Features
Learnings on the Integrated Rural Training Pipeline The Integrated Rural Training Pipeline (IRTP) was established in 2015 as part of the Specialist Training Program (STP) in an effort by the Department of Health to extend vocational training for specialist registrars into settings outside traditional metropolitan teaching hospitals, including regional, rural and remote and private facilities. The aim in creating the IRTP is to help build a sustainable Australia-trained future workforce for regional, rural and remote communities. The College now fills four IRTP training posts within Victoria and Queensland, Australia. Training sites need to meet different eligibility requirements to the traditional STP model to participate in the IRTP. Namely enabling a trainee to complete the majority of their training—66 per cent—within a rural or regional location and making sure that the trainee selected has shown a real commitment to working rurally or regionally post fellowship. In the first of a series of articles chronicling our connection to the training pipeline, for this edition of Inside News we hear back from site and trainee at one of the Victorian training posts: Dr Richard Ussher, former Director of Training, and Dr Scott Robson, IRTP trainee, at Base Imaging Group (Ballarat Health Service).
The Ballarat IRTP Experience Firstly, Dr Richard Ussher spoke to us about the experience of establishing an IRTP training post from a practice perspective. “When the IRTP post at Ballarat Health Service was established in 2017/18, the site was already an accredited training site, having level A partial accreditation linked to the Royal Melbourne Hospital. The training site was pleasantly
Dr Scott Robson with Dr Simon Ussher (current Director of Training)
surprised to receive 50 applications for this regionally modelled post, which was advertised ahead of the metropolitan teaching hospitals’ recruitment.”
What measures were put in place to prepare for the training post? It was imperative to the success of this model that an assigned radiologist was responsible for the management of the trainee to ensure appropriate supervision could be met. The training schedule was also carefully prepared to ensure that the trainee had satisfactory exposure across a range of modalities in the regional setting. Clinical meetings were also reviewed to determine which sessions would be most suitable for registrar involvement and at what stage of training.
In addition to educational resources in the hospital library and online resources such as StatDX and UptoDate, the site applied for funds to purchase an electronic teaching file for its PACS (Intelerad), as part of the Private Infrastructure and Clinical Supervision Allowance. This additional funding is available through the traditional STP model, which the site is also involved in.
The site offers involvement in a shared educational program with weekly teaching sessions dedicated to the trainees, and in the practice peer review/ journal club which runs monthly. continued over...
Volume 17 No 3 I June 2021
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