New professional development opportunties

New professional development opportunities

COVID-19 presented the Professional Development team with new opportunities and value generation

It has been a challenging yet a fruitful couple of years for the Professional Development (PD) team, with reduced activity and participation across many PD courses. Yet, while COVID-19 presented us all with new conditions and challenges, it also presented us with new beginnings and opportunities for value generation. In rising to the challenge, PD underwent a strategic realignment, assessing the traditional face-to-face delivery and content. We developed more online course offerings and enhanced our inhouse capability around online content creation. The potential benefits of offering online courses include: • a more inclusive solution for rural health surgeons • reduce time and travel burden for faculty • improve participant numbers • improving the participant experience

– aligned with contemporary practices for learning • self-paced courses as there is zero impact from time-zone challenges between Aotearoa New Zealand through to Perth, Australia • mitigate risk regarding the current and emergent COVID-19 conditions and how this impacts course numbers and logistical challenges for faculty and participants (being geographically dispersed across Australia). The Professional Development team now welcomes a dedicated Instructional designer to the team, equipped with the capabilities to create any form of online content. Other members of the Professional Development team have also upskilled to enable the creation and updating of course content. Collectively, the team can now create large online courses while attending to smaller jobs simultaneously meeting the demands of transitioning further into the online space. From the shorter courses right the way through to more foundational offerings, the team has reviewed, redeveloped and piloted several online courses, including Keeping Trainees on Track, Foundation Skills for Surgical Educators, Difficult Conversations with Underperforming Trainees, and Clinical Decision Making. This year will see further exploration into online material, piloting new course offerings as well as reviewing existing courses to assess their suitability for transition to online or blended deliveries.