Join us in-person in Melbourne, or virtually from wherever you are.

As part of the overall Congress program, these sessions are specifically designed for trainees. Addressing issues and questions that all trainees face, these sessions should be included as a part of your Congress experience.

Friday, 13 May 2022


SessionSpeakers
8am - 8.45am
Obstacles to exam preparation: The things we don't talk about

In preparation for RACP exams, many registrars focus on curriculum. In this interactive workshop, specialist coach, Dr Brett Factor, and GP and well-being expert, Dr Laura Chapman and participants will explore the role of stress, self-care, time management, and strategies for success in clinical exams. Participants may find that sharing their experiences enables discovery.
*This is a closed session and will not be recorded
Dr Laura Chapman
Dr Brett Factor
Chair: Dr Russell Gear                                                 
8.50am - 10.10amTrainee burnout and wellness 

How can we build a kind health system?
Burnout is a public health crisis that demands action across the entire healthcare system. Burnout not only affects healthcare workers, but also their patients, family and friends. 
In this session we discuss how to identify burnout in yourself and others, learn strategies for burnout prevention and tools to help improve your wellbeing.
Explore practical ideas, methods and concepts which can be used to promote positive health and wellbeing for you, your families and those in your professional life.


Professor Bruce Arroll
Professor Catherine Crock
Dr Fiona Moir
Chair: Dr Krithika Murali

Saturday, 14 May 2022

SessionSpeakers
9am - 9.55am
Transition to consultancy   

Practical and strategic approach to help you transition to private consultant practice.  How to manage changes in relationships, new roles, and responsibilities. 

Dr Saul Geffen
Dr Ari Horton
Chair: Dr Kudzai Kanhutu  
10.05am
- 11am
Mentors and mentorship

A practical overview including perspectives across cross-specialty groups of the roles, finding and being a mentor to maximise the value of mentoring time.
Dr Jade Jones
Dr Kalesh Seevnarain 
Chair: Dr Mostayn Alam



Speakers


Professor Bruce Arroll

Bruce is a Professor of General Practice and Primary Health Care at the University of Auckland New Zealand, current Head of Department and a practising GP at Greenstone Family Clinic in Manurewa in South Auckland- an economically deprived suburb. He does regular general practice at that clinic. Also, he does special consultations using Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (FACT) for people who feel stuck in their lives by stress, pain or low energy. He does this work with his patients and those referred from his clinic colleagues and people outside of the clinic. He has many patients with diabetes who get improvements in their HBA1c results by attending to their psychosocial issues. He is also director of the Goodfellow Unit, writes the two weekly GEMs and researchs non-drug treatments for mental health issues and rapid assessment of distressed clients. He is also the Head of Department. In terms of publications, he has over 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He has taught FACT in Canberra, Oregon, San Francisco and regularly runs one day trainings in New Zealand either face to face or online. He has a website www.brucearroll.com where all materials are free to access.

Dr Laura 
Chapman

Laura Chapman (MBChB, FRACGP, CWH) gained fellowship to RANZCOG in 2010. After a decade working in Melbourne’s western suburbs, Laura now practices at Collingwood Medical. She has a growing patient base of doctors and understands the pressures faced by the profession. Laura’s passion for improving service provision, reproductive and family healthcare have driven her to develop various services, including: an IUD insertor training hub for GPs (in collaboration with Family Planning Victoria); a low-cost pelvic health service; and a network connecting GPs undertaking specialist reproductive procedures. Additionally, Laura’s commitment to holistic care has led her to becoming a yoga teacher. Laura enjoys trips into nature and recently returned – just – from a 5-day kayaking trip with her daughter. Laura believes she owns the fastest whippet puppy in Victoria.

Professor 
Catherine Crock

Prof Catherine Crock AM is a Physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, and the Chair of the Hush Foundation, which she founded in 2000. The Hush Foundation is a notfor-profit organisation working to educate, inspire and enact positive change in healthcare through the Arts. Catherine has implemented a range of positive changes to improve partnerships between patients, families, and staff and to transform the healthcare environment overall. In collaboration with some of Australia’s finest musicians and artists, Hush has commissioned eighteen Hush music albums (and a Treasure Book) which reduce stress and anxiety in healthcare settings and beyond. In collaboration with playwright Alan Hopgood AM, Catherine developed plays which are performed in hospitals and aged care to raise awareness of patient centred care, communication, and patient safety. In 2016, Catherine founded the Gathering of Kindness, a movement promoting a kind health system. Now held annually around World Kindness Day in November, these events draw speakers and audiences from across the globe. While some may think that ‘kindness’ as a concept should happen automatically, Prof Crock explains that for healthcare providers, ensuring kindness is part of their support and care of patients (and their families and others) is not always easy. The links between working with kindness and patient safety and outcomes are now clearly evidenced, in addition to providing a better working environment for all healthcare professionals. Churchill Fellowship recipient 2009. Member of the Order of Australia in 2015 for her contribution to medicine, to community healthcare standards and to the Arts. Monash Fellowship 2020. Professor Deakin University, Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development.

Dr Brett
Factor

Dr Brett Factor (MBBS, FACEM, National Health Education and Training in Simulation Certificate, Diploma Modern Languages, Graduate Certificate in Counselling) is an emergency physician and director of Specialist Coaching. In his specialist training work, Brett takes a whole-person approach; instead of focusing only on curriculum, he works with candidates on exam performance, communication style and stress management – both in formal college assessments and at work. Brett is a keen cook, reader and father. He loves the outdoors, and has been known to pitch a tent in the backyard and call it camping.

Dr Saul
Geffen

Dr Geffen is an experienced rehabilitation physician and a recognised general practitioner with a special interest in sports medicine, pain management and treatment of dystonia and migraines. Dr Geffen is the Director of Queensland Rehabilitation Specialists, Director of Brisbane Hypertonicity Clinic, Director of Brisbane Pain Rehabilitation Service and Director of Migraine Clinic Australia. He is a VMO at Mater South Brisbane and Mater Mackay Hospitals, and Director of Rehabilitation at Canossa Private Hospital. Dr Geffen was the former team doctor for Australian representative Thai boxing teams and the South Sydney Rugby League Club. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland in the School of Medicine. Dr Geffen’s treatment programs have been featured in multiple media stories. He is a keen organic gardener and a surfer whose enthusiasm far outstrips his skill level.

Dr Ari
Horton

Dr Ari Horton is a paediatric cardiologist and clinical genetics fellow. His focus is on holistic healthcare and building capacity and equity of access to services. He works with NGOs to improve healthcare in overseas countries whilst practicing in both public and private practice. Transitioning to consultancy is a critical time for which we are often not equipped, mentorship and sharing support is key, to giving us all the opportunity to thrive and provide compassionate care to our patients and our colleagues.

Dr Jade
Jones 

Dr Jones works as an anaesthetist, intensivist, and palliative care physician. After graduating from University of Queensland, her postgraduate training was completed in Queensland and Victoria. Since returning from Victoria, she predominantly practises publicly in South-East Queensland. Jade has broad post-graduate education including Masters of Bioethics (Monash University), Masters of Critical Care Medicine (University of Sydney) and Master of Laws (University of Queensland). Prior to post-graduate medicine, Jade completed qualifications in law and accounting and worked for Ernst & Young, specialising in restructuring. Jade’s interests include: • Intersections between specialties, particularly pain management and end-of-life care, with cross-speciality collegiate work towards best outcomes for patients and families; • Bioethical and complex legal considerations, including peri-operative planning and VAD; • Systems analysis and improvement, focussing on sustainable people management and mentorship.

Dr Fiona
Moir

Dr Fiona Moir MBChB MRCGP PhD Fiona trained in the UK and went on to work in New Zealand as a GP with a special interest in mental health. She is one of the two Directors of a company, Connect Communications, a medical education business which designs and facilitates self-care, supervision and communication skills sessions for health professionals, and more recently for those in other professions. Fiona also has a part-time role as a Senior Lecturer in Mental Health and Communication Skills at The University of Auckland. Within this job, she has developed SAFE-DRS, a Health and Wellbeing curriculum for medical students, and has created comprehensive pastoral care policies and care pathways for the medical school. She also teaches and supervises postgraduate students and is involved in a wide variety of research projects with a focus on psychological health, education and the health of health professionals. In 2008, she was one of the co-authors of the CALM website, a resource for stress management and happiness, which was originally made available to students and then later released to the public. Her interests are: early interventions for stress, anxiety and depression; self-care; the health of health professionals; healthy workplaces and communication. Her PhD is in the area of peer-led interventions to improve mental health. In 2016, she co-designed HOTSPOTS, an anti-bullying programme for medical students, which is now up and running in half of New Zealand’s District Health Boards. In 2018, she won the University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor’s excellence award for Health, Safety and Wellbeing. She has published widely and regularly gives lectures, interviews and webinars, as well as working with health professionals and industry groups across New Zealand and Australia.

Dr Kalesh Seevnarain 

Dr Kalesh Seevarain is a Consultant Occupational and Environmental Medicine Physician who completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training in South Africa. He has worked internationally and locally as an occupational physician. Dr Seevnarain has worked as a medical advisor and consultant to a large number of businesses across a diverse range of industries and geographical locations. Dr Seevnarain spent several years in Papua New Guinea working predominantly in the Energy, Mining and Infrastructure sector. His areas of interest are infectious diseases and pneumoconiosis. Currently, Dr Seevnarain works as a private consultant in Brisbane. He is the Training Program Director for Queensland.

Session Chairs


Dr Mostayn Alam

Trainee Co-representative Occupational and Environmental Medicine Registrar, Resile Health, Brisbane.

Dr Russell
Gear

Trainee Co-representative Occupational and Environmental Medicine Registrar, Resile Health, Brisbane

Dr Kudzai
Kanhutu

Dr Kanhutu MBBS (Hons); BA/BSc; MPH; FRACP; GAICD is an infectious diseases specialist, with a background in immunology and French studies. She is the former Deputy Chief Medical Information Officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH). Dr Kanhutu’s recent career achievements include the successful establishment of the RMH telehealth unit, winning the Women's Agenda emerging healthcare leader’s award and Australian Top 10 CIO in 2020. Dr Kanhutu is also recipient of the 2017 Victorian Department of Health award for excellence in culturally and linguistically diverse care and has won the RMH CEOs innovation prize in 2018. Dr Kanhutu was further nominated as a national Superstar of STEM 2019 alongside 59 extraordinary women in STEM. A current Executive MBA candidate, Dr Kanhutu’s research undertakings are in the areas of telehealth and virtual care models for COVID-19 and housing as a social determinant of refugee settlement outcomes. Other research interests include digital literacy, public health policy and women’s health.

Dr Krithika
Murali

Krithika is a medical oncologist currently dual training in clinical genetics and genetic pathology. She has published on the topic of burnout in oncologists and is an invited member of the European Society of Medical Oncology's Resilience Taskforce.
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