Volunteers in the Spotlight

Dr Jennifer Chang

The College relies heavily on volunteers. There are more than 60 different volunteering roles through the organisation and right now around 1,200 members offer their time as volunteers to support the College. We look at the experiences, insights and motivations of key volunteers.

You have made a huge contribution by volunteering with the College. What motivates you to volunteer?

I started as a Director of Training (DoT) because I care about maintaining high quality training at my site and in my network. Junior doctors are incredibly powerless, and I wanted my trainees to always have someone in their corner. After nine years as DoT, the evolution to Queensland Branch Education Officer (BEO) and now Trainee Wellbeing Officer feels like I am working for the same outcomes but on a larger scale.

Has volunteering given you skills and experience you could not otherwise have gained?

Becoming a DoT as a junior consultant required rapid upskilling in people management and leadership skills which I learnt from my experienced co-DoT, the late great Dr Eric Sclavos, on-the-job through trial and error (sorry, former trainees!) and by participating in multiple courses and workshops.

What achievements are you most satisfied with/proud of as a volunteer?

The biggest win has always been the satisfaction gained from watching my trainees pass the exam. That is especially sweet when I feel have helped a trainee to overcome specific challenges to achieve that conquest. Being a part of the team that successfully facilitated the Queensland Vivas during COVID comes a close second.

What has the pandemic meant for the volunteer experience? What are the risks of burnout? How best are these managed, in your view?

I believe that the spontaneity, creativity and collegiality that occur in the process of shared decision-making on working groups, committees and other College activities is something that is difficult to capture virtually, and I stand by that opinion despite having caught COVID in Sydney while there on College business!

In health care, demands on the time, goodwill and empathy of staff are high even in times of relative plenty, so burnout is a constant risk even without lockdowns and high levels of absenteeism. Most doctors are very high functioning individuals and can happily live their lives using 99% (or 120%) of capacity. Just pushing through has seen many of us overcome big challenges but, as a profession, we need to learn that self-care is not selfish and admitting weakness is a strength.

Do you have any advice on volunteering in general?

Volunteering is an activity that fits around the rest of life, so it helps to be organised, to know why you are doing it and to celebrate the wins.

What more can the College do to support volunteers?

I think it’s helpful for members to remember that those of us who are fulfilling these roles are doing them around the same unrelenting clinical load, teaching, kid wrangling etc that fill everyone else’s week. I believe the College punches above its weight given our relatively small size thanks to the indefatigable College staff and volunteers. However, with limited resources, there is always a need (and requests) to do more. If more people volunteered, imagine what we could achieve together!

Dr Chang responds to the question posed by our previous Volunteer in the Spotlight Dr Xavier Yu.

What are the perceived barriers to (particularly younger) fellows taking on College volunteering activities?

It can be difficult to find the time to fit College work around everything else. I think it is helpful when there are others in the network who volunteer so it is easy for interested Fellows to get a realistic idea of what is required and to know that there is local support for advice when needed.

Do you have a question for the next “volunteer in the spotlight”?

We need to train more radiologists to overcome current and future workforce shortages, but our training capacity is limited by our workforce shortages. How do we break this deadlock without limiting access to learning opportunities and compromising the quality of training?