Current Projects

Select a Specialty to view the RHCE funded CPD projects.

For completed projects, please click here.

Rural Practice Review

The project will involve the Australasian College of Dermatologists coordinating practice visits and reviews between rural dermatologists to facilitate networking and enhance practice performance amongst Fellows working in rural and remote areas. The Fellows participating in the practice reviews will visit or videoconference with the host practice and agree on a development plan which will be implemented and reported on to highlight the effectiveness of the review. A series of webinars will also be arranged as part of a discussion forum for members involved in the practice reviews. The case studies generated will be made available online as a sustainable resource for current and future Fellows who are considering building their own private practice and will count as a continuing professional development activity.

Project Type – Face to face, videoconference, webinars and online modules

Collaborating Colleges – None

Target Audience – Dermatologists working and/or living in rural areas

Funding Period – March – November 2015

Project Status – Active

Project Resources – Online module of case studies

For more information please contact Jennifer McNeillie

 

This College is also collaborating in

The RACP-led Telehealth Technology Workshops project and the RACS-led Nicheportal project (see RACS below).

Promoting Cultural Safety Program

Culturally safe Emergency Departments (EDs) are a key component of providing high quality care for Indigenous and other culturally and linguistically diverse patients.

The ACEM Promoting Cultural Safety Program (PCSP) aims to improve the ability of Emergency Medicine Specialists to assess and improve skills in Indigenous health and cultural competency within EDs leading to greater professionalism of rural and remote staff.

The six month program covers cultural safety initiatives that are relevant for the ED in the areas of project and change management, local ED implementation, building professional relationships with key allied health staff, monitoring and evaluation.

Project type: e-Learning modules, webinars, face-to-face workshops and online support

Collaborating colleges: None

Target audience: Emergency Medicine Specialists

Funding Period: March – November 2015

Project Status: Active

Project Resources: ACEM Indigenous Health and Cultural Competency Online eLearning Module series

For more information please contact: Meggan Jenkins

 

This College is also collaborating in

The RACS-led Nicheportal project (see RACS below).

 

 

While this College is currently not leading a Project, it is collaborating in the RACS-led SAST and Nicheportal projects (see RACS below).

Safe Patient Transport

The aim of the project is to ensure that all specialists involved in the transport of critically ill patients minimise risk and maximise safety. The outcomes are to ensure that those specialists are aware of the most current guidelines, protocols and practices.

An online learning module will be developed that will assist medical practitioners develop and implement strategies and protocols for the safe transport of critically ill patients.

Project Type  – Online module

Collaborating Colleges – None

Target Audience – All specialists involved in transport of critically ill patients, that work in a rural or regional area

Funding Period – March – November 2015

Project Status – Active

Project Resources – eLearning module

For more information please contact Lisa Davidson

 

This College is also collaborating in

The RACS-led Nicheportal project (see RACS below).

E-dgy Issues Program (EIP)

The Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (RACMA) will deliver a set of four 1.5 hour webinars comprised of e-debates and discussions with doctors and other health professionals. These will be live discussions based on edgy, and contemporary issues related to health services, medical and clinical administration.

The online webinars and debates will  give doctors and health professionals in rural and remote areas the opportunity to enhance their continuing professional development and to sustain best practice in medical leadership and management.

Through the EIP, RACMA will provide a forum to enable important interdisciplinary, interprofessional and multidisciplinary alliances in approaches to contemporary and current health issues that affect rural and remote health associations, while promoting robust discussion and greater sector interconnection.

The EIP will provide a range of issues that raise significant questions and important topics to encourage discussion and best practice approaches to contemporary challenges, vital in continuing to minimise the effects of isolation for the non-metropolitan based health services that provide key health care in rural and remote communities.

Project Type –  Online webinar and debates

2015 E-dgy Issues Dates:
20 May 2015, Inequality in Indigenous Health – What lessons in Indigenous health have been learnt?
Presenter:   Ms Debra Hocking
________________________________________
15 July 2015, 12.30 – 2pm AEST, Playing ball – Embracing collaborative care and reducing load on rural practice through true multidisciplinary integration
Presenter: Professor Associate Professor Joe McGirr
________________________________________
19 August 2015, 12.30 – 2pm AEST, Conquering fragmented rural mental health and other specialist medical services – Telehealth
Presenter:  Professor Peter Yellowlees
________________________________________
14 October 2015, 12.30 – 2pm AEDT, Ageism, sexism, bullying, respect or un-esteemed collaborations between medical professionals. Are we duplicating what is taught in medicine?
Presenter:  Associate Professor David Hillis

Collaborating Colleges – RACMA extends a welcome to all specialist colleges to participate, and their members to register in the E-dgy Issues online webinars and debate. The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) is presenting in the second E-dgy Issues webinar while The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) is participating in the fourth on the 14 October 2015.
As part of the marketing of this 2015 EIP, all colleges are informed of the E-dgy Issues events and invited to add these details to their calendars.

Target Audience – Doctors, specialists and health professionals in regional, rural and remote health settings

Funding Period – March – November 2015

Project Status – Active

Project resources:

Pre-reading material
Podcasts and transcripts
Past material e.g. 2014 E-dgy Issues Program Booklet

For more information please contact Carmel O’Hea

 

This College is also collaborating in

The RACS-led Nicheportal project (see RACS below).

Treatment of Chronic Heart Failure in Rural and Remote Australia

This project will adapt existing guidelines for chronic heart failure (CHF) so that they are more effective in rural and remote areas. This will focus on simplifying treatment regimens and incorporating greater self-care elements.

Two face to face workshops will educate specialists and their teams about the guidelines. Online train-the-trainer materials will be developed and promote sustainability by allowing the workshops to be held across Australia after the funding round has ended. These materials will focus on understanding the guidelines and enhancing the ability of clinicians to communicate with patients about their condition and treatment.

Project Type – Written guidelines, face to face workshops, train the trainer resources

Collaborating Colleges – None

Target Audience – Rural and remote cardiologists and other specialists involved in CHF care. The project will initially target Victoria and the Northern Territory.

Funding Period – March – November 2015

Project Status – Active

Project resources – Written guidelines advising on CHF care in rural and remote settings and train the trainer materials

For more information please contact Alastair Wilson or Krista Recsei

Remote Peer Practice Review for Rural Rehabilitation Physicians

Peer and practice reviews have a high impact on quality of care and positive practice change. They are also beneficial to reviewers, who are encouraged to reflect on their own practice, stay current with standards and borrow good practices from their peers.

Conducting reviews remotely will reduce the cost complexities involved for rural and remote physicians, allowing them regular access to practice reviews, peer reviews, and team development opportunities.

This project will trial a model for conducting peer practice reviews using online tools and videoconferencing. It is based on a previously successful face-to-face model.  A comprehensive guide will be developed and tested that will guide participants through the peer review process.  In addition, templates will be developed for conducting reviews and providing feedback.

Project type – Practice review and virtual meetings

Collaborating Colleges – None

Target Audience – This project primarily targets rural and remote rehabilitation physicians. Once the review model and documents have been trialled, they could be adapted for the other physician specialties and shared with other specialist medical colleges.

Funding Period – March 2015 – November 2015

Project Status – Active

Project Resources – A practice review guide and forms will be available for use

For more information please contact Michael Pooley or Krista Recsei

Telehealth Technology Workshops

Two workshops will be held, each providing ‘hands on’ opportunities for specialists to explore telehealth technologies and learn from their peers. They will be delivered in two parts:
1. Presentations from specialists on how they use telehealth
2. A demonstration of the various technologies and an opportunity to experiment with them.

The featured technologies will include videoconferencing setups, imaging software, cameras, 3D printers and more.

Experimenting with these technologies will be an important step in increasing specialists’ confidence and excitement about telehealth.

Workshops will be offered in:
Port Macquarie on 25 July 2015, and Hobart on 1 August 2015.

 

This College is also collaborating in

The RACS-led Nicheportal project (see RACS below).

Safer Australian Surgical Teamwork (SAST): Working together to help intraoperative teams in rural and remote locations

Research shows that a breakdown in non-technical skills (NTS) frequently contributes to adverse outcomes. The training offered in the SAST workshops seeks to address these breakdowns, and thereby improve safety in the operating theatre and patient outcomes.

The project brings together surgeons, anaesthetists and scrub practitioners in a collaborative, cross-disciplined one day workshop, improving situational awareness, decision making, leadership, task management, communication skills and teamwork. The workshop will utilise three behavioural marker frameworks – Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons (NOTSS), Anaesthetists’ Non-Technical Skills (ANTS) and Scrub Practitioners’ List of Intra-operative Non-Technical Skills (SPLINTS) developed by The University of Aberdeen, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the National Health Service.

RACS delivered three one-day workshops in 2014, and will deliver a further five in 2015. As in 2014, the 2015 workshops will be delivered by a mixed craft group faculty in regional hospitals, using NOTSS, ANTS and SPLINTS behavioural marker frameworks. The group will concentrate on team work and team dynamics by exploring the behaviours outlined in the frameworks, looking at similarities and differences for each non-technical category.

Indigenous Health and Cultural Competency Online Portal – Nicheportal

The Network for Indigenous Cultural and Health Education website (Nicheportal) has been developed as a resource for medical specialists working with Indigenous populations. The project is collaboration between the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), the Australian Indigenous Doctor’s Association (AIDA) and other specialist medical colleges.

The aim of the Nicheportal project is to update, extend and enhance the online portal; supporting access by medical specialists to professional development activities and resources relating both to Indigenous health and cultural learning. This will result in the most up-to-date information becoming available to medical specialists on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, culturally safe work practices and healthcare delivery.

Acute Neurotrauma

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) has been offering Acute Neurotrauma workshops since 2007 and participants have found the skills learned through the presentation and subsequent lab session very valuable.

The College will run one workshop in 2015. This will be delivered on Thursday 24 September at James Cook University in Cairns, and facilitated by two neurosurgeons.

The aim is to equip medical professionals with the skills to deal with cases of neurotrauma using equipment commonly found in rural hospitals, including the Hudson Brace.

Project Objectives:
•  To understand the treatment for acute neurotrauma in the rural setting
•  To be able to decompress a patient with a rapidly expanding extra-dural
•  To be able to use a Hudson Brace and bit.

On completion of this course, participants will be able to identify different types of head injury, accurately assess patients suffering neurotrauma, manage extra-cerebral haematoma, identify patients requiring urgent surgical intervention, and learn appropriate surgical skills, including a craniotomy, craniectomy, burr hole and tap-shunt procedure and how to manage acute hydrocephalus.

An e-module was produced in 2014 to compliment the workshop and assist future and past participants in the maintenance of their knowledge and skills.

The program content is based on the information contained in the booklet “The Management of Acute Neurotrauma in Rural and Remote Locations” produced by the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia.

Audit App

The project seeks to make available an audit tool to assist and encourage participation in audit of clinical practice. The aim is to monitor practice and identify areas for improvement, which may be subject to a ‘Quality Cycle’ approach of measurement, comparison to a standard, introduction of change and re-measurement approach.  This will enable rural and regional Fellows with minimum expertise in databases and IT systems to conduct clinical audits on a mobile device.

Project Type – Clinical Audit

Collaborating Colleges – None

Target Audience – Rural Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Funding Period – March – November 2015

Project Status – Active

Project Resource – Audit App

For more information please contact Michele Quinlan 

Rural Obstetric and Gynaecological Ultrasound Practice

The main objective of the project is to improve accuracy in the diagnosis of patients who present for pregnancy or common gynaecological conditions, and to provide upskilling in a fast changing discipline.

The project will deliver eight full-day ultrasound training visits, each to be conducted by a facilitator and held at one participant’s practice, with up to three other participants joining at that location.

Ultrasound competency is an ongoing training requirement of the FRANZCOG specialist training program and these visits are intended to keep Fellows updated with current ultrasound practice.

A pre‐ and post‐visit questionnaire will be conducted with participants to measure the value of the visits. Participants will also have the opportunity to provide feedback on the day via an online post‐visit evaluation form.

The proposed visits will contribute to fulfilling continuing professional development requirements as they involve quality assurance and educational activities aimed at improving one’s own practice.

While this College is currently not leading a Project, it is collaborating in the RACP-led Telehealth Technology Workshops and the RACS-led Nicheportal project (see RACP and RACS above).

Self Care for Rural Psychiatrists

This project aims to provide practical measures for rural and remote psychiatrists to improve their physical health and wellbeing, through the development of a centralised resource page on the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists’ website. This page will provide access to a continuing professional development e-learning module, focused on self-care for rural psychiatrists in addition to self-directed tools that help manage chronic conditions.

The objectives of this project are to:
1)  assist practitioners to understand and reflect upon their own health and wellbeing
2)  identify the challenges and barriers to improving health and wellbeing
3)  increase knowledge and understanding of practical measures for self-care management
4)  recognise issues associated with working in remote and rural practice
5)  identify strategies for managing issues that can cause stress and identify where help can be accessed.

Project Type – Online Education and Resources

Collaborating Colleges – None

Target audience – Rural Psychiatrists, Psychologists, General Practitioners, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists and Mental Health Nurses

Funding Period – March – November 2015

Project Status – Active

Project Resources – Webpage, e-learning Module, Online Resources

For more information please contact Huseyin Mustafa

 

This College is also collaborating in

The RACS-led Nicheportal project (see RACS above).

Appropriate Use of Medical Imaging in Rural and Remote Emergency Departments

Up to four regional webinars for rural medical specialists will be held nationally to facilitate discussions about the best and most effective and efficient way to utilise medical imaging. Up to 15 people will participate in a Q&A-style discussion, focusing on the need for the judicial use of medical imaging for a number of common presentations in the emergency setting.  An unlimited number of participants will be able to login to the webinars as observers, and a recording of one of the webinars will later be made available via the RHCE website.

The webinars will be supported and enhanced by a series of recently completed and piloted educational modules for appropriate imaging referrals (currently available in three media formats: web-based; iBooks; and/or PDFs). The modules were developed by multidisciplinary teams, with the support of the Australian Government Department of Health.

Each of the nine clinical modules present the evidence behind the best clinical decision rules for that topic, followed by how to apply rules in practice. An interactive format is used, with numerous quizzes aimed to consolidate the theory, followed by clinical scenarios to assess understanding in practice. A smart phone app is also under development to help practitioners implement practices learned from the modules.

Project Type – Interactive webinars supported by eLearning modules and other resources

Collaborating Colleges – Australasian College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM)

Target Audience – Emergency medicine physicians, Hospital interns, GPs providing emergency department (ED) coverage, Allied health professionals including physiotherapists, radiographers and ED nurses.

Funding Period – March 2015 – November 2015

Project Status – Active

Project Resources –

Imaging Clinical Decision Rules App
Webinar recording
Learning modules
Clinical Decision Rules Summaries
iBooks of the module material
PDFs of the module material

For more information please contact Jessica Brown

This College is also collaborating in

The RACS-led Nicheportal project (see RACS above).

While this College is currently not leading a Project, it is collaborating in the RACP-led Telehealth Technology Workshops and the RACS-led Nicheportal project (see RACP and RACS above).

 

 

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