Pot-pourri eBulletin - 13 December 2024
Season’s greetings to all in our last Pot-pourri President’s message for 2024. It’s been a very busy year, so I’d like to just mention a few key moments and highlights.
I would like to open this edition with some excellent news. At the recent Asia Pacific Congress of Pediatrics (APCP) held in Cebu, Philippines, Dr Niroshini Kennedy was announced as the Oceania representative to the Asia Pacific Pediatric Association (APPA) Standing Committee. This is a position I have held as PCHD President for the past two years, and I am pleased that Niroshini will be carrying the position forward as she becomes PCHD President on 30 May 2025. I attended the APCP this year as a plenary speaker (speaking on respiratory health of children in post-Covid) so I have seen for myself the value of strong relationships with other paediatric groups in our region. I’m sure that Niroshini will find being a member of the APPA Standing Committee as stimulating and beneficial as I have.
Talking about key matters from this year, it’s disheartening to note the lack of success we’ve experienced with the Raise the Age campaign, with several states going against College recommendations. This is such an important issue for children and young people, and we will not flag in our efforts to advocate for raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years, in keeping with the evidence of our medical expertise and experience. See our recent media release.
In more positive news, we’ve been involved in several other areas of advocacy this year, including:
- raising awareness of the negative impact of social media on children
- input into the discussion of the negative effects of junk food advertising on children, contributing to childhood obesity (see link to ABC News Breakfast interview)
- input into several state parliamentary inquiries regarding ADHD and care provision.
In short, it’s been a very busy and productive year. I want to thank all those who contributed their time, expertise and passion to pushing these and other key issues to the forefront of College and political agendas.
A recurring bright spot during my Presidency has been my attendance at several RACP Convocation ceremonies. The latest was held at Melbourne Town Hall on Saturday, 23 November. The event saw the College welcome 215 New Fellows, including 58 New Fellows to the Paediatrics & Child Health Division. A particular highlight of the day for me was having the honour of presenting the Examination Medal in Paediatrics & Child Health for 2023 to Dr Emily Aitken. Dr Aitken is an Advanced trainee from Aotearoa New Zealand; she undertook her Basic Training at Whangarei Hospital and Starship Hospital, completing roles with their Respiratory, Neurology, Neonatal, Emergency, and General Paediatric services. As with all our new PCHD Fellows, it was a real pleasure to welcome her to the PCHD/RACP family.
I’d like to flag an upcoming event that may be of interest to our members, the General Paediatrician Update meeting of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes (ANZSPED). This one-day meeting will be held on Saturday, 22 February 2025 at the Queensland Children’s Hospital and can be attended either in-person or online. For more details, see the event website.
Again, I want to thank all our PCHD committee members for the time and effort they’ve put into our ongoing work this year and extend that thanks to College support staff who have helped us shape and deliver that work. I especially would like to thank Kerri, Leanne and Engy at the RACP-PCHD office for supporting me in this complex but exciting role.
All those who contributed have my appreciation and good wishes for a restful end-of-year break
We have just a few weeks to go until the end of the year and I hope that most of you plan to take some well-deserved holiday time. I encourage you to relax and refresh so that we can all continue our important work in 2025. It only remains for me to wish you all peace, happiness, and a joy-filled time with your loved ones.
Professor Nitin Kapur
PCHD President
Several positions are available on PCHD committees. Please consider applying for suitable positions and/or encouraging your colleagues. If you have any questions about any of the PCHD committee positions, please contact Paed@racp.edu.au.
All Expressions of Interest
2024 Medical Training Survey Results Now Available
The RACP welcomes the results of the Medical Board of Australia’s sixth annual Medical Training Survey (MTS). This anonymous survey was open between August and October 2024 and was completed by 41 per cent of RACP trainees, including Overseas Trained Physicians who are currently undertaking supervised practice in Australia (n=3,069). Findings point to small but important improvements in key areas such as workload, trainee wellbeing and the provision of safe training environments.
Key findings:
The quality of training and clinical supervision remains high
We continue our work to improve the support we provide to our members who occupy vital supervisory and educational leadership roles. We are also looking to improve our recognition of these roles in 2025.
A need to legitimise and protect teaching and learning time in service delivery contexts
In 2025, the College will be initiating a new Workforce and Healthcare Reform Advocacy program, which will feature increased calls for protected training and education time for members. We’re also looking at our Accreditation Standards to see how these can better support legitimising and protecting educational activities as a core function of accredited training settings.
The importance of safe training environments
We continue our important work to improve the psychological safety of trainees in training settings and we maintain our zero-tolerance stance on unprofessional behaviours. Please refer to our President Jennifer Martin's recent communication on civility and the RACP’s existing support programs.
Trainee wellbeing is critical
Our Member Health and Wellbeing Strategic Plan sets out the College’s aim to improve member wellbeing at both individual and systematic levels. Individual support is free and readily available through the RACP Support Program, along with our range of other services.
Call for clearer communication regarding training requirements
We know we have work to do to meet trainee expectations for quality and timely services. We have invested in new resources for our Member Support Centre and we are launching new technology and processes to support improved training management. We look forward to you all being able to enjoy the benefits of these exciting initiatives in 2025.
Accessing the results
We encourage you to further explore the MTS results via the:
Thank you to all RACP trainees who participated in this important survey.
Further details about the survey can be found on the RACP website and the Medical Training Survey website.
Curious about supervisory experiences in 2024?
We are pleased to share the results of our 2024 Supervisor Voices Survey. The survey ran over a three-week period in August, and we would like to thank the more than 600 supervisors and educational leaders across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand who took the time to contribute their voice. The feedback collected provides a solid evidence base to shape the way we support supervisors moving forward.
Key findings
The survey highlighted increasingly heavy supervisory workloads and a pressing need for more dedicated time to fulfill supervisory responsibilities. Despite these challenges, most supervisors still feel they provide high-quality clinical and educational supervision, emphasising their important contribution to training and education.
The results also revealed that supervisors often feel unrecognised for their significant contributions to training, along with persistent concerns around the culture of medicine.
Accessing the results
We encourage you to explore the results through our 2024 Supervisor Voices Survey Summary Report.
How we’re responding
Based on these results, we’re taking the following steps:
- Prioritising advocacy for dedicated time for supervision as a key focus area in our engagement with jurisdictions.
- Enhancing support for supervisors by providing concise resources, timely assistance, and clear role expectations.
- Exploring a formal feedback process to support supervisors’ development.
- Establishing mechanisms to improve recognition of supervisors’ contributions from both the College and workplaces.
- Updating our SPDP program to better meet your needs.
For further information, please visit the Supervisor Voices Survey webpage or reach out to our team at evaluation@racp.edu.au.
The College would like to thank each of our dedicated supervisors and educational leaders for their commitment to the development of their profession, and for their participation in this survey.
Launching the RACP member consultation webpage
The member consultation webpage is your go-to place for all policy and advocacy consultations including contributing to government submissions and College position statements. This will make it easier for you to provide your valuable input to College submissions, to add your voice to drive change, and make a real impact on your profession.
This webpage has been developed based on feedback from the 2023 Member Satisfaction Survey, where many members advised that a single webpage with opportunities to contribute to consultations would support enhanced engagement with policy and advocacy.
To find out how your input to prior College consultations has made a powerful impact, read the College Policy & Advocacy Council’s reports and review approved outputs in the P&A Library.
Find out more.
Check out the new RACP Evolve recommendations on prescribing practice in pharmacology and toxicology (ASCEPT)
Physicians often prescribe medicines as part of managing complex medical conditions. Both medications and multi-morbidity are becoming increasingly complex.
The Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT) launched their renewed Evolve Top-5 Recommendations within pharmacology and toxicology that asks clinicians to rethink their prescribing decisions for quality patient care.
Refer to the media release here.
Learn about ASCEPT Evolve Top-5 recommendations here.
TMP announcement
Find out more about our New curricula support hub.
TGA product Information safety updates
The TGA recently published a Medicines Safety Update (MSU) article regarding ‘Product Information safety updates – November 2024. It can be found here.
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listings
New and amended Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listings are available here. This information relates to the administration of these listings by Services Australia.
For further information on broader PBS changes, please visit the PBS website
Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health
The Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health publishes original research articles of scientific excellence in paediatrics and child health. The latest edition is now live and available to view online.
Some topics include:
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Predictive analysis of lung function in school-age children born with very low birthweight, according to the definition used of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. A retrospective observational analysis
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Agreement between clinical criteria and quantitative polymerase chain reaction for diagnosing scabies in Auckland children
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Water beads: Expanding toy and ‘new’ problem for paediatric surgeons and community
Read the journal
You’ve told us that you need your College to be more responsive and supportive. We’ve listened to your feedback and we’re establishing a new Member Support Centre to help you navigate your College, improve enquiry response and resolution times and better support your needs. Thank you for your feedback – it helps us improve.
Did you know that you can update your address details online? Simply Login to MyRACP and go to “Edit my details”.
RACP Benefits: Exclusive savings on your lifestyle needs
Did you know that RACP Benefits gives you access to a range of discounts and offers from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading brands and retailers? Simply log in to the portal to start shopping and saving today. These special deals are exclusive to the College and made possible by our benefits partner, Member Benefits Australia.
Log in or find out more.
Pomegranate Health podcast: Your contributions welcome
The RACP podcast, Pomegranate Health, has published over 100 episodes since starting out eight years ago.
To provide more frequent and focused content we’re seeking contributions from our speciality societies, committees and affiliated professional organisations.
To hear what this would sound like, listen to the episodes tagged [IMJ On-Air]
These episodes feature authors published in the Internal Medicine Journal being interviewed by the relevant section editor.
They have covered themes as varied as asthma management, hospital-acquired complications, causes of readmission and the JEV outbreak.
You already spend considerable time preparing lectures and webinars for your colleagues.
Audio podcasts provide an easy way to reach thousands more around the world.
Each episode gets downloaded around 6500 times over the first 12 months from publication, with 21 per cent of listeners located outside of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
All you need to do is to organise one or more presenters and an interviewer familiar with the material. The podcast producer will coordinate an online recording lasting about one hour and then edit it down before publication. The intention would be to ‘brand’ regular episodes from your specialty society or organisation in the same way that we’ve done with [IMJ On-Air].
Please send any questions or ideas to podcast@racp.edu.au
View all career opportunities on the RACP website.
To submit an article for publishing in Pot-pourri, please email paed@racp.edu.au. The article should be no more than 350 words. If you would like to submit an image with your article, it would be assumed that you have received appropriate permission to use the photo and it needs to be of high resolution, above 300 dpi. Please note that articles may need to be edited by the RACP Communications Team.