Congratulations to William MacAskill on receiving the 2023 ANZAHPE Early Career Award sponsored by AMH!

Dr William MacAskill (Griffith University and Rural Medical Education Australia)

Project title:  'Creative reflective learning approaches and medical students’ personal growth, interpersonal relationships, and sense of belonging: A systematic review and qualitative synthesis'

"This year I received the ANZAHPE Early Career Award for my work in using creative reflective learning approaches in medical education (w.macaskill@ruralmeded.org.au if you're interested!). I could not have achieved this outcome without the hard work and support of my co-authors Dr Weng Joe Chua, Thedini Pinidiyapathirage, and Dr Hannah Woodall, and the support of my colleagues at Rural Medical Education Australia.

As a newcomer to the field I felt that applying for this award could give me an opportunity to showcase my work to a broad variety of health professional educators and extend the impact of my research. Receiving the award was a genuine surprise and a great honour. It provided a wonderful opportunity to showcase my work and to develop new relationships with others health professional educators. The ANZAHPE staff and membership were very supportive and genuinely interested in not just my own work, but all the fantastic research on display at the ANZAHPE Conference. The entire experience was more collegial, supportive, and fun than I could have imagined. The platform provided a great opportunity to share my research and after my presentation I had many conversations with interested people – giving me hope that my research may positively impact education practice.

If you get the opportunity to apply for an ANZAHPE award you should definitely go for it. Health students and professional educators should definitely attend the conferences too! They are a fantastic opportunity to network, learn, and stay up to date with evidence based practice."

- Dr William MacAskill: Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Rural Medical Education Australia; Lecturer, Griffith University