Workforce Strategy
The following activities are linked to the Workforce, Education and Training Group.
Recruitment of Advanced Trainees
The Renal Services Network assists the teaching hospitals in NSW in the task of advertising and selecting nephrology advanced trainees. Advertising is via the NSW Health JMO's 'HealthJobs' website and Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). Applications open late in July each year, and interviews are usually held at the RACP in the first week of September for all metropolitan teaching hospitals. Contact the Renal Network Manager for current information.
Advanced Trainees' Program
The program arranges a monthly seminar in Sydney called Kidney School and aims to cover the RACP nephrology curriculum over a three year period. Local and international experts are invited to present topics of interest to the advanced trainees. More detailed information is provided for Renal Advanced Trainees at their own KATS website via ANZSN (KATS = Kidney Advanced Trainee School).
Since 2010, the program has been offered by webcast from RACP to those outside Sydney. RACP’s Attend Anywhere™ is used to facilitate the program, linking to sites all over Australia, and occasionally to New Zealand.
In alternate years, the advanced trainees are invited to participate in a Rural Weekend, to give them an understanding of working in a rural location. This initiative has supported several appointments of newly qualified nephrologists in rural settings.
Nephrology MasterClass
A nephrology masterclass was held in October 2008 and again in January 2011, for basic physician trainees (BPTs) preparing for their exams. These seminars were arranged by A/Prof John Kelly, renal physician at St George Hospital, and speakers came from a range of hospitals across Sydney.
Those attending have found these very valuable for their studies. It is planned to hold another masterclass in February 2012.
Renal Physicians' Meeting
Each year four dinner meetings are held at a Sydney hotel for the Renal Physicians' Group, with sponsorship kindly provided by Novartis and Janssen-Cilag. Approximately 50 clinicians attend each meeting and participate in the presentations and case studies.
If you would like to be on the mailing list to receive the notices about the Renal Physicians' Meetings, please email the Network Manager.
Nursing Initiatives
A major workforce strategy for the Renal Network is the Haemodialysis Models of Care Program. This commenced in December 2005, with an issues-identification workshop facilitated by Prof. Mary Chiarella. The issues confronting the nursing workforce are the increasing demand for dialysis services and the ability to meet the demand.
Arising from the 2005 workshop, strategies to address the nurses’ concerns have focused on:
1) making changes to the way care is delivered, and
2) improving educational opportunities for renal nurses, at a range of levels.
There has been a lot of enthusiasm from renal units across NSW. Twenty teams of nurses registered for the initial Models of Care Program and eleven completed all requirements. The first of the four skills-development workshops commenced in December 2006, and the overall outcomes of the program were evaluated in December 2008.
A second program was held in 2009-2010, with participation by eleven teams from rural and metropolitan locations. Prof. Chiarella committed to working closely with Renal Network for the duration of both the first and the second program. Major forums were held in 2008 and 2011 to present the results of the project teams to a wider audience, and to give other renal nurses an understanding of the requirements for achieving change in the workplace.