SURGICAL NEWS THE ROYAL AUSTRALASIAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS VOL 18 NO 4 MAY 2017 RACS & Respect Where we've been, where we're going and the goals for getting there SURGICAL NEWS Teamwork in FSSE President the OR Training John Batten Multi-Professional Supporting the Sitting down with the new Team Briefings Supervisor RACS President May 2017 Vol 18 No 4 18 May 2017 Vol The College of Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand CONTENTS 12 FEATURE: FSSE – Training in the Principals of Adult Learning 20 14 16 Our President, Mr Batten Teamwork in the OR Dr Claudia Paul Sitting down with the new Multi-Professional Team Briefings Aboriginal doctor set on a RACS President in W.A. Operating Theatres rural surgery career Image by Brad Newton Photography. REGULAR FEATURES: Copyright AIDA. 4 PRESIDENT'S 22 SUSAN HALLIDAY 30 WORKSHOPS/ 43 BB GLOVED MESSAGE COLUMN EVENTS COLUMN Cover (From Left): Dr Claire Campbell, Medical Director, Vascular Health Group, Epworth HealthCare; Dr Wanda Stelmach, Clinical Program Director, Surgery, Northern Health; Dr Ernest Lim, Endocrine and General Surgeon, Northern Health; Dr Kareem Marwan, General and Colorectal Surgeon, Knox Private Hospital; Professor Julian A Smith, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Monash Health. Correspondence and Letters to the Editor to Surgical News All copyright is reserved. The editor reserves the right to change material should be sent to: [email protected] submitted. The College privacy policy and disclaimer apply - www.surgeons.org. The College and the publisher are not responsible for errors or consequences T: +61 3 9249 1200 | F: +61 3 9249 1219 for reliance on information in this publication. Statements represent the views Pledge-A-Procedure W: www.surgeons.org of the author and not necessarily the College. Information is not intended to be ISSN 1443-9603 (Print)/ISSN 1443-9565 (Online) advice or relied on in any particular circumstance. Advertisements and products advertised are not endorsed by the college. The advertiser takes all responsibility Surgical News Editor: Greg Meyer for representations and claims. Published for the Royal Australasian College of May/June 2017 Surgeons by RL Media Pty Ltd. ACN 081 735 891, ABN 44081 735 891 of 129 © Copyright 2017 - Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. All rights reserved. Bourverie St, Carlton Vic 3053. PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE priorities for surgical patients, based on sustainable, with technical expertise, but also as collaborators, teachers, evidence-based interventions. Elected government officials managers, health advocates, philanthropists and researchers. need the guidance and wisdom of the surgical profession, I encourage all Trainees and Fellows to explore these through RACS, to appropriately prioritise the finite health opportunities. budget. The year ahead will undoubtedly deliver its challenges Our Trainees represent our future. Trained under RACS- and I will do my utmost to represent your interests in these accredited oversight by specialty societies, loyalties can be conversations. Valuing our sometimes confused. The RACS Trainee two-way dialogue In accepting this role, I pay tribute to my colleague Phil has never been more important. Meaningfully connecting Truskett, our President over the last 12 months. Phil has Trainees with the RACS facilitates, listening and mutual been a relentless advocate for promoting positive confidence College Connections awareness. This means having a grounded appreciation in the profession by mandating a culture of respect in of issues at the coalface and being able to respond the surgical workforce. He has been a key partner and appropriately and efficiently. For Trainees, connecting architect of the many initiatives, including the Diversity and effectively with RACS enhances their understanding of Inclusion plan, and campaigns that have evolved from the Our professional reach is considerable and can appear the larger activities of the College, not just as the gate Building Respect and Improving Patient Safety Action Plan challenging and complex. keeper of the FRACS post-nominal and the prestige and initiative. His efforts have been tireless and evidence of this RACS has a training program across nine specialties, responsibilities that come with it, but to see their College as commitment speaks clearly for all to see. with 13 training programs, all managed and delivered an open door, encouraging and enabling them to participate I thank him for his enormous, selfless contribution to by Fellows of this College, albeit with varying degrees of and contribute meaningfully to the profession. RACS over the last nine years, particular the last 12 months autonomy. Actively connecting with our specialty societies Our largest stakeholder group are our Fellows. 7000+ as your President. through partnering agreements ensures that the foundation in number, we all aspire to practice our discipline to the I now look forward to this role, fully understanding the platforms of standards, principles-based policies and highest standard, in a professional manner with the welfare enormous shoes that I need to fill. I hope to catch up with governance are in place with total accountability. The of our patients as our number one priority. Connecting with you all at the ASC in Adelaide in early May this year. Australian Medical Council requires this for our selection, our diverse stakeholder group, RACS works to maintain the training and assessment programs to be accredited and environment where these aspirations can be realised. We Regards approved. have a very broad offering of participation opportunities John Batten JOHN BATTEN RACS is undergoing its third full accreditation in the last for Fellows to excel, not only as patient-centred surgeons President 17 years. The first accreditation, a voluntary undertaking, was welcomed even then as an exceptional opportunity t is truly an honour and privilege to be elected by your for quality improvement and quality assurance activity. College Council to the position of President of this great The accreditation process is now mandatory, but the Icollege. opportunity to review and refine our quality improvement The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) is a and quality assurance agenda is ongoing. highly respected institution with a long and proud history To uphold the standard of the RACS brand, we welcome of training generations of surgeons to a world-renowned and require independent confirmation that we have kept standard. The FRACS brand is held in high regard globally pace with the constantly changing surgical education and is synonymous with the community expectation of a environment. We need to know that our connections with well-rounded professional. Those who aspire to this brand the specialty societies are robust and transparent. We must need to rise to the high standards of service, integrity, meaningfully acknowledge our Indigenous peoples and compassion, collaboration and respect that define the action their rights to health equity and equality. We have College values in the interest of the public we serve. a duty of care to patients, IMGs, Trainees and Fellows, to To maintain those high standards, we need to be well ensure that work places for training and surgical services are connected: to our Fellows, our Trainees, IMGs, our patients positive environments where respect and patient safety is and our domestic and international college partners. The paramount. We need to be confident that the public knows health of our connections will determine the success or that when they seek acute or elective surgical services, that otherwise in all that we do. those services will be available on demand and of a high As a College, all our connections need to remain open, standard. transparent, two way and respectful. These connections Genuinely connecting and collaborating with all of the are vast, diverse and frequently challenging, but vitally stakeholders necessary to cement a positive accreditation important for the relevance, and advocacy necessary to cycle, reaffirms RACS investment in its brand. These maintain the vision clearly outlined in the RACS Strategic stakeholder connections are so important to help Fellows, Plan: Leading surgical performance, professionalism and who fall behind or below the high standards that we improving patient care. Our modern College functions in define in our Code of Conduct, to be remediated and given the contemporary digital environment. Connecting our appropriate support and mentoring to re-establish those broad array of stakeholders effectively via the web and well standards. These connections will also inform and guide managed social media platforms, e-committees, e-portfolios, our engagement in the conversations about the revalidation e-commerce and e-learning will ensure that the two-way models and methodologies presently being evaluated for dialogue necessary to maintain the best interests of Fellows, medical practitioners in this country. trainees, IMGs, and the patients we treat, is first and Connecting effectively with Government is critical if we foremost. are to inform appropriate and timely advocacy for funding HERSTONHEALT_HalfPage_v1_FA.indd 1 14/02/2017 4:34 pm 4 SURGICAL NEWS MAY 2017 SURGICAL NEWS MAY 2017 5 RELATIONSHIPS MEDICAL SUITES AVAILABLE FOR LEASE AND ADVOCACY Walking together OPTIMISE YOUR more than ever to meet the increasing and changing health • 38 scholarships and grants enabling groundbreaking PATIENT EXPERIENCE needs of communities. The Foundation for Surgery is research