Rufus was a long-standing member of ANZAHPE.  On a personal reflection, when I first met him, a long time ago, as a very young and junior member in the 1990's, I recall being both intrigued and intimidated in equal parts.  He was so clever, so insightful, and did not suffer fools gladly - that was daunting - but he was also funny, welcoming, experienced, and so knowledgeable.  In the 2000's I gathered the courage to ask him to mentor me, to help me to apply for promotions.  He was generous with his time and his advice - though again I was daunted by his amazing grasp of the English language and his excellent grammar and vocabulary (I tend to be a little more laissez faire, and must confess, I did not always understand all the words he used).  I worked alongside Rufus on the Editorial Board of FoHPE - he was on the Board from 2009-2018, and he was a true asset, writing reviews, always at the forefront with conference planning and contributions and attendance.

Rufus will be deeply missed by many of us, personally, and also, his loss is a loss to the Association.  We are richer and better for having had him amongst us.

Anna Chur-Hansen

A/Prof Jo Bishop - ANZAHPE President

Dear Members,

I welcome you as the newly elected president of ANZAHPE following the Annual General Meeting held in August.

I joined Bond University 8 years ago this month with my family for a 3-year adventure, we are now Australian citizens! I am the curriculum lead for the medical program and the Dean of students for the health faculty. 

The first Australian conference I attended and presented was in fact the 2014 ANZAHPE conference “Developing Health Professional Educators: Connecting Science and Theory with Learning for Clinical Practice” held on the Gold Coast. It was the first time I heard of PeArLS and quickly realised the wealth of collegiality within this Community of Practice. We can all agree that what ever format, in person or online, the PeArLS is staple of our organisation. During this year’s festival, my colleagues and I from Bond utilsed this format to ask Mentor, Coach, Personal tutor, advisor? You decide! We have formed collaborations with colleagues nationally and will be rolling out a revised program based on evidence next month – thank you!

Other memories from the conference was that the Translink Tram service had not been completed on time and that the conference dinner was at SeaWorld where we were greeted by a Hollywood star during our meal ….. the sea lion from Nim’s Island, was it Friday or Spud?

I would like to acknowledge and thank Professor Ben Canny who supported the Committee of Management (CoM) as the president and convened the 2021 Festival. In true homage to Ben who values a quote, here is one from Harvey Mackay “None of us got to where we are alone. Whether the assistance we received was obvious or subtle, acknowledging someone's help is a big part of understanding the importance of saying thank you.” 

I would like to introduce you to your CoM and their portfolio. For a full overview please read here and please contact anyone of us if you have any questions or suggestions.

We are pleased to announce that next year’s festival will be themed around ‘Partnerships’. Along with celebrating our partnerships with Health Professional Education the opening to the ANZAHPE Festival will include a special 50th anniversary simultaneous celebration, at local hubs around Australia, New Zealand and beyond.

This event will be held on Friday 8 July, so please reserve the date in your calendar! The remainder of the festival will take place over 3 days: Monday 11^th, Wednesday 13^th and Tuesday 19^th, using an online platform

Feedback from the 2021 Festival indicated that while we need to be cautious about interstate and international travel, attendees appreciate the networking and social opportunities usually provided at ANZAHPE events.  Therefore, sometime on Friday July 8^th (it will be later in the day for our NZ colleagues, and earlier for those in Perth) we invite you all to attend – in person – the official opening of the festival. Following the official address, attendees will be able to participate in local networking. More information will be circulated with the launch of our festival website.

Sinead Kado  BSc Psychology; MBBS; Dip O&G; MHPE (Dist)

I have worked for 20 years in Fiji first in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, then tutoring medical students through problem based learning before becoming the year 1-3 coordinator at the Fiji School of Medicine. A consortium of academics from Australia and New Zealand ran the Graduate Certificate in Medical Education for Fiji in 2013, many of whom contribute substantially to ANZAHPE. Through their mentorship and encouragement I further developed my interest in health professions education (HPE) and alongside Louise Young and Linda Sweet developed a medical education workshop for the Pacific. I was then awarded an Australian Awards scholarship to undertake a Masters in HPE at UWA where I began to research the impact of faculty development workshops on educational practice. Subsequently I was successful in being awarded a scholarship to continue in my studies. I am currently undertaking a PhD investigating HPE leadership in the Pacific within an interpretivist framework. My passion is to further develop HPE in the Pacific.

I joined the ANZAHPE fellowship scheme after encouragement from my mentors in ANZAHPE. I feel privileged to be part of the ANZAHPE family and hope that I can further build the networks between Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. I continue to be mentored and I look forward to mentoring others as they begin their HPE journey especially in the Pacific. 

The year 2021 continues to throw challenges at us all, and no more so in the sustenance of principal academic activities, such as the conduct of Conferences.  After cancelling our conference in 2020, ANZAHPE was keen to ensure that members had an opportunity to share their efforts in scholarship through a conference in 2021.  An early decision was taken to conduct the conference fully online, though at the time we were all hopefully of enhanced freedoms by July 2021.  Then Delta dawned, and, via the retrospectoscope, the wisdom of the original decision was vindicated.

The conference was renamed “the Festival” in recognition of the fact that it was going to be quite different from a normal ANZAHPE Conference.  We may not have had as much “Festival” as we may have liked, but we ended up with a 4-day conference, held across the middle of the day, to enable participants from WA to New Zealand, with 3 Keynote Speakers, 5 workshops/symposia, 20 PeArLS, and 215 “free communications” in the themes of Interprofessional Learning, Educational Technology, Professionalism Culture and Welfare, Assessment.  We had 350 registrants, drawn from across Australasia, with a smattering of contributors from the Region, and North America and Europe.

Highlights include excellent Keynote speakers including Dr Rhys Jones, University of Auckland, on “Moving backwards into the future: Indigenising the health professional curriculum”; Prof Karen Mattick, University of Exeter, on “Probability, Complexity and Ambiguity”, and Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM, Queensland Health on “Why we need to create the social leaders of tomorrow.“  All provoked our thinking, were well received and generated much positive feedback.  Additional highlights included joint workshops with AMEE and IAMSE, where speakers representing ANZAHPE and our relevant partners were able to contribute. 

In general, the Festival was a success with respondents to a post-conference survey positive about their experiences and the general format that was followed.  There is much to be learned from an event such as this, and I am confident ANZAHPE will take the experience forward to provide newer and better events in the future.  Not everything worked and the reintroduction of posters was a noted request from many respondents.  In addition, we know that conferences are about networking, and it isn’t the same via Zoom!!!

The Festival and the Association were supported by a range of loyal and generous sponsors.  These were Australian Medicines Handbook - Platinum Sponsor, Altus Assessments - Vendor Presentation Gold Package, AMBOSS - Vendor Presentation Gold Package, Lecturio GmbH / Inc - Vendor Presentation Gold Package, Fry It - Silver Sponsorship Package, Australian Medical Council - Silver Sponsorship Package.  In addition, the support we received from our Professional Conference Organiser, EventStudio, in one of their first events since being forming from Plevin and Associates was outstanding.  Technical support from Touch Point was also fantastic, and our worst fears were not realised.

Finally, it takes a team to do any of this, and the “crew” of Megan Anakin, Julie Ash, Jo Bishop, Jill Romeo, Pavla Simerska, Dale Sheehan and Joanna Tai were an absolute delight to work with.  The Festival abstracts can be found at: 

https://az659834.vo.msecnd.net/eventsairaueprod/production-eventstudio-public/f9c16a42dd0d4e0f8dea361912a88895

Ben Canny

I am currently the Dean of Medicine and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the International Medical School (IMU)  Malaysia. Prior to moving to IMU I held the positions Dean of Medicine in Newcastle and Adelaide University so it has been an interesting experience seeing the different approaches to Health Education between the two countries. 

I have been a member of ANZAHPE since 2004 and was on the organising committee for the annual conferences in Newcastle and Adelaide. The meeting we ran in Adelaide had a joint organising committee from three of the Universities in South Australia and all the professional groups – a wonderful experience in collaboration emblematic of what I believe ANZAHPE stands for. 

As we approach our Festival, the uncertainty in our lives that has been generated by us dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic continues, and even abounds.  The makes it a critical time for us to reflect on our roles as Educators, and how we can use knowledge and instruction to guide and reassure the next generation of Health Professionals.  Much of this will come about by direct instruction, sometimes by the simple communication of facts, though other times it will be the communication of underpinning principles which will provide others with tools to make good decisions.  In addition, we have important responsibilities to guide via our attitudes and behaviours, to give examples of how we deal with uncertainty and ambiguity.  Sometimes, the most salient lesson we can deliver is to say “I don’t know”, as long as we are prepared to have a discussion about how one might find out.

The Festival should give us the opportunity for reflection.  It will be different, and I am sure many of us will miss the opportunity to network, meet old friends, go out for dinner, etc.  We will probably all suffer a bit from continuing to attend to our day job, while we are supposed to be at a conference, but I hope we can dedicate appropriate time and headspace to take advantage of what is on offer.  I am particularly looking forward to our keynote speakers – Karen Mattick from Exeter, Rhys Jones from Auckland, and Dinesh Palipana from Queensland Health/Griffith.  In addition, there are some engaging workshops, featuring collaborations with our international partners, including AMEE and IAMSE.  Not to mention the over 240 “free” presentations from our most important contributors – you.

The Association will be holding is Annual General Meeting on Friday August 6.  In addition to the critical work and reports of the AGM, we will be holding a celebration immediately after it to recognise a number ANZAHPE awards, including honorary membership, and merit-based awards.  I encourage you to attend.

A couple of ANZAHPE new initiatives are due to commence shortly.  This include a mentorship program, being led by Julie Ash and the Fellowship team, and work has commenced to a celebration of 50 years of ANZAHPE/ANZAME which is due for 2022.  You will hear more about both programs shortly.

It has been a privilege and pleasure to serve as ANZAHPE president for this short period.  
Thank you to all for the support, and especially to Jill Romeo, our Executive Officer, and all members of the Committee of Management.  In the immortal words of Douglas Adams: “Farewell, and thanks for all the fish!!”

Lisa is Dean and Head in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at La Trobe University. Her professional clinical background is both as a Registered Nurse and Midwife. Lisa has been Editor-in-Chief of Collegian: The Australian Journal for Practice, Scholarship and Research since 2014 and is an Editorial Advisor for Nurse Education Today. She has researched and published extensively in nursing, midwifery and health professions education with a particular focus on simulation and patient safety, peer-assisted learning, professional role development and work readiness. Lisa has also supervised many honours, masters and doctoral students undertaking related studies. She is regularly sought to share her expertise both nationally and internationally.

Lisa sees Fellowship of ANZAHPE as a natural extension to her work in the field and in growing the exposure of health professional education as an area of scholarly and research importance. Through her Fellowship, Lisa intends to continue to provide mentoring and leadership in health professional education to further grow the field.

I am a medical doctor, who has worked in both private and public sectors as a GP, Assistant General Surgeon, Anesthesiologist and Intensivist. My interests and ambitions in teaching health professionals piloted me to Australia where I furthered my education (Graduate Certificate in Clinical Education and PhD). 

For almost two decades, I have extensively taught medical, nursing & midwifery, paramedicine, rehabilitation & science students and also made significant contributions to clinical workshops for trainee clinicians, paramedics, nurses from major Brisbane metropolitan hospitals and general community from high schools. Over the past five years, my primary focus is on developing and implementing innovative teaching methodologies for health professionals’ classrooms and designing better assessments. I furthered my research interests into interprofessional education (nursing) by introducing flipped classroom and simulated patient philosophy. I am currently developing virtual classrooms and novel teaching pedagogies for teaching medical/health students.

I have also reviewed healthcare curricula at both UQ and national universities by providing leadership and support in institutional and cross institutional committees. I have represented UQ on assessment consortia, for local students and internal medical graduates, both locally and overseas. 

As an active member of ANZAHPE, I believe that the organisation has led by example in promoting and strongly supporting collegiality among health educators nationally and internationally. The organisation not only provides a fertile ground for individual health educators’ development but also nurtures educational research by creating avenues for collaboration and networking to further develop better health education. I am honoured to be accepted as an Associate Fellow. I am confident that I am ready to positively contribute towards ANZAHPE’s core objectives and strategic priorities.

Dr Ashe Coxon (MBBS, FRACGP, DCH, MClinEd, GC Career Development, AFANZAHPE) is a General Practitioner, certified career counsellor and medical educator. Dr Coxon has a strong interest in assisting doctors and medical students with their career decision making - including transitioning between careers, returning to work, and navigating uncertainty. 

Dr Coxon has a strong interest in medical education and has worked in undergraduate, provocation and postgraduate medical eduction. 

The reason I applied for an Associate Fellowship of Health Professional Educators was to join a association of likeminded health educators. I am proud to receive associate fellowship which is recognition for my contribution to the world of medical education.

We would love to hear from members who would like learn more about nominating for a position on the ANZAHPE Committee of Management (CoM) in 2021.

Nominations for the ANZAHPE CoM will be received in advance of the AGM to be held on Friday August 6, 2021 (details TBA). 

Closing date for nominations:  Monday July 26, 2021

CoM Nomination form available here 

Please feel free to reach out to Ben Canny (President), Megan Anakin (Secretary) or any of the CoM members (click here to view)  to discuss the expectations eg time commitment for meetings, workload and the rewards from serving your Association as part of the management committee.