Welcome to the first edition of E_DIT for 2009

The first few months of the year is a busy time, with interns a few weeks into their medical year and many trainees starting new rotations.

It is also shaping up to be another big year for junior doctors in 2009. The AMACDT has hit the ground running, having just hosted its third AMACDT Trainee Forum and given key input into a number of AMA submissions on some important medical training issues, including:

• the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists curriculum review,
• the National Health Workforce Taskforce on understanding demand and capacity for undergraduate clinical placements, and
• the Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils on its draft Prevocational Medical Accreditation Framework that is aiming to make the accreditation of training positions more consistent across Australia.

The AMACDT is currently developing a position statement for AMA Federal Council approval on bullying and harassment in the workplace and an ethics package for junior doctors. We’ll keep you posted on the progress with these important initiatives.

Dr Alex Markwell
Chair, AMA Council of Doctors in Training

AMACDT Trainee Forum 2009

Clinical training places and doctors’ health were among the issues identified as critical for the medical profession during the AMACDT Trainee Forum. The annual trainee forum brought together representatives from the medical college trainee groups as well as the AMA’s own doctors in training representatives. This year’s forum was held in Sydney on 31 January 2009.

Every major trainee group was represented at the forum and participants discussed many issues and concerns that they had in common, such as training in private settings, the cost of training and bottlenecks in training programs. Other important issues covered during the forum were:

• national accreditation and registration,
• the draft code of professional conduct that is being prepared by the Australian Medical Council, and
• the future role of the Medical Training and Review Panel

Participants welcomed the 2008 Council of Australian Governments clinical training package, which has provided additional funding for undergraduate clinical training places along with extra GP and other specialist training positions. While the package is a significant boost to medical training, participants cautioned that benchmarks had to be developed to guarantee the quality of the supervision and the training experience in the clinical places.

The forum also reiterated previous calls made by the AMA for state and territory governments to provide enough prevocational and specialist training positions to match the ongoing growth in graduate numbers – and set aside appropriate funding.

There was also passionate discussion on doctors’ health with some participants recounting instances of doctors in distress in their workplace. Participants believed that much more needed to be done to address this issue. They believed that peer and institutional support was vital in this regard.

 

 

NSW Health clarifies policy on Junior Medical Officer Progress Review Forms

Following concerns raised by the AMACDT, NSW Health has clarified its policy on the use of JMO progress review forms for recruiting resident medical officers. The Department has advised that progress review forms cannot be used as part of the recruitment process for RMO positions and, in particular, for using them as a substitute for reference checking.

In a letter to the Chair of the AMACDT, Dr Alex Markwell, NSW Health has said that progress reviews are a strategy to ensure ongoing continuous performance improvement and it is not appropriate to use them as part of the recruitment process.

“NSW Health policy requires that structured verbal referee checking occurs prior to a recommendation being made to appoint a candidate to any position,” it said.

The Department will clarify the policy with its staff.

Contact Us

Either via our Facebook Group AMA Doctors-in-Training Network or via email to ditnetwork@ama.com.au or by phone 02 6270 5400.

You can unsubscribe from E_dit by emailing the Federal AMA at ditnetwork@ama.com.au

The AMACDT is established as a Committee of the Federal Council of the AMA and reports directly to Federal Council on issues of importance to junior doctors. Junior doctors who want to contact their State/Territory AMACDT representative can do so via the above contact details.

MJA Job Share

MJA Job Share is a free noticeboard facility for doctors who would like to arrange shared working arrangements with other doctors. You can notify specific job share opportunities or register your interest in job sharing so that like-minded doctors or employers can contact you.

This service is sponsored by the Australian Medical Association.  Go to http://www.mja.com.au/classifieds/jobshare.cgi