The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has partnered with Flinders University to provide an emergency medicine workshop for Northern Territory GPs and registrars to further enhance their rural emergency medicine skills.
The workshop, held in Flinders University's state-of-the-art simulation centre in Darwin on Saturday 22 October, involved 15 participants rotating through five hands-on simulated scenarios that reflected actual rural and remote healthcare challenges. Participants were required to work in small teams to stabilise a patient and prepare them for evacuation or retrieval. The course was facilitated by local GPs from NT Health, private practice, and GP education who utilised their experience in rural and remote as well as military settings.
It comes just months following the college establishing an NT Faculty and was run in conjunction with the College's Rural Faculty. RACGP Northern Territory faculty interim chair Dr Sam Heard said the feedback from those who attended was very positive.
RACGP President Adj. Professor Karen Price said the workshop reflected the college's commitment to rural and remote medicine in the Territory and across Australia
"As Australia's largest representative body of rural general practitioners, the RACGP works hard every day to make sure we are right behind our rural and remote members," she said.
"We are determined to make sure that patients living outside of major cities obtain the care they need when they need it and that includes emergency medicine situations where lives can be at risk.
"The problem of recruiting GPs to rural areas of Australia has been well documented and insufficient training and educational opportunities in rural and remote areas have been identified as a major issue. So, we are keenly focussed on fixing that and with specific training in emergency medicine, GPs will be even more competent and confident to cope with working in isolated rural areas. The long-term outcome will be and better health care for rural Australians."
RACGP Rural Chair Dr Michael Clements said that the workshop was carefully designed so that participants could get practical skills in a safe but realistic environment.
"All the scenarios were written by experienced rural GPs from actual cases, so it was a great learning opportunity or occasion to further improve already advanced skills in emergency medicine," he said.
"In rural and remote areas of Australia, including in the Northern Territory, the demands for advanced emergency care skills in general practice are significantly higher. This is due to the relatively low number of GPs and the lack of immediately accessible specialist services. You also need to consider the logistical and geographical difficulties of evacuating the seriously ill, which can be really challenging.
"There is also a higher incidence of farming, mining, industrial and motor vehicle accidents, and greater access to firearms in isolated areas. When GPs have skills to provide emergency care to patients in need it makes a big difference for rural communities, particularly those that don't have access to a nearby hospital.
"At the workshop there was a strong emphasis on common rural emergency medicine situations and how best to communicate and work with other healthcare professionals when it matters most. Participants also developed strategies for self-care, stress management and debriefing because it's so important that all healthcare workers, including hardworking GPs, look after themselves too.
"The benefits to local GPs of having a local NT Faculty to support their clinical skills and learning, but also to provide a forum to learn from one another and share experiences were demonstrated at this workshop. This is the first of many that we hope to be able to offer many more opportunities like this in the NT in the years to come."
One of the course facilitators Dr Peter Zimmermann said that the workshop was a big success.
"This was an excellent opportunity to practice seldom used, but critically important skills for GPs and their patients," he said.
"The workshop helped GPs to maintain their readiness to respond to the spectrum of patient presentations in general practice – improving the quality of care available to all Territorians."
Another of the course facilitators Dr Chris McLean echoed those sentiments.
"Our aim was to provide a safe framework for managing a patient's airway in an emergency," he said.
"Confidence in the basics was a major focus, taking into account the often-isolated role a rural GP may find themselves in during an emergency".
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