Meet one of our newer members, Dr Ellen Davies.

"At the beginning of 2022, I started working in a new role as a Senior Research Fellow with Adelaide Health Simulation at the University of Adelaide. In this role, I have the great privilege of working with clinicians, health education specialists, simulation technicians, admin staff and actors to design, deliver, evaluate and research simulation experiences for undergraduate and postgraduate health professions students.

I joined ANZAHPE when I started in this role, as I wanted to connect with health professions education experts and develop my own skills and expertise in a network of supportive peers. I have been so pleasantly surprised by the welcome I have received from this community. I am grateful for the support I continue to receive from people in this group via in-person gatherings, online interactions, and conversations with members of ANZAHPE.

I have recently joined the Local Conference Organising Team and was keen to join the LCT to contribute to the experience of delegates of the 2024 ANZAHPE conference, which will be hosted in Adelaide. The conference provides a great opportunity to hear about the challenges, solutions and innovations in health professions education and an equally excellent opportunity to meet with interstate, and international colleagues.

I look forward to continuing my engagement with people here, and to working towards better outcomes for our health professions students."

Welcome Ellie!

Congratulations to Professor Anna Chur-Hansen on her revalidation as an ANZAHPE Fellow. Here more from Professor Chur-Hansen below:

"I owe an enormous debt to ANZAME/ANZAHPE. I have been supported over many years by some senior members of the association, including (but not only): Professor David Prideaux, Professor Raja Bandaranayake, Professor Rufus Clarke, and Professor Kitchu Nair. They have all helped me since I was a young woman, supporting me in gaining promotion to full Professor in 2009. I know that I can call on ANZAHPE members, new and established, and they will help me – I am extremely grateful for this. I have made many firm friends through my membership with ANZAHPE; I cannot name them all here – but Jill Romeo is one person I would like to specifically thank, as she has provided me with invaluable advice and practical guidance.

I intend to be an active member and to help the existing generation of health professional educators, and the generation that is coming next, in any ways that I possibly can - to pay back what I have received myself, in some small way. And so that is why I renewed my Fellowship with ANZAHPE."

Anna joined the Local Organising Committee for the Adelaide ANZAHPE Conference in 2024 because she really enjoys working with students across all of the health disciplines.  Thus, she is the student volunteer co-ordinator, and you will be sure to see representatives across a range of health professions, wearing their volunteer t-shirt and helping with delegates and presenters, as well as learning themselves about all that ANZAHPE has to offer.

Congratulations to Professor Linda Sweet on her revalidation as an ANZAHPE Fellow. Here more from Professor Sweet below:

"As one of the inaugural applicants for the ANZAPHE fellowship, I decided to re-validate my fellowship as I value the contribution ANZAHPE makes to the health professions and the recognition and support I get as a fellow of ANZAHPE.

I enjoy contributing to the association as a fellow through mentoring and reviewing fellowship applications. The association is a vibrant multidisciplinary group of educators passionate about improving our future healthcare workforce in the best ways possible. It is a collegial and sharing group of healthcare professionals.

I love that both clinical and academic educators come together from a range of professions, sharing wisdom, passion, and innovations. I am very proud to say I am a member and fellow of ANZAHPE!" - Professor Linda Sweet

Congratulations to Dr Adrian Schoo on his revalidation as an ANZAHPE Fellow.

"Due to my interest and work in undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing health education, in teaching as well as research, I joined ANZAHPE to become part of a multidisciplinary educational network. In becoming part of ANZAHPE I experienced a very positive and supportive culture that did not discriminate but encouraged members to further develop and grow by learning from and providing support to colleague members regardless of their discipline. The conferences always provide an excellent opportunity to present your work and also to learn from others.

It was a great privilege to become a Fellow of ANZAHPE in 2016 and to have my fellowship revalidated this year. With ANZAHPE being the peak body for Health Professional Educators in Australia and New Zealand, the awarded fellowship validates work undertaken so far. As a fellow it gives me great pleasure to engage in collaborative research, being a mentor to those who aspire fellowship and to support the association in various other ways." - Dr Adrian Schoo

President's Report: September 2022 - Jo Bishop, ANZAHPE President

This year’s ANZAHPE Festival was held online with the overarching theme of “Partnerships”.

Following the inaugural 100% virtual event of ANZAHPE 2021, the 2022 Festival committee were committed to building on its success and delivering an improved festival over a series of days in July.

Furthermore, 2022 marked the 50th Anniversary for ANZAHPE, a milestone and reason to provide additional elements into the program to help celebrate.

I would like to thank again the festival (scientific) committee in all their work to ensure a successful event, from abstract review to program allocation.

Whilst COVID 19 had reached its peak in 2021, the impact of the pandemic was still present in 2022. The new year bought an introduction of different strains of the virus further impacting on the health and education system, already under pressure. Delivering another virtual event in 2022 seemed to be the right path to ensure safety of the delegates and confidence in moving forward in the planning process.

The festival aimed to improve on the 2021 delivery with additional themes, additional streams and improving the flow and user experience by increasing the number of presentations grouped together. We also incorporated six Networking Hubs in the Festival program, as an opportunity for colleagues to network with their local peers. This element of the program centred around the opening plenary session allowing delegates and guests to interact and see each other face to face, participating in the official program and formalities whilst celebrating the 50th anniversary of ANZAHPE.

The festival sessions recognised the ongoing partnerships between members and key stakeholders as well as the new partnerships that have been formed. This is a reflection of ANZAHPE’s activities over the last twelve months, as the association continues to grow and support the needs of our most important constituents, you, the members.

The “success” of the festival must be measured against a range of factors, such as positive outcomes for participants, the successful delivery of presentations at the live event and the number of delegates who attended.

We had 372 delegates attend, with the majority of delegates responding to the online survey were satisfied with the Conference. 93.62% considered the relevance of Conference presentations and topics to be ‘good to very good’ and 91.30% rating the quality of streamed events as ‘good to very good’. The festival program included three invited plenary presenters, a Panel session and up to 5 concurrent sessions covering the themes of IPL, Ed Tech, Professionalism Culture and Welfare, Assessment, Curriculum, Faculty Development, Symposia, PeArLS and Workshops. A 6th Stream was introduced to include Poster Discussion Groups. ANZAHPE PeArLS remain popular with attendee comments such as “really valued the PeArLs this year - great topics which allowed robust discussion”.

Again, many delegates requested we return to face to face, and it is my pleasure to confirm that the 2023 ANZAHPE conference will take place on the Gold Coast between June 26^th – June 29^th. We have had a strong interest from members to join the local organising committee. You can visit our conference page here. More information will be released soon.

We would like to thank Professor Trevor Gibbs for all of his support to ANZAHPE whilst in his role, including participation in the ANZAHPE-AMEE symposium during the festival.

Dr Subha Ramani (AMEE), Dr Bonny Dickinson (IAMSE) and Jo Bishop (ANZAHPE)

Congratulations to Associate Professor Christina Johnson of The University of Melbourne, one of the ANZAHPE early career prize winners (Supported by Richard Hays), for her Project titled: Guiding educators in learner-centred feedback: designing, testing and refining; the feedback quality instrument

"I was fortunate to be awarded a 2022 ANZAHPE prize for my PhD research on developing the Feedback Quality Instrument (FQI), conducted at the University of Melbourne. The FQI describes practical ways for educators to support learners to improve through clinical feedback conversations. The prize brings multiple benefits including recognition of quality research, opportunity to present at the conference with complimentary registration, plus $500. I am very grateful to the Society for such a generous award. I highly recommend others apply!

Hence, I presented at the ANZAHPE conference, which enabled me to showcase our research and discuss it with others. There is rich health professions education community across Australia and New Zealand, and the conference provides wonderful opportunities to hear about so many interesting research projects. I hope winning the prize will open up future opportunities for collaborations, and maybe even increase our chances of future research funding!"

Congratulations to our newest Associate Fellow of ANZAHPE, Amanda Burdett.

After earning her degree in Exercise Physiology at UNSW, Amanda Burdett worked in the allied health industry as an Accredited Exercise Scientist and Physiologist, in athletes/sports, clinical services and business management roles across several businesses, including her own! After 5 years of doing that, Amanda took an opportunity to come full circle and return to UNSW to a professional role managing clinical placements for the very Exercise Physiology program she studied, before her passion teaching students within UNSW’s campus clinic saw her transition into an academic role. Amanda’s educational research has focused on the development of suitable assessment tools and marking rubrics to enhance both the student and assessor experience.

"Several very esteemed colleagues, who are also recognised as ANZAHPE Fellows and Associate Fellows, had encouraged me to present my work at the ANZAHPE conference, which I did and thoroughly enjoyed the conference overall. After that experience I was excited to link in with like minded health professional educators to learn from and network with to continually improve my practice, so decided to apply for ANZAHPE Fellowship." - Amanda Burdett

Congratulations to Sinead Kado of the University of Western Australia, winner of the 2022 ANZAHPE Post-registration Student Prize (Sponsored by Australian Medicines Handbook)

Hear from Sinead about her experience at the ANZAHPE conference and why she applied for a prize.

"As an early career researcher, I have often felt overwhelmed by the mountain I need to climb. However, ANZAHPE has been the comrade that has encouraged me to keep climbing one step at a time. Many of the members have been official and unofficial mentors and I attend the ongoing faculty development sessions. It was from one of these sessions that I was encouraged to apply for a student prize. My supervisors, ANZAHPE mentor (Anna Vnuk) and Megan Anakin all provided valuable feedback on my drafts. The conference afforded me an opportunity to present my work and attend many useful sessions. I particularly enjoy the workshops as they provide an opportunity to network with others.  I would encourage others to be brave, start climbing the mountain, reach out for support and even if you don't win the prize you will have improved your thinking and writing."

Congratulations to Professor Stephen Tobin on his appointment of ANZAHPE Fellow. 

About Professor Stephen Tobin

Stephen Tobin is Professor of Clinical Education and Associate Dean at the School of Medicine, Western Sydney University.

Over 20 years he moved from full time regional surgical practice to almost full time medical education. He holds GradCert in Clin Ed from UNSW and MSurgicalEd from University of Melbourne.

He has previously worked for the latter, plus Deakin University, University of Notre Dame Rural Clinical School and was Dean at RACS for over six years.

He received FRCS(Edin) ad hom in 2018 for service to surgery and surgical education.

Stephen is currently involved with EPAs as workplace-based assessments, professionalism for students and staff, e-portfolio and overall non-graded progressive assessment for medical students. These can be linked as clinical performance for safe high-quality patient care.

Becoming Fellow of ANZAHPE recognises this work and also becomes opportunity for more contribution to the Association. He is willing to be a mentor and currently mentors some of the WSU faculty.

Congratulations to Dr Priya Martin of The University of Queensland, one of the ANZAHPE early career prize winners (Supported by Richard Hays).

As a recipient of the 2022 ANZAHPE Early Career Health Professions Education Research Prize, I had the privilege to share about my post-doctoral research journey and it’s influence on policy, training, and practice, at the recent ANZAHPE conference. It was a great opportunity to share what I have been able to achieve and influence since receiving the ANZAHPE Post-registration Student Prize in 2017.

These prizes have given me a platform to represent those from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and those underrepresented including women in academia, those with caring responsibilities, or those based rurally. While these additional barriers cannot be underestimated, they can be navigated with support from the right mentors and collaborators, fuelled by your vision and passion to make a difference.

The beauty of ANZAHPE is the abundance of experienced, inclusive mentors that are devoted to nurturing the next generation. To pass this onwards, I mentor a number of students and junior researchers and ensure junior researcher representation on project teams where able. The ANZAHPE conference is a great opportunity to identify suitable mentors and collaborators, and to showcase your work and achievements that can inspire others. We all can play a part in embracing diversity and making research and the workplace more inclusive. 

- Dr Priya Martin, Senior Research Fellow, The University of Queensland