Meet one of our newest members, Sarah Prior!

Sarah is the Director of Healthcare Redesign at the Tasmanian School of Medicine (University of Tasmania) and coordinates the suite of postgraduate healthcare redesign courses. She is based at the Rural Clinical School in beautiful Northwest Tasmania and teaches healthcare professionals in the field of health service improvement. She is passionate about working with clinicians, professionals, and leaders in healthcare to make meaningful and sustainable change in health services with existing resources through the redesign approach to improvement. Sarah is currently undertaking postgraduate study in counselling.

"I joined ANZAHPE as a professional development opportunity and to better understand and support the health education landscape."

Meet one of our newest members, Zayn Al-Timimi.

Zayn is a Junior Doctor in Coffs Harbour who is passionate about medical education. He is a Conjoint Associate Lecturer at the University of New South Wales Rural Clinical School, where he relishes every opportunity to teach in any shape or form. Zayn is also a Masters by Research candidate with a thesis on patient perspectives in glaucoma, and plans to supervise research in the medical education space. Zayn views teaching as a core component of good medical practice, and views critical feedback and evaluation as a basis for effective practice.

I joined ANZAHPE to be part of a community of like-minded individuals who are passionate about education and committed to learning, continuous professional development, and collaboration to make our teaching as effective and enjoyable for students as possible.

Congratulations to Inayat Memon on his ANZAHPE Associate Fellowship

After acquiring medical qualification (MBBS) from Liaquat Medical College (LMC) Jamshoro, Pakistan, I joined my alma mater as lecturer in Dept. of Pathology in 1982. Qualified membership in Pathology (MCPS) from College of Physicians and Surgeon Pakistan (CPSP) in 1987. To satisfy my inquisitive thirst and making myself productive and meaningful for the society and institution, I studied further. Qualified Masters Bioethics from Aga Khan University (AKU) Pakistan 2011; successfully completed Master in Medical Sciences-Pathology (MMedSc) from Charles Sturt University (CSU Australia) 2012. To respond to my passion for Medical Education qualified JMHPE in 2020 from Maastricht’s & Suez Canal Universities and MCPS-HPE from CPSP (Pakistan).

I have been associated with teaching / learning medical education since 2006 at various institutions. Currently, I am director medical education and professor of pathology at Indus Medical College (IMC) and The University of Modern Science (TUMS) at T.M. Khan, Sindh, Pakistan. Am visiting faculty in Medical Education CPSP as well. To my credit are more 30 research publication in national and international journals in HPE and about 50 presentations.

I have been associated with ANZAHPE as member since 2021, have had wonderful and lovely experience while joining the activities and conference. My associate Fellowship would further strengthen my networking with other members and fellows. I am certain that would make me wiser to comprehend modern and new HPE approaches and understand the associate fellowship is token of recognition of my commitments with HPE but an honor and privilege as well. I am sure the plate form of ANZAHPE would cultivate my acumen and skill in HPE.

Congratulations to our newest Fellow, Dr Megan Anakin!

Megan works as a Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Education at The University of Sydney School of Pharmacy where she leads a newly established Pharmacy Education Unit.

"Building on my passion for promoting scholarship and research in health professions education, I have established the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning group at the Sydney Pharmacy School. This group supports education-focused academics. We meet weekly to discuss education issues and ideas, develop scholarly projects, design educational research studies, write conference abstracts, and learn academic writing skills for publication.

I bring this same passion to my commitment to ANZAHPE. I joined the ANZAHPE Board in 2019. I’ve held various Board roles such as Bulletin Editor, Honorary Secretary, Vice-President, Chair of the 2024 Conference Committee, and Research and Scholarship Chair. I would not have been successful in these roles without the mentorship I received from previous ANZAHPE Board members. In addition to growing our research grants and award schemes, I initiated the popular AIPPEN Networking sessions. These initiatives would not have been successful without the commitment and hard work from my ANZAHPE colleagues. I proudly support our association’s journal: Focus on Health Professions Education as an author and reviewer. To nurture the next generation of ANZAHPE’s leaders, I’ve been actively involved on the ANZAHPE mentorship committee. I’m keen to continue my involvement with ANZAHPE after my tenure on the ANZAHPE Board ends this year. Becoming a Fellow is way I can signal my ongoing commitment to ANZAHPE."

Meet one of our newest members, Danica Van Den Dungen

Danica Van Den Dungen is a dedicated registered nurse with 13 years of experience in advancing paediatric nursing practice. She has held various senior roles, including Clinical Nurse Specialist, Extended Practice Nurse, Research Nurse Coordinator in collaboration with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Clinical Nurse Consultant, and Clinical Support Nurse. Her work encompasses the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Emergency Department and a wide range of public health services, Deakin & La Trobe Universities.

Danica holds a Master of Advanced Nursing Practice from the University of Melbourne, demonstrating her commitment to continuous learning and professional development. Currently, she focuses on nurturing the next generation of nurses by supporting entry-to-practice student nurses at RCH. Her passion for mentorship and education empowers early career nurses to thrive in their roles.

"As a passionate educator, joining ANZAHPE allows me to collaborate with fellow educators and continue to share and innovate research and educational practice."

Meet one of our newest members, Neesha Ghedia.

Neesha is a Clinical Cardiovascular Perfusionist and the Trainee/Course Coordinator for the Australian and New Zealand Board of Perfusion. Passionate about advancing perfusion education (a critical speciality within cardiothoracic surgery often overlooked due to its size), Neesha is pursuing a Master of Health Professions Education at Monash University to enhance her skills in education, assessment, and simulation. This work directly informs her role with the Board and her contributions to education in her clinical position as an ECMO Coordinator at St George Hospital in Sydney, NSW. Neesha aims to advocate for the perfusion profession and strengthen the governance and guidelines surrounding its education.

"I joined ANZAHPE as a student member and am eager to connect with the community and explore opportunities for networking and professional development in health professions education."

Meet one of our newest members, Clinton Fildes!

Clinton is a Registered Nurse and teaching-focused Lecturer in Nursing at the University of South Australia. Clinton has worked both locally and overseas in a mix of public and private sector Intensive Care Units (ICU) where he has undertaken clinical, leadership, and education roles both within and outside the ICU. In 2023, Clinton made the decision to move into academia full-time, with a particular passion for inquiry-based learning and using technology to increase engagement with education.

Clinton joined ANZAHPE after hearing enthusiastic recommendations from colleagues who highlighted the positive experiences they have had at conferences and events. Looking ahead, he is eager to attend the upcoming virtual event "Let's talk about... deciding to do a PhD in Health Professions Education" to further explore academic contributions to health profession education.

Meet one of our Research Grant submissions: 'How do clinical supervisors from regional, rural and remote areas integrate new supervisory strategies after training?'

High-quality clinical supervision in health workplaces is essential for the safety of learners and patients. Clinical supervision is particularly important in rural and remote areas which may be resource-deprived, have unique cultural requirements and a transient health workforce. Health professionals have rated professional development in clinical supervision as beneficial in terms of enhanced values, knowledge and skills, usually immediately after attendance. Little is known about how clinical supervisors apply their learnings to their supervisory practice following clinical supervision training, and how new behaviours are formed. This project seeks to explore the question: How do clinical supervisors from regional, rural and remote areas integrate learning from clinical supervision training into their supervisory practice?

This qualitative exploratory study has commenced in the Northern Territory (NT). The research is now well underway, with interviews being conducted with clinical supervisors across many regions of the NT. Interviews have been conducted with health professionals from several disciplines who also provide clinical supervision to learners in the workplace. In the context of this study, the term “learners” refers to students, interns, new graduates, junior health professionals, or senior health professionals learning a new area of health practice. Health professionals can include doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, Aboriginal Health Practitioners, and allied health professionals. Clinical supervisors’ workplaces include health, education, disability, and community services settings which may be part of the public, private or not-for-profit sector within the Northern Territory. Participant recruitment occurred approximately three months after clinical supervisors attended one of the clinical supervision workshops delivered by Flinders Rural and Remote Health NT academics. The clinical supervision training has been tailored to the NT context, incorporating working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and remote health contexts.

This project commenced as part of one of the investigators’ Master of Clinical Education research project. Although this qualification has now been obtained, the research team wish to progress this existing project to include data involving participants from the more remote sites of the NT. The research team applied for an ANZAHPE research grant to assist with the associated costs.

The research team plans to develop reports to be shared with relevant stakeholders, to publish results in an academic journal, and share results at an ANZAHPE conference. It is anticipated that the clinical education community and other stakeholders would benefit from knowledge of the implications to practice and incorporation of relevant improvements into existing clinical supervision workshops to bridge the training-practice gap.

For more information, contact: Mel Ridd via  melba.ridd@flinders.edu.au

Congratulations to Shemona Rozario on her ANZAHPE Associate Fellowship!

Shemona is a passionate educator, medical practitioner, and early career health professions education researcher who recently completed her PhD. Her PhD thesis explores the professional identity development of doctors when considering specialisation and she is enthusiastic about expanding her research into the future.

Shemona decided to apply for Associate Fellowship of ANZAHPE to formalise her contributions to health professions education research, further her growth and development as a health professions education researcher, and to further build her connections within the ANZAHPE community as she transitions to a postdoctoral career.

Meet one of our newest members, Andrew Nguyen.

Andrew Nguyen is a current Infectious Diseases Physician, Senior Lecturer and Specialty Supervisor for the University of Queensland (UQ) Rural Clinical School, and a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Western Australia Centre for Rural Health. This follows being an Associate Lecturer with UQ since 2015. Andrew's role involves delivering teaching to students and clinicians and coordinating and leading examinations of penultimate year medical students. In his research role, he is currently analyzing diabetes educator training capacity throughout Australia, with an emphasis on accreditation in rural and remote areas. He is also trying to improve his teaching skills by undertaking a Graduate Certificate of Health Professions Education at the University of Western Australia.

"I joined ANZAHPE after hearing of the opportunities to network and present research in the field of health professions education from my colleagues who are members. I am interested in attending the ANZAHPE conference in June, and I was fortunate to be awarded a Newnham Fellowship to complete my studies in Health Professions Education and attend the conference. I hope to eventually produce research and present at the conference to improve the delivery of education to my peers."