DOCTORS WANT BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Most doctors want greater access to flexible working and training arrangements to allow them to spend more time with family and friends according to a report released by the AMA recently.
Over 600 junior and senior-salaried public hospital doctors from across Australia participated in the AMA work-life flexibility survey. The report showed that 81 per cent of hospital doctors surveyed wanted greater access to flexible working arrangements to allow them to spend more time with family and friends, take time to look after their children, or continue further formal training.
The survey has shown that 85 per cent of doctors believe they will need to use a flexible working and training option over the next decade.
The survey report contains valuable information on hospital doctors’ access to flexible working and training arrangements and their perceptions on the barriers to such arrangements. Click here to read the report in full.
Work-life flexibility will continue to be a priority for the AMACDT in 2008.
SAFE HOURS – KEEPING YOU AND YOUR PATIENTS SAFE
The AMA online fatigue risk assessment tool is a key resource for junior doctors who are worried about their working hours. The assessment tool was launched in 2007 and allows doctors to input their work, on-call, recreational and sleeping hours over a week to determine whether they are at risk of serious fatigue.
Since the assessment tool was launched, shifts of up to 36 hours have been recorded. The longest recorded working week was 117 hours.
The assessment tool is an extremely useful way of providing doctors, who are being rostered to work unsafe hours, with information that can help them negotiate improved rosters.
Click here to access the AMA online fatigue risk assessment tool.
AMC SPECIALIST ACCREDITATION GUIDELINES
The Australian Medical Council is completing a review of standards for assessing and accrediting specialist medical training and professional development programs. The AMA has had significant input into this process and has been lobbying the AMC to ensure that the standards address matters such as:
trainee representation and advocacy,
trainee feedback,
transparency of the accreditation process,
governance of college training policies and processes,
training in expanded settings,
safe hours,
the treatment of trainees with a disability,
Indigenous health.
The finalised standards are expected to be released by the AMC in the near future.
AMA LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT DINNER - HOBART
Rachael Robertson will be the keynote speaker at this year's AMA Leadership Development Dinner being held on Friday 30 May 2008.
Rachael successfully led a team of 18 on the 58th Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition to Davis Station. This incredible role was even more amazing as she was only the second female to do so. Rachael will recount her leadership and team building experiences from a year in the highest, driest, coldest and windiest place on earth.
This session will be a great opportunity for networking with other junior doctors and will be an opportunity to meet the AMA President - Dr Rosanna Capolingua, along with the Chair of the AMA Council of Doctors in Training - Dr Alex Markwell. AMACDT representatives from each state/territory will also be at the dinner.
This session is sponsored by MDA National. Full details are available at
http://www.ama.com.au/web.nsf/doc/WEEN-7D848B
CONTACT US
Either via our Facebook Group AMA Doctors-in-Training Network or via email to ditnetwork@ama.com.au or by phone 02 6270 5400.
You can unsubscribe from E_dit by emailing the Federal AMA at ditnetwork@ama.com.au