Networking, collaborating, exploring solutions
When I attended my first GP conferences in October / November 2022, these just seemed like large-scale social events for the participants. After 3 years without the opportunity to catch up with colleagues through COVID lockdowns, there was very little business or education happening, just lots of "It's so good to see you again!" and "About time I saw you without a computer screen between us!"
This month, at the RACGP Practice Owners National Conference, as happy as we all were to catch up in person, it was most definitely time to talk business.
Payroll tax. SEMs. Pharmacy prescribing. Registrar placements. Opportunities for new practices to start supervising. These topics and more kept Leonie, Kevin and me talking pretty much non-stop throughout the lively 2-day conference in Adelaide.
Around this, we had our first meeting of the heavy-hitting collaborative team that makes up our ERG Steering Group; onboarded our new Operations Manager, Maryse; started connecting with the recently-appointed Supervisor Liaison Officers to bring together the SLO Advisory Council under the MOU and Terms of Reference GPSA created to commit both Colleges to preserving this independent network; met multiple times with RACGP, ACRRM, GPRA and DOHAC.
I also had the opportunity to present to the Southern Alliance of Regional Training Hubs about how GPSA can support the university sector through the recalibration of AGPT-focused resources for under-supported supervisors of medical students and prevocational doctors. Quite coincidentally, two days before this meeting, a long-standing GPSA member working in medical education for a Victorian training hub reached out to me seeking help doing just this. Last month I referred to my respect for signs the universe sends - and this was just one of these! By the time the Prevocational Medical Education Forum rolls around in November, my friend Eldon and I now aim to have a suite of prevocational resources ready to share with the sector.
This focus on the educational continuum GP supervisors provide across the pathways leading to vocational GP training gained even more value when I was invited to view the DOHAC "Design Lab" - a project undertaken by a vibrant group of researchers (who made me feel incredibly old) to explore where and why leakage occurs across the GP training pipeline. Although the findings were predictable for anyone on the ground (uninteresting placements, being 'pot-planted' in a corner and 'never learning anything', supervisors being time poor and ill-equipped to deal with the trainee), what made these remarkable was the fact this was the first time many of the policy makers in Canberra had ever really considered the importance of the training practice and supervisor providing the placement experiences for potential AGPT trainees of the future.
In truth I had the opportunity to view the Design Lab twice this month, having been invited to Canberra again at the end of May to participate in the ACER / DOHAC 2023 AGPT National Registrar Survey (NRS) workshop, this latter reminding me how each stakeholder's focus on their individual agenda can so easily create survey fatigue across the sector when instead some meaningful collaboration and information sharing could potentially provide a much better outcome for all. Not sure this suggestion was seen as the solution it was meant to be - but can't blame an old girl for trying!