| Workshop Wonders
THE Townsville workshop last month was by far the biggest in the relatively short history of the Remote Vocational Training Scheme. Logistically more than 70 travel itineraries were organised. Thirty-one registrars and 11 supervisors attended the five-day workshop and a cursory review of evaluation forms suggests the program mix was near perfect.
It was an intensive five days that included, among others, sessions on radiology, Aboriginal health, retrieval medicine, regional anaesthesia and sports medicine. There was also a rare opportunity for relaxation during the week however those that chose the sailing option on our activities morning were left a little worse for wear. Those rolling seas really do turn the gills green.
Peter and wife Ros enjoying the canoeing
Individual evaluations of the workshop are being compiled into a package. They will be emailed to all registrars and supervisors in the coming week.
NEXT UP
Melbourne is the venue for our next workshop. A five-day program is being prepared for November 17 to 21. Planning is already well advanced and a draft program will be included in our August e-newsletter. The annual general meeting will also be held on the final day of the workshop.
The Way Ahead
STRATEGIC PLANNING
WORK on a revised strategic plan for the organisation is well under way. RVTS board members and staff met following the Townsville training week. Groups workshopped the challenges and risks facing the organisation in the foreseeable future.
The change of federal government, continuity of funding and external factors that have and are likely to impact on our program and the economy were all considered. RVTS is also looking at broadening its revenue stream and a pilot project involving two doctors in the Australian Defence Force maybe the precursor to expanding our horizons.
A draft plan is to be tabled at next month’s board meeting.
RECRUITMENT
RVTS is looking at an intake of 15 registrars next year. Already we have been actively promoting our role in remote training at a number of events around the country. In the coming months that effort will be ramped up to include advertising and contact with rural workforce agencies and divisions of general practice.
An application form can be downloaded from the website at www.rvts.org.au.
NEW WEBSITE
Web designers are putting the finishing touches to a much improved home in cyberspace for RVTS. It is expected to launch late in June, just two months after calling for tenders. Banner images, which better represent the diversity of the organisation and a user-friendly interface, are two important additions to our on-line presence. Keep an eye out.
Supervisor News
Ten RVTS supervisors joined us for the workshop in Townsville. Thank you for taking the time out of your schedules to come along and share your wisdom and experience. All the supervisors helped out with the emergency scenarios and the exam preparation session and the feedback from the registrars was that they learnt lots in these small group sessions, so thank you.
Particular thanks to:
- George Cerchez for planning and chairing our hypothetical.
- Don Bowley and Louis Peachey for their assistance in the aeromedical retrieval day.
- Louis Peachey, Don Bowley and Dennis Pashen for taking us through some useful local anaesthetic blocks.
There were two “teacher training” sessions. One was on the principles of adult learning and how these apply to patients, colleagues, as well as students and registrars. The second was on assessing professionalism using multi-source feedback and the mini-clinical examination.
The latter two are mandatory parts of the ACRRM Fellowship and RVTS is discussing introducing these to the program both for formative (seeing how registrars are progressing) and summative (are registrars up to Fellowship standard) assessment.
If you would like a copy of the presentation or to discuss these sessions please contact Susan Wearne on susan.wearne@rvts.org.au or mobile 0408 806 501.
Welcome to Rory Howard (Atherton, Qld), Maher Alsabti, Ismail Alhadjaj and Yusef Khalfan (Harden, NSW) as new supervisors. There will be a teleconference for new supervisors on Wednesday, June 18 at 19.30 EST. Contact the office if you’d like to join in.
At the Coalface
This is the first in a series of profiles of the people within our program.
 ALEX STEVENSON
Dr Alex Stevenson is on call, he is also exercising and de-stressing. It’s the Monday of the Queen’s Birthday weekend and the Zimbabwean political exile is working on his labour of love - the 1932 Paragon theatre in Queenstown, west coast Tasmania.
Here in the lunar landscape created by the wanton deforestation to fire copper smelters and the fumes created by that crude chemical process, Dr Stevenson is putting down roots.
He joined the RVTS registrar program this year but has been working on the 1150-seat theatre for five years. A sign still hangs on the glass doorway saying re-opening Saturday, January 8, 2005. He doesn’t set deadlines any more.
And while he clearly longs for his homeland he admits the longer he stays away the less likely he is going to leave the Tasmanian wilderness.
His mother contested the recent Zimbabwean election. Trudy Stevenson is widely seen as one of the founders of the Movement for Democratic Change in the country. Dr Stevenson wanted to return home but his mother said he would have been arrested on arrival.
“I look to the future in Queenstown,” he said. “As a Zimbabwean exile we are all looking for the chance to return home but the reality is the longer you stay away from home the harder it gets. You put down roots, I don't think I will ever leave here now. I’m not sure it will be fully-employed in the general practice but I will always hope to play a role."
"I take my hat off to the people that stayed behind in Zimbabwe. They are a principled bunch and I just hope the country gets a modicum of democracy, decency from this election.”
But Dr Stevenson has found other ways to help his homeland.
“The past month has been taken up with trying to teach non-medical people in Zimbabwe how to deal with tertiary level trauma and I'm doing that remotely through booklets, which is quite bizarre,” he said.
“One of the RVTS doctors showed me a booklet that nurses use in the outback and I thought 'I could adapt that'. But 4000 copies have been distributed through the country so far. I don't know whether it will have any affect but as you Australians say it is better than a 'kick up the arse'.”
Dr Stevenson says the cinema is his relaxation and exercise. “It was defunct, had been converted to an indoor cricket centre and then left to fall into disrepair, so I bought it and now slowly renovating, trying to get it back to being a theatre again,” he said.
“It was built when talkies came out, when sound was added to film. It is an unusual building in that it was the hey-day of cinema and the hey day of this town. While the rest of the world was in recession Queenstown was booming on the back of copper mining. Oddly enough in this obscure little town on the west coast of Tasmania is a very large cinema.”
Dr Stevenson says like most remote practices they do everything. “There are two doctors, so we run a general practice, a 12-bed hospital, an A and E department and look after an aged care facility,” he said. “In neighbouring towns there are some general practices but after hours it is left to us and that means covering half the state.”
Dr Stevenson says the wilderness was one of Queenstown’s strongest attraction and admits it gets pretty wild. “Everyone has their macho stories,” he said “We used to do a full-on resuscitation every week, but things aren't that bad anymore (that said, I did one last week…). In the past year we have had stabbed chests, stabbed abdomens, bullets - for a small town things go down.”
Interestingly Dr Stevenson doesn’t see anything remarkable in his story. “In my time I have met some interesting people but I have never met so many interesting people as those involved in the RVTS,” he said. “I spent a good part of the week in Townsville getting stories out of people. “They are just amazing, you’ll see.”
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