2011 - Rural Doctor Family Weekend 'Magic in Medicine'

Bathed in sunshine and immersed in an idyllic family location 5 Trainers, 25 Registrars and 3 Medical Educators enjoyed the 2012 Rural Doctors Family Weekend


Where did the 2011 Rural Doctor Family Weekend go?  A decision was taken by the Rural team in mid 2011 to change the date of the Rural Doctor Family Weekend to earlier in the year and so the scheduled November 2011 event was postponed until February 2012.

You may ask - what was the reason for this?  It was a deliberate decision that hoped to cast our net wider and to allow us to bring our Rural Registrars together at the start of their new terms rather than towards the end of the year.

Well, what was the result of this decision?  The success of this was evident in the numbers of 2012 cohort rural pathway and rural oriented Registrars who attended; and what a great start it was for these Registrars to be welcomed into CSQTC and Rural General Practice training by some of our longer term Rural Registrars and Trainers.  We were fortunate to have 5 of our very experienced Trainers from Emerald, Goondiwindi, Warwick, Hervey Bay and Toowoomba attend with 25 Registrars of which 12 were part of our new 2012 cohort.   

This year’s Rural Doctor Family Weekend on 17-19 February 2012 proved again, to be a successful and rewarding experience for the planning team.  It is heartening to witness the enthusiasm and camaraderie develop as Registrars, Trainers and their families join with CSQTC staff to enjoy a weekend of education cocooned in a relaxed but fun environment.  The venue for this year’s event was the Novotel Twin Waters Resort on the Sunshine Coast, which provided an ideal location for partners and families to enjoy the resort activities while participants attended workshop sessions.  Concentration levels were sometimes hard to maintain in the conference room that overlooked the lagoon where catamarans glided by.  The activities for the children were extensive and by all accounts, the children were actively engaged throughout the day.

The Saturday morning session was built around groups designing a General Practice to support a variety of Rural communities.  The groups certainly came up with some innovative ideas without the restraints of a budget to contend with.  Our popular three minute presentations were back again this year and the topic was ‘my special place’.  This segment remains a very popular part of the weekend and allows us to learn something new about our fellow Rural Doctors. 

Pictured above and left, the participants actively engaging in all the workshop activities. Pictured below, the Clown Doctor and Pinc Pig helping to keep everyone in good humour.

After enjoying lunch on the deck overlooking the lagoon our rural Doctors were introduced to the guest presenter at the workshop “The Clown Doctor”. The afternoon was spent learning about the benefits of bringing humour into their medicine. Participants learnt some simple ways to engage their patients with magic and humour by using simple everyday tools available in the consulting room. As the afternoon progressed the games begun and there were lessons on making animal puppets out of latex gloves, catching imaginary balls in brown paper bags and the steps to become a successful juggler.  Following the afternoon session Registrars and Trainers enjoyed some free time around the resort and had time to don their circus costumes for the highlight of the weekend, the family BBQ.  It was a great opportunity for CSQTC staff to interact with our rural Registrars and Trainers and to meet the families that support them. The dinner was a great event and lots of fun was had by all.

CSQTC would like to acknowledge and thank the Queensland Rural Medical Family Network for their sponsorship of the children’s entertainment through their small grants funding program.  The children were entertained by Cirque Espace, who provided circus activities including balancing, tumbling, juggling, diablos and Hoola Hoops.  The face painting and balloon bending were also a big hit with the children.  Barbara Gillett from the Queensland Rural Medical Family Network also attended bringing with her bags of goodies for all families and was available to talk about the good work provided through the Network.

Our ring master, Dr John Buckley, presented a prize for the best dress up of the evening and best balloon sculpture and our workshop guest speaker, the clown doctor, also joined us for dinner and kept both children and adults entertained and amused with his magic tricks. Pictured left, the Ring Master at work

Sunday morning saw all participants return to Lily’s on the Lagoon for the final two sessions.  First was a short welcome by Mr Peter Harrison, CEO of CSQTC followed by the ‘What’s happening at CSQTC’ and ACRRM, RACGP and FARGP updates provided by our Senior Medical Educators.  The final session was a culmination of the group work undertaken the previous day and a couple of our Registrars were the recipients of a couple of special prizes.

Our Rural Doctor Family weekend continues to be the jewel in the Registrar workshop program and remains a valuable networking experience for our rural doctors, their families and CSQTC staff.  Thank you to all who attended and involved themselves in the weekend. 

Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive and we will leave you with some of the comments from participants.

Which session did you enjoy most?

• 20 participants selected the Clown Doctor and 14 ‘My special place’

Something learnt from this weekend?

• Power of “play” in medicine
• Magic tricks for kids
• Magic for consulting
• Communication/engaging kids in consults
• Magic & laughter – reinforced the need to break down barriers
• Humour in medicine is acceptable & can be introduced in a professional way
• Make GP work fun and try to look after yourself
• It’s important to relieve stress at work by simply having humour
• More relaxing approach to patient care
• GP can be fun – do not stress
• Reinforced humour in life as GP. Motivated me to be more active in the town
• As a GP Registrar you have the “power” to change the shape of your community
• The role of the rural GP potentially, more extensive than just medically based
• How as registrar to get involved in community – very useful for career
• What a Medicare Local is! It is ok to have fun
• A lot of Burmese doctors on CSQTC training program in rural areas
• Good for networking & meeting other people in the same program, etc. Good for meeting CSQTC staff & supervisors

Location

• Great location! Family friendly
• Great place and good for families
• Alternating Sunshine Coast with Gold Coast locations
• Perfect place – this one!
• Superb! Beautiful location
• Coastal resort is fantastic
• Excellent