ANZAHPE ONLINE Professional Development Program

How do I... combine formal professional development with the rest of my life

Facilitator: Dr Joanna TaiPhD MBBS BMedSc GCHELT SFHEA, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University

The decision to undertake formal professional development can be daunting for busy health professional educators, who are often already balancing multiple roles and responsibilities. What offerings exist? Where should I study? What will the time commitment be? How will it actually help my career? Will it make a difference if I’m already in a senior position?

Join the leads of four respected health professions education programmes in this interactive session to hear about the types of formal professional development available, and discuss the benefits and challenges of further education. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in small group discussion for more personalised reflections and advice.

Presenters: 

Dr Justin Bilszta is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Education, Melbourne Medical School and is currently Director of Postgraduate and Custom Programs for the Department of Medical Education. He has overall responsibility for the Master of Clinical Education, Master of Clinical Research and Specialist Certificate in Clinical Leadership. Prior to joining the Dept of Medical Education, he spent 10 years as a Research Fellow with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne. Justin’s education research interests include curriculum design, in particular the teaching and assessment of medical student research methods competency.

Professor Sandra Carr PhD is the Head of the discipline of Health Professions Education (HPE) and Lead for the University of Western Australia’s Health Humanities Research Network. Sandra has been a curriculum developer and education researcher in HPE for 25 years and is committed to ensuring health professionals are prepared for their important role as educators. Her most recent projects include implementing a scholarly program of coursework in medical education for MD students and commencing an undergraduate major in Health Humanities in the Biomedical Science degree at UWA in 2019.

Associate Professor Simone Gibson, PhD, BSc, Grad Dip Diet, Grad Cert Health Prof Ed is the Director of Education for the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash University and the Director of Monash Centre for Scholarship in Health Education. She leads postgraduate courses in health professions education. Her research interests include integrating academic and clinical training to innovate curricula, using design thinking in research and programmatic assessment. Simone is on the editorial board of Focus on Health Professional Education journal and presents and publishes in the areas of education and dietetics. Simone received the 2018 Australian Award for University Teaching in Biological Sciences and Health for teaching excellence and is committed to developing educational leaders and innovation in the health professions.

Associate Professor Koshila Kumar, PhD, SFHEA, FANZAHPE is an Associate Professor at Flinders University, who is passionate about supporting those who teach to develop their expertise, profile, and career trajectory in education. One of Koshila’s roles at Flinders University is as the course coordinator of the postgraduate courses in Clinical Education. Koshila is completing her final term on the Australia and New Zealand Association of Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE) Board (2017-2023) in the role of Vice President. She is a Fellow of ANZAHPE and a Senior Fellow of Advance HE (UK). Koshila is an experienced qualitative researcher, and her research expertise includes faculty/staff development and curriculum and pedagogy.