Chair Reports -
November 2024
From the Chair...
The 4 R's... Recognition, Respect, Reward, Remuneration
Having drafted this report on Garamilla country while at RMA24, I would like to start with an acknowledgement to the people of the Larrakia nation, and pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land on which I am and from which you may be at the time of reading. With gratitude I acknowledge the welcome I received here in Darwin, and to Australia where I have lived now for almost 10 years. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. Their sovereignty has never been ceded.
These words have been so much a part of my many interactions and conversations during my time in the Northern Territory for the ACRRM and RDAA conference.
The conference ended yesterday with the graduation ceremony for the new ACRRM Fellows, and what a celebration it was! Imagine this – an auditorium with the stage lit up in green, the banner with green and gold, and the current ACRRM President plus eight of his predecessors all present on stage. That is how we respect those who came before us and inspire the same for those who Fellowed on the day. Words of courage, wisdom and inspiration were shared; there were tears, cheers and jubilation; there was joy in the room. It is so very important to remember that feeling of belonging and inclusion, the actions conveying this even more than the rousing words.
I’ve had so many rich conversations that it’s a challenge to pick just a few, yet these three stood out for obvious reasons:
- Dr CE, a retiring supervisor from NSW and GPSA member, generously shared his mother’s wisdom with me in the context of having had a wonderful time supervising and teaching in his career… The only things worth doing in life – and continuing to do – are those that bring you joy. This served to remind me that it’s important to seek and receive wisdom (combination of knowledge and lived experience) from those who came before you.
- Dr NR, who has almost finished training after first being on ACRRM’s Independent Pathway and is now on RVTS, wants to continue paying it forward by becoming a rural supervisor. This remarkable individual bought her practice as a registrar because she would not have been able to continue her rural training in place otherwise… Did I mention she is an Australian GP who trained overseas?! She remains committed to serving the rural community who so graciously accepted her care and serves to remind us that our underlying goal should be to inspire every new Fellow to be a future supervisor.
- Dr JJ, who is currently training in a rural post, asked me how his supervisor gets remunerated. We then discussed how he is an experienced clinician and the relationship he has with his supervisor – who is a Fellowed GP with fewer years of experience than him – is one of collaborative learning. There appeared to be in that description immense mutual respect, little hierarchy, and a transfer of power via learning; and my key takeaway was to remain curious for longer. We agreed that not all rewards come in the form of remuneration and shared the firm view that all GPiT supervisors need to be remunerated as per the National Consistent Payment (NCP) framework in
recognition of their contribution of effort and generosity.
There were so many more conversations, catch ups with old friends, and potential new alliances too.
I do wonder if respect, recognition, and reward start with self-first. This brings me to the question I seem to ask my fellow GPs the most as GPSA Chair:
Apart from registrars, do you supervise medical students or prevocational doctors, or host other learners in your practice?
The answer to this is quite often “yes, I do” – far more often than you would think – and is followed by the somewhat reluctant self-identification as a supervisor. For some reason the supervisor label is rarely self-applied when our learners are on any level of the educational continuum other than vocational trainee. And I know that there are many who believe that supervisors, mentors, and coaches are not the same either, each with their own distinct definitions and functions. My supervisor was my mentor too, so while I don’t expect every supervisor to take on the role of mentoring, if that’s what your student, prevocational GPiT or registrar needs, it may be what you unconsciously end up doing. Let us own it, and wear the badge of supervisor proudly even when our learners are not yet on a vocational training pathway, so we can make this part of our professional identity.
Irrespective of what we call it, these are roles we take on through the values of curiosity, compassion and generosity. We grow ourselves as we help others progress. And then there is the sheer enjoyment we can experience as supervisors on those rare occasions – one such occasion being the GPSA Games workshop our Education Manager, Dr Simon Morgan, led at RMA24.
There really is something very special about an auditorium full of supervisors and MEs laughing out loud alongside medical students and registrars… over an educational tool no less! Together we had the chance to play and observe each other’s reaction to Consultation! The Board Game and GPSA’s online version of GP Synergy’s Clinical Reasoning Game which will be available as a mobile app by Christmas. The power of laughter cannot be ignored, but one medical student put us all to shame in their reflection on the power of vulnerability as the great leveller, having seen the experienced clinicians and educators in their group owning up to the fact they were struggling with some of the knowledge questions just as the student was at the opposite end of the educational continuum.
We inspire each other and we challenge ourselves to do better as was evident in the room when Dr Samia Toukhsati presented the GPCLE tool in her RMA workshop, and I found so many supervisors suggesting we should raise the expected minimum standards for ourselves in terms of the quality we aspire to deliver.
After this workshop and the many sessions and posters I saw on AI, a rather apt quote from yet another favourite movie came to mind, spoken by Neytiri in the 2009 James Cameron classic ‘Avatar’:
“All energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back.”
GPSA will continue to be the home for all aspiring, current and past supervisors.
We will continue to innovate, enable and advocate for supervisors, supervision teams and training sites.
We will continue to influence and improve the journey and experience of any learner who is in general practice or aspiring to have a generalist career in the community – generalism being defined as “a philosophy of care distinguished by a commitment to the breadth of practice within each discipline and collaboration with the larger health care team in order to respond to patient and community needs”.
Please join our mission, and if you have other colleagues who you feel would benefit from being GPSA members please invite them as well so they can share in this community of practice. Let us join forces to make what’s already good better, and transfer our power along with our passion while acknowledging our privileges.
Let us aim to preserve human connections and the learning communities we are all consciously or unconsciously part of and contributing to. Your wisdom is incredibly valuable and deserves to be shared, for in sharing it will grow.
I look forward to more conversations with you at other conferences coming up this year.
Dr Srishti Dutta
Chair
Date reviewed: 31 October 2024
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