic: Mr Guy Rees- Training surgeons from neophyte to expert - The impact of allostatic load
Mr Rees is a Consultant Otorhinolaryngologist in Adelaide, and has been a Senior Lecturer in Surgery, University of Adelaide since 1998. He holds specialist recognition in ENT in Australasia and in the UK, and is a Clinical Academic Specialist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He has fellowship experience in Head and Neck Surgery and has been Chairman of the RAH Multidisciplinary Clinic in Head and Neck Cancer since 1998. He has been Director of Training in ENT surgery for five years, and remains part of the state training executive. Currently, Guy is Vice Chairman of the RACS Clinical Examination Committee.
Guy is a Leading Cancer Specialist in Head and Neck Oncology in South Australia and practices through his rooms at the Memorial Hospital and at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He has been an Executive Board member of the Australian and New Zealand Head and Neck Society for 7 years, and as Chairman of the RAH Multidisciplinary Clinic for Head and Neck Cancer since 1998. He is co-author of the South Australian Pathway for care of Patients with Head and Neck Cancer.
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July - Brisbane
Speaker and Topic: Professor Deborah Bailey - Small fury animals - Work-based assessment in surgical training
Deborah Bailey is a graduate of the University of Queensland and entered practice in Brisbane before commencing the first resident paediatric surgery service on the Gold Coast.
The journey from medical student to surgeon, and the choices that create professionalism and balance in a surgeon’s career have driven Deborah’s interest in education and surgical competence. Taking the journey from instructor in ASSET and EMST/EMSB to NOTSS to now being a facilitator in OWR face to face, FSSE and TIPS; Deborah is also commencing her term as the Chair of the Queensland State Committee and is a Paediatric Fellowship Examiner. Previous college roles include inaugural executive member of the Surgical Directors Section of RACS, Chair of the Paediatric Surgery Education and Training Board, President of ANZ Association of Paediatric Surgeons, and member of the RACS Professional Standards and Development Board.
During Deborah’s time as a member and Chair of the Board of Paediatric Surgery, competency-based curriculum and assessments were introduced and developed. Feedback in training and the role of work-based assessments remains a focus of interest and will be the topic of the Surgical Educator Session.
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August - Melbourne
Speakers and topics:
- Dr Annette Holian FRACS: Looking back to feed forward: Maintaining currency of short courses offered by professional bodies
- Mr Jeremy Simcock FRACS: How do the stressors of the operating theatre environment affect learning of surgical trainees?
About Dr Annette Holian:
Annette Holian is a consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma surgeon and was elected to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Council effective May 2016. She currently holds the RACS External Affairs portfolio covering Global Health and the RACS Annual Scientific Congress.
She has served on the RACS Trauma and EMST committees for many years and is the Chair of the Military Surgery section. As a reservist in the Royal Australian Air Force, she holds the rank of Group Captain and is the Clinical Director for Surgery and Perioperative Services for RAAF. Accepted into orthopaedic surgical training in 1986, her experiences both in training and beyond are a driving force behind her continued support for younger women in surgery.
Initially practising at Monash Medical Centre with specialization in Paediatric orthopaedics, she embraced the opportunity to visit PNG as a volunteer surgeon. It was there that she first provided medical care following a tsunami in July 1998. She joined the RAAF in 2000, and subsequently shifted towards trauma surgery with a seven-year period as a fulltime orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at The Alfred. Most of her career has been in public hospitals with a 12 month research and writing position in Geneva with the International Committee of the Red Cross in 2015-16. She is currently employed at Monash Children's Hospital and recently completed her Masters of Surgical Education through the University of Melbourne. Her career focus has shifted over time but has always been directed at improving access to surgery for those in need.
About Mr Jeremy Simcock:
Jeremy Simcock is a consultant plastic surgeon and senior lecturer with the University of Otago, Christchurch.
He teaches undergraduates and postgraduate plastic surgery and convenes a 4th year medical student module.
His research interests include skin cancer, hand surgery and surgical education.
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September - Wellington
Speaker and topic: Mr Andy Malcolm FRACS, "Why I did not do a thesis. Can this be a Masters degree?"
About Mr Andy Malcolm
After completing his medical degree in Otago and Christchurch, Andy Malcolm worked in New Zealand for two years before finding time to travel through South America and Asia. After this he worked in Auckland Christchurch and Tauranga gaining experience in a variety of surgical specialties, before undertaking advanced surgical training in Urology. After working in London he returned to Nelson in 1999.
Andy’s areas of interest include covering all the major urological conditions. He is especially interested in urological cancers including the prostate, kidney, bladder and testicle. Also he has interests in other prostate problems such as difficulty passing urine, stone disease, scrotal problems, and fertility and continence issues. He has close links with other specialist urologists through out New Zealand, and is committed to offering modern, effective urological care.
About the topic
The presentation will discuss Andy's experience with doing the University of Melbourne's Master of Surgical Education course. This is a candid talk of how the course worked for him and his major learning from the course.
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October - Darwin
Speaker and topic: Associate Professor Kelvin Kong FRACS, "Surgical Education, Getting the house in order"
About Associate Professor Kelvin Kong
Kelvin was awarded his fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2007. Once completed he pursued further training in Paediatric ENT surgery, being grateful and honoured by his fellowship at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne in 2007-2008.
He is now practising in Newcastle (Awabakal Country) as a board certified Surgeon specializing in Paediatric & Adult Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery (Ear, Nose & Throat Surgery). He is an active member of RACS and ASOHNS, serving on the Indigenous Health and Fellowship Services Committees. He is part of the Advisory Board for Cancer Australia and Chair for the National Indigenous Hearing Health Advisory Panel. He has published articles and presented on a variety of ear, nose and throat conditions as well as Indigenous health issues both nationally and internationally. He is active in reviewing articles for publication, lecturing and teaching allied health professional, medical students at several universities and both unaccredited and advanced medical and surgical trainees.
Kelvin hails from the Worimi people of Port Stephens, north of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Being surrounded by health, he has always championed for the improvement of health and education. Complementing his practice as a surgeon, he is kept grounded by his family, who are the strength and inspiration to him, remaining involved in numerous projects and committees to help give back to the community.
About the topic
Kelvin will be addressing the challenges of adopting and implementing an introspective view of educating fellows and trainees across the College. He will discuss how to encourage and nurture education that focuses on a positive narrative and its influence in Indigenous Health and the broader First Nation’s role in society.
2018
February - Melbourne
In collaboration with the University of Melbourne, this session featured graduates of the 2017 Masters of Surgical Education:
- Dr Raymond Yap: Colonoscopy Simulation: Criterion Validity using Direct Observation of Procedural Skills
- Dr Peter Subramaniam: The Influence of Trust on Learning by SET Trainees
- Dr Jade Acton: "In the Mind's Eye" How is Mental Practice Used and Taught by Expert Gynaecologic Surgeons?
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March - Perth
Speaker and Topic: Dr Harsha Chandraratna - Surgical Training - Finding the missing link
Dr Chandraratna was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Tasmania (1974), and then to Perth (1980). He is a graduate of the University of Western Australia and after surgical training was made a RACS Fellow in 2001. He undertook post fellowship training in Perth and then in Leeds (UK). He specialises in Liver and Kidney Transplantation, as well as Bariatric Surgery. He is currently a supervisor and a trainer for RACS and a senior lecturer for University of Notre Dame. He understands that there is more to surgery than just technical skills and that becomes very apparent when you meet him.
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April - Sydney
Speaker and Topic: Dr Peter Lim - A well-being program for Trainees
Dr Peter Lim is a Gastroenterology Staff Specialist and the Medical Director of Intestinal Failure at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He is the current Network Director of Physician Training for the RPA Basic Physician Training Network and the Director of Medical Education for the hospital. He was previously the chair of the Doctors-in-Training Committee of the AMA (NSW) has a long-standing interest in junior doctor education and advocacy.
BPTOK is a pilot being trialled in the Royal Prince Alfred Basic Physician Training Network. It aims to provide Trainees with the skills needed to look after their physical and psychological health throughout their training as well as the rest of their careers.
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May - Wellington
Speaker and Topic: Professor Spencer Beasley - How do perceptions around the attractiveness of specialties, and how might unconscious biases in selection for training, affect gender equity?
Professor Spencer Beasley is a member of the Male Champion of Change STEM group and has been actively involved in increasing diversity in surgery. He is a former Vice President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and former Chair of its Governance and Advocacy committee, during which time he worked towards the full implementation of the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group on DBSH. He has a research interest in measuring and reducing unintentional bias in medicine. He is a Professor of Paediatric Surgery, Christchurch School of Medicine, University of Otago, and the Clinical Director of the Department of Paediatric Surgery, Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand.
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July - Brisbane
Speaker and Topic: Professor Mark Smithers - Role Models and Surgical Education
Professor Smithers is a surgeon with an active clinical and academic practice who has been involved with registrar training and assessment in the clinic, as the chair of a regional training subcommittee and college examiner. He has been a member of the board and faculty of the EMST course and had been on the faculty of the TIPS course. He is the Mayne Professor of Surgery and head of the Discipline of Surgery at the University of Queensland. He has been closely associated with undergraduate teaching and assessment at the University of Queensland and has been an external examiner for the final year undergraduate examinations at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of the United Arab Emirates.
Professor Smithers talks us through the surgical training system and the importance of role models in the observational process of learning.
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August - Melbourne
Speaker and Topic: Dr Gabriel Reedy -Dismantling Teamwork to Build Better Teams: Analysing Team Behaviour in Healthcare
Dr Gabriel Reedy is a learning scientist and clinical educator at King's College London, where he is programme director for the Masters in Clinical Education. He is a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, as well as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Educators, where he sits on the governing Council and is Chair of the Education Committee. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and sits on the Research Committee of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. His research focuses on how inter-professional clinical teams work-and learn-to care for patients, often in simulated environments.
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September - Canberra
Speaker and Topic: Dr Sindy Vrancic - AOA21 - A shift from time-based to competency-based surgical training program
Dr Vrancic is a fully qualified orthopaedic surgeon and upper limb specialist. She studied at Flinders University in South Australia and gained her undergraduate degree in Medicine and Surgery in 1995. Since then she has completed a Master's Degree in Sports Medicine and in January 2008 has gained admission into RACS. Dr Vrancic has also completed a Fellowship in the field of Upper Limb Surgery and has worked as a Upper Limb Surgeon in Canberra since 2009. She delivers specialist orthopaedic trauma services to The Canberra Hospital.