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Turrbal and Jagera Country
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There were a few big conferences in November to round off the year.
HWQ attended the 14th National Rural and Remote Allied Health Conference , organised by Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH), held virtually on 15 & 16 November. This conference is widely renowned as one of the best allied health conferences in Australia, and 2022 was marked by a highly successful delivery in a virtual environment. Our Leadership Team joined a number of informative keynote and concurrent sessions as delegates, and Christian Hughes, Business Intelligence Analyst, discussed the current issues regarding allied health practice sustainability in his presentation, “Allied Health Practitioners’ Perceived Factors Influencing Primary Healthcare Practice Sustainability and Viability”. This was so well-received that he was awarded as the “Best Presenter” at the conference! Click below to view the presentation.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) GP22 Conference was held in Melbourne from 25 to 27 November with over 1600 delegates attending. Health Workforce Solutions Team Leader, Sandra Bukumirovic attended various sessions and Caro Finlay, Regional Coordinator for North Queensland, joined the Rural Workforce Agencies trade booth, along with our Victorian, Northern Territory and Western Australian colleagues. Our team found the conference sessions enlightening, with a highlight being the College Led Training sessions, to understand the changes in relation to transition of training back to the college. This has increased our understanding and awareness of the steps RACGP have taken to ensure the transition supports all involved. As a Rural Workforce Agency, we found discussions about the differences between rural and urban work, and relevant advantages of being a rural general practitioner, as well as creating greater workforce capacity for the bush, inspiring and motivating.
Straight after GP22 the Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) Conference kicked off on 28 November, which Sandra also attended, along with Jo Symons, Health Workforce Strategy Manager and Meredith Connor, Future Workforce Team Leader. The team had the pleasure of meeting social work student Marayah Taylor at the conference, who the Agency had the fortunate opportunity to sponsor to attend the event (pictured below). Marayah also presented at the conference on “My Story”. The stars somehow aligned, and it turned out via mutual relationships we sat together during the Gala Awards evening, to share stories and develop new friendships. Marayah is an amazing woman with an inspiring story. We caught up with her for a chat after the conference and you can read the article below.
Mark Campbell, Talent Sourcing Coordinator, also attended the IAHA Conference, to share information on the Health Workforce Scholarship Program , recruitment opportunities in rural Queensland, relocation incentives and our other services. He was on the Rural Workforce Agencies booth, along with Christine Roach and Stephanie Adomski from the NSW Rural Doctors Network (RDN) (pictured below). We were honoured to attend the Gala Awards evening, and would like to congratulate all the award recipients, in particular the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, IAHA Board Director, Dr Stephen Corporal.
All in all, the IAHA conference was extremely thought provoking and challenged us to examine how we can all progress the right to self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and improve our culturally responsive approaches to primary health care workforce solutions. We came back inspired and enthused, and in particular, were more informed about the Voice to Parliament
Photo courtesy of IAHA – Meredith Connor, Future Workforce Team Leader and social work student Marayah Taylor at the IAHA Conference.
Photo courtesy of IAHA – Stephanie Adomski and Christine Roach from NSW RDN on the Rural Workforce Agencies booth at the IAHA Conference.
