From the 10^th of November 2020, a change will take place in the leadership of ANZAHPE. After two and a half years as ANZAHPE President, Chinthaka Balasooriya will be stepping down from this role. Ben Canny, the immediate past Vice President of ANZAHPE, has been unanimously elected by the ANZAHPE Committee of Management to take on the role of ANZAHPE President from the 10^th November 2020 to July 2021.

Chinthaka served as ANZAHPE President since July 2018 and guided ANZAHPE through a period of significant growth. The major highlights of this period include: 

1. Expansion of the ANZAHPE research grant scheme with a resultant increase in the number and quality of applications
2. Increase in Annual Conference attendance and resultant membership growth
3. Continued growth of the ANZAHPE Fellowship scheme Signing of two funding agreements with the ‘Securing Interprofessional Futures’ (SIF) project to set up an IPE knowledge repository, to host IPE resources relevant to Australia and New Zealand: https://nexusipe.org/informing/resource-center/anzahpe (Portfolio lead: Margo Brewer)
4. Transition to an updated member management system within a new ANZAHPE website to enable enhanced functionality for networking amongst members. (Leads: Joanna Tai and Jill Romeo)
5. Establishment of a CoM portfolio and subcommittee to focus on professional development, with the ANZAHPE ONLINE program delivering significant benefits to members in 2020 (Portfolio lead: Joy Rudland)
6. Strengthening links with key international associations including AMEE and IAMSE, enhancing our international reputation and leading to a range of mutual benefits. 

Chinthaka worked with the Committee of Management and the Executive Officer to respond to the many challenges of 2020, and to stabilise the position of the association. He will continue to serve on the ANZAHPE Committee for the remainder of his elected term, till July 2022. He will continue to lead current initiatives around international collaborations and will chair the external collaborations subcommittee.

The Committee of Management thanks Chinthaka Balasooriya for his careful, inclusive and generous approach and dedicated service as ANZAHPE President.  Chinthaka’s commitment has been particularly appreciated in dealing with the impact of Covid-19 on ANZAHPE and we are delighted that he will continue as a Committee member. The committee congratulates Ben Canny on his election as ANZAHPE President. ANZAHPE is very fortunate to have a senior committee member with such vast experience to accept the presidency, and look forward to continuing to deliver enhanced benefits to its members.

Click here to read a personal message from Chinthaka.

The October session of ANZAHPE Online was a workshop on writing authentic OSCEs. It was led by Dr Karen D'Souza, Professor Richard Hays & Assoc Prof Bunmi Malau-Aduli, and expertly co-facilitated by members of the Australian Collaboration for Clinical Assessment in Medicine (ACCLAiM). 

Over 60 participants attended the workshop, from all states and territories in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Fiji and Sri Lanka, and a range of sectors including university, hospitals, local health networks, professional bodies, Specialist Medical Colleges and other training providers. 

It was a truly interdisciplinary affair with representation from Dentistry, Diagnostic/Medical Imaging, Health Professions Education, Health Sciences, Medicine, Midwifery, Nutrition and Dietetics, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Optometry, Paramedicine, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, and Speech Pathology. 

Workshop participants were highly appreciative of the opportunity to share ideas and best practices across settings and discuss some of the complex issues involved in the OSCE process with colleagues from a range of health disciplines and universities. They identified that the workshop helped them to think more closely and critically about aspects such as: design considerations, examiner role, how to better train examiners, and benefits of peer review to ensure quality assurance. 

 ANZAHPE MEMBERS  Click here to access the recording.

Non-members and guests who registered for events, please contact our events team for access instructions.

Building a feedback culture - Professor Chris Watling

In the September session of ANZAHPE Online, Professor Christopher Watling encouraged us to think about how culture imprints itself on learning and teaching processes, specifically feedback. Participants were prompted to consider ‘how deeply rooted health professional education culture is in values and how this influences feedback as a construct and in practice’ and indeed, how this culture is contextually bound. 

This session was a truly globally distributed and virtually connected affair, with 129 participants Zooming in from across Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, UK, and USA. Overall, the majority of participants rated the session a 10 out of 10, and were particularly appreciative of the ‘intellectual breadth and depth of the session’ and Chris’ skills in taking ‘us along a beautiful journey about feedback culture to help us deepen our understanding and change our paradigms’. 

 ANZAHPE MEMBERS  Click here to access the recording.

Non-members and guests who registered for events, please contact our events team for access instructions.

Confronting Contexts - Professor Rachel Ellaway

In the August session of ANZAHPE Online, Professor Rachel Ellaway challenged us to think about context as active, pervasive, and powerful. Contextual competence was presented as an intriguing and thought-provoking lens through which to think about the capacity to adapt to new and changing circumstances. 

The session was attended by over ninety participants from a range of different contexts. The majority of participants rated the session as excellent (60%) and indicated that they would have liked even more time to share and discuss experiences with others. Most were likely to attend future ANZAHPE Online sessions or to recommend to others (70%).  

I hadn’t really thought much about context before, so it was good to get and overview, even to hear key words that I can now go away and find out more about. It was also good to talk to other people and get their views.(Participant) 

Below are Rachel’s responses to several online questions:

Question: Other than asking "Why do you want to work here", what sort of questions can we ask in interviews to select for trainees with contextual competency? 

Answer: A simple one would be to ask 'giving examples, can you describe how you have adapted to new and changing circumstances?'. Look for whether they have had to adapt, how often, to what extent, and how successfully. And then look for how thoughtful and skilled they are at adapting and how aware they are about these adaptations. As with everything, this is about potential - an applicant who has had less opportunity to travel say, may still have developed or show potential for contextual competence in other ways. We haven't done the work yet to establish whether CC is an intrinsic or a developed competence or some combination of the two, but either way it'll have implications for how we look for it. 

Question: I wondered if you had any thoughts about the entangled nature of the things people do with the contexts they exist in? 

Answer: This is what Cole (I think) described as the CHAT interpretation of context - contexts are dynamically created from moment to moment by the interactions of the agents (human and otherwise) within them and about them. Socio-materialist perspectives are intrinsically contextualist and vice versa. People and things are part of the contextual web. However, while SM tends to focus on why things are the way they are, contextualism is more about why and how things change and the cascades of further changes that change triggers. 

Question: How do you think contextual competence relates to the development of self-regulated learning? 

Answer: CC could very reasonably be seen as a dimension of SRL - and could be a useful way of thinking about SRL. CC requires that a person can 'see' their context, that they can perceive its affordances before anything else. From that they need to be able to interpret what they see, predict and plan, and then take whatever action they need to. I don't know whether affordance is a part of the SRL discourse, but the intersection of SRL and CC would certainly raise the opportunity to explore this. 

ANZAHPE members and paid attendees can access the recording of Rachel’s session here.

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you are keeping well during these extraordinary times. As the pandemic rages through the world, we continue to do all we can to adapt to this new reality. The global situation continues to be uncertain. While Australia and New Zealand appear to be faring better than most countries, recent events show us that the situation continues to be volatile. This makes forward planning quite challenging. These challenges are shared by many similar associations around the world and this crisis has strengthened our resolve to work together. We are discussing reciprocal arrangements with the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) and with the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IASME) and look forward to enhancing the range of benefits available to ANZAHPE members. Please keep a close eye on the ANZAHPE website for details of current offers.

I also wanted to reflect on what we have achieved as an association within these challenging conditions. The revamped ANZAHPE research grants scheme attracted over 40 applications, many of which were of very high quality. I want to acknowledge the wonderful work behind these applications and express my appreciation of the high-quality research that is being conducted by ANZAHPE colleagues. I am also pleased to see the significant role that the ANZAHPE Fellowship scheme is playing in the career development of health professional educators. Additionally, I want to note our significant work in the area of interprofessional education (IPE). Further to agreements with the recently concluded ‘Securing Interprofessional Futures’ project, we have developed a knowledge repository which hosts IPE resources relevant to Australia and New Zealand. The repository is now live and can be accessed at: https://nexusipe.org/informing/resource-center/anzahpe.

As many of you would know, the month of July has been a very productive month for ANZAHPE. Thank you to those of you who joined us for the launch of ANZAHPE ONLINE, for the AGM, and for the panel discussion on the Ways of Seeing Exhibition. It has been wonderful to network with you in the virtual world. While we miss the wonderful camaraderie of our face-to-face conferences, the opportunity to meet with you on a more regular basis via our monthly events is a significant positive. I look forward to seeing you at the next event; the keynote by Professor Rachel Ellaway on the 13^th of August. Please remember to register via the ANZAHPE ONLINE webpage.

During these testing times, it is wonderful to note the ongoing support of our members. I thank you for remaining so closely involved with ANZAHPE, during times when each of us are facing our own unique challenges. We remain committed to enhancing the benefits of ANZAHPE membership.  The newly launched professional development program, the IPE knowledge repository and the reciprocal benefits that are being negotiated with AMEE and IAMSE, are examples of how we intend to add value to ANZAHPE membership. We hope that you will join with us to strengthen ANZAHPE as we navigate these uncharted waters.

With very best wishes!

Chinthaka Balasooriya  MBBS PhD FANZAHPE

ANZAHPE President

To help us navigate this difficult time during the COVID19 pandemic, a special resolution approved at the recent AGM allows Carole Steketee and Ben Canny to continue as part of the Committee of Management for 2020/21. We look forward to learning from their experiences and wisdom to make sound decisions on behalf of members. We will appreciate their mentorship as Megan Anakin and Di Eley take on the roles of Secretary and Vice-President, respectively, this year.

About Carole

Carole is National Director of Learning and Teaching in the University of Notre Dame Australia, as well as the Associate Head of the Fremantle campus. In heading up the Learning and Teaching Office, she provides strategic advice, leadership and advocacy in supporting the institution maintain excellence in teaching.

Between 2007 and 2015, Carole was the Associate Dean Teaching and Learning in the School of Medicine Fremantle where she was Director of the Medical Education Support Unit. She chairs the University’s Academic Council, and is the immediate past chair of the Learning and Teaching Committee.

She has held the role of Honorary Secretary for the Committee of Management for ANZAHPE since 2016 and will be stepping down from this role in July 2020. She will, however, remain on the CoM for an additional year as a critical friend; a decision that was made by CoM to ensure stability in the governance of the Association following the COVID-19 crisis.

Carole is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2018) and has been a partner in a number of national OLT funded projects related to work integrated learning and inter-professional health education. Her recent publications explore the need for good governance as a critical factor in the successful implementation of IPE.

In reflecting on her time as a member of ANZAHPE, Carole believes the Association has been key in helping her build research collaborations across Australia. The highlight for Carole remains the annual conference which has never failed to remind her that there is much to learn from colleagues, both novice and experienced, and that there is much to be gained by listening to others’ experiences as educators.

About Ben

Ben has been a member of the ANZAHPE Committee of Management (CoM) since 2014, and Vice-President since 2015.  He was Deputy Dean (MBBS) at Monash University from 2009-2014, and President of the Academic Board at Monash 2014-2015. 

In 2016, he became Head of the School of Medicine at the University of Tasmania, a position he held until 2019.  He has held a number of OLT grants, and has been involved in Medical School Accreditation, being a member of the Australian Medical Council Medical School Accreditation Committee (MedSAC) in 2018 and 2019.  He is a Fellow of ANZAHPE, and led the Local Organising Committee of ANZAHPE for the 2018 Hobart Conference. 

Ben, like Carole, will continue on the CoM for 2020-2021, performing the roles of Conference Liaison Officer, and chairing the Finance Committee, which will assist the Treasurer and Association in navigating the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Ben believes it is essential that the communities of educators that ANZAHPE helps bring together are supported as we negotiate challenges in continuing to train and develop the next generation of health care professionals that we all will continue to rely upon.

July was a tremendous month where we launched the ANZAHPE ONLINE Professional Development (PD) programme, a series of online interactive sessions.

The first session of ANZAHPE ONLINE saw Gabrielle Brand lead an innovative, interactive session on Ways of Seeing in Health Care. We had 162 participants attend the session including people from Asia, America, and Europe. The session was a visual feast and included a panel discussion with four health professional artists who shared the stories behind their creative artwork including how they use art in their teaching practice.

The launch allowed members and participants to feedback back to the ANZAHPE PD team through the use of Google Docs. Ninety-six participants provided us with evaluation feedback. We are still synthesising these data, however, some key messages are:

• ANZAHPE should focus on filling the gaps that exist rather than competing with other resources/provision
• Maintain the close collegiality and the constructive community associated with ANZAHPE
• Support with online course design
• Support for running on line PEARLS
• Support for professional development pathways including research and scholarly activity.

Evaluation feedback included:

The power of image and to remind ALL health professional that at the end of the treatment is a holistic person.

Loved the imagery and poetry.  Well run session. We need to get more humanities embedded in Health professional education.   

The range of different areas that art is being used in health care education, keen to learn more.

Just how effective these strategies can be in guiding clinicians to be me patient centred and reflective.

I loved all the presentations - the breadth and depth of options was wonderful.

A new concept for me was the visual display of poetry.

I really liked the discussion about risk and the dignity of risk concept and approach.

One person ‘found their tribe’ because ‘I didn't realise so many people were passionate about this! I feel like I'm been on my own for a long time’.

Gabrielle and her team will be reaching out to interested parties over the next couple of weeks with the intent of generating an ANZAHPE HTAG in Health Humanities.

A big thank you goes to the PD team and also all the chairs and presenters involved in sessions. Thank you also to Julie Ash as the new Chair of the Fellowship Group and for the input from Associate Fellows and Fellows who facilitated groups at the launch session. We hope to continue using their expertise where possible.

Please note the following two sessions in your diary:

13 Aug - Rachel Ellaway: Confronting Contexts

10 Sept - Chris Watling: Building a feedback culture

Please go to the ANZAHPE ONLINE web site for more information and to register.

The latest issue of Focus on Health Professional Education (FoHPE), 2020 has been released - find the latest issue and previous issues here.

FoHPE is moving to Open Access! 

We are excited to announce that the journal is moving to Open Access publishing.  This is a true benefit to ANZAHPE members as it allows you to maximise the visibility of your research with no change from our current publishing model.

What does Open Access mean?

Open Access  means free, unrestricted online access to research outputs such as journal articles and books. Open Access content is open to all, with no access fees.

What does Open Access mean to ANZAHPE members?

If you submit your manuscript to FoHPE and it is accepted, once your article is published, it will be available for anyone to read free of charge.

Is there any change in cost to publish in FoHPE, now that it is Open Access?

No there is no change to the current submission/publication process, which remains as follows:

We will announce when the switch to Open Access will be active, so in the meantime start thinking of submitting your next paper to FoHPE.

If you would like to know more about Open Access have a look at the Australasian Open Access Strategy Group website. 

What else is new at FoHPE?

Led by Professor Liz Molloy, a new series called, “Focus on Methodology” is now underway.  See Volume 21.2, 2020, Volume 21.1, 2020, and Volume 20.3, 2019 for featured papers in this exciting new series. At this stage, articles in this format are by invitation only but at a future date will be open to general submissions. Following on from Margaret Bearman’s inaugural paper on semi-structured interview questions in issue 20.3, issue 21.1 features Sarah Burm and Anna MacLeod’s focus on sociomaterialism. In issue 21.2, Robyn Woodward-Kron focuses on discourse analysis.  

FoHPE accepts a range of manuscript types, including original research, reviews, innovative teaching and learning projects, short reports, discussion papers and letters to the editor. Details on all submission categories and guidelines are here. 

Tips to help your research and your article be discovered quickly, across a broad audience and by the right people.

1)     Publish in FoHPE, which gives you the benefits of Open Access as part of your ANZAHPE membership.

2)     Throughout the writing process, keep going back to the main aim of your paper. Doing this as you write helps you stay focused on the main message you want to convey to the reader.

3)     Think of 3-5 points that are the highlights of your research that you can incorporate into your abstract.

4)     When you are finalising your paper, pay special attention to the title.  A descriptive but “catchy” title that is appropriate to your paper’s content will be noticed and create more interest.

5)     Carefully choose your keywords in this same manner. They should be descriptive and specific.

6)     Read the author guidelines and ensure your manuscript meets the requirements – see FoHPE’s author guidelines here.

FoHPE writing workshop is moving online.

The writing workshop, which is normally run by the FoHPE editorial board at the annual conference, will be moved on-line as part of the ANZAHPE 2020 Professional Development Program.  Registrations will open soon. See ANZAHPE Online for more details. 

Want to improve your writing?  Sign up to be a Reviewer.

FoHPE also provides the opportunity for writers to improve their writing and their critical appraisal skills through participating in the peer review process. Reviewers are the foundation of the peer review system. They generously provide their time and expertise to give back to the academic community and help maintain the dissemination of impactful Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) outcomes and innovations. Being a journal reviewer is also a great addition to your CV.  Register as a reviewer here. 

Please remember to update your reviewing interests – this greatly assists FoHPE associate editors when they assign reviewers to manuscripts. Please remember to check that your profile on FoHPE site includes your reviewing interests here.

FoHPE Website Technical Assistance:

Forgot your login or password?

Interested in joining the FoHPE Editorial Board?

The FoHPE Editorial Board is looking for new associate editors to join our collegial group of health professional education researchers. The Editorial Board acts as an advisory body to the Editor and ANZAHPE Committee of Management on the editorial policy of the journal and coordinates peer-reviews of journal articles, among other tasks. More information about the work of the Editorial Board is here.

 If you’re interested in joining the Editorial Board, please send your CV and a one-page cover letter outlining your expression of interest to the current editor, A/Prof Karen Scott: karen.scott@health.nsw.gov.au

The AIPPEN Steering Committee met June 5, 2020 and continues to meet quarterly.

Key agenda items at our June meeting were

• Group communication. A Slack group has now been set up for communication amongst interprofessional enthusiasts in AIPPEN (n=50 at last check).
• The IPE & ICP resources repository: Margo Brewer reported 23 resources and 7 journal articles have been accepted for sharing through the NEXUS repository.
• Education: Opportunities for collaboration in the absence of the 2020 ANZAHPE conference discussed. Educational webinar opportunities and priorities were discussed.
• SIF project: The first phase of this project is now complete. The potential for ongoing IPE leadership or new activities as a collaboration between ANZHPE and AIPPEN was discussed.
• IPE within the constraints of social distancing: A sharing of perspectives on how different settings were adapting (or postponing) their interprofessional programs in alignment with changing policy directives.

Want to get involved? To join the AIPPEN mailing list, please email  here

Regards

Fiona Kent

We hope you’ve been enjoying the functionality and aesthetics of the new website in this first half of 2020. While in-person meetings aren’t currently feasible, we must make the most of the digital possibilities.

One key feature of our website is the ability for members to make contact with any of our ANZAHPE colleagues, direct from the website. Simply head to the member search, view the profile of the person you want to contact, and click the “send message” button to open up the message window. 

Even if you don’t need to connect immediately, a huge benefit is the ability view other members’ profiles to find out more about their scholarly interests and areas of expertise. We also have a public list of ANZAHPE Fellows and Associate Fellows.

Of course, all of this works better when everyone has a complete profile: to see what’s on your own profile, you’ll need to login in. Then, click onto the member icon in the top right hand corner, and choose “View Profile”. You can edit what is there by clicking on the “Edit Profile” button: while all your contact details appear on this page, what others see depends if they are logged in, or not. The public will only see your institution, state, country, and scholarly interests, while logged in members will also be able to see your biography, your email address, your phone number, and send you messages.

If you are keen for more mobile networking opportunities, you can also download our app, which we have launched to support the ANZAHPE Online Professional Development Program. All the session details are available via the app, with registrations for future sessions opening soon. The app also allows for easy communication – just go to the “Attendees” page to see who else has logged in. We will be using the app during the coming sessions to manage participant questions. You can check it out via your web browser, or download it from your Android or Apple app store. Once you have installed the app, simply search for “ANZAHPE Online”.

Finally, thanks for your understanding and patience as we have moved various aspects of the ANZAHPE programme online. I’m very pleased that we have been able to harness current technologies for the launch of the Professional Development series, as well as running the 2020 AGM via Zoom on Tuesday 14 July. It has also been great to be able to launch the Ways of Seeing in Healthcare exhibition on our website. If you have a few minutes, please do check out the exhibition booklet, curated by A/Prof Gabrielle Brand. We are always keen to hear from members and increase member contributions (on the website and elsewhere!), so if you have ideas or feedback, please let us know.

Dr Joanna Tai
Outgoing Digital Communications Portfolio