News and updates

The number of Rural Generalists (RG) training across rural and regional Victoria is growing, thanks to the Victorian Rural Generalist Program and its training pathways.

As a sub-specialty of general practice, all Rural Generalists are trained to provide primary care, emergency medicine, plus many required components of other medical specialist care needed to provide comprehensive medical care in small to medium sized rural and regional communities.

Rural Generalist Advanced Skills training can vary from emergency skills, mental health, anaesthetics, paediatrics, obstetrics or palliative care.

RG training equips registrars to manage complex comorbidities … work in community settings, hospital settings, and admit into your local health service, provide inpatient care or work after hours in the ED, they will feel confident to respond and deal with problems at a population level, and can make a valuable contribution to medical leadership within teams.

Offering an RG registrar placement as they complete their Rural Generalist Consolidation (RGC) can deliver a range of terrific benefits to your practice.

Registrars undertaking RGC will be keen to maintain, refresh and update their skills in your practice while they undertake their final stage of training towards fellowship as an independent Rural Generalist.

They will also be looking for career opportunities following their fellowship.

The Victorian Rural Generalist Program fund the 2022 Rural Generalist Consolidation (RGC) program.

For more information:

Anna Stephenson – Manager Rural Program

Supervisors and a GP trainee speak with Dr Paul Grinzi about their experiences starting out in a new role, in the June 2021 edition of SuperCast.

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Don’t forget to subscribe!

2022 Practice Agreements – we need updated details

We are seeking your assistance to update us with any changes to your supervisor contact details or practice details.

This is to prepare for the 2022 Practice Agreements that will be sent to you toward the end of this year.

If your banking details have changed, please click here to access the Practice Banking details form and forward to accounts payable
Please note that all supervisors registered with MCCC have already been added to the document and will receive the agreement simultaneously via DocuSign. Should your practice need to amend this information, for example if the supervisor is leaving or has left the practice, please advise us via return email so that we can adjust our records and change the DocuSign requirements
New supervisors cannot be added to the agreement. If you have a GP interested in becoming accredited as a supervisor, please let us know and we can provide a new supervisor application form.

If you have any questions, please contact your region’s REAPS or TSO — details here.

PDP points for teaching ACRRM registrars

Each ACRRM Supervisor needs to list the number of hours they claim for registrar teaching and supervision (separate headings) on the ACRRM PDP portal.

ACRRM PDP will check with their training section to confirm the supervisor is listed as a supervisor in an accredited teaching post ( MCCC provides this information to ACRRM). If there is any discrepancy ACRRM will check this with MCCC.

The breakdown of individual hours claimed within the practice is a practice matter. ACRRM PDP suggests each training practice determine this internally and confirm in writing with ACRRM.

MCCC support – who to contact

Please see our support document for who to contact and for what, including details of support staff in each region and more information on the following contacts:

Operations staff, REAPS, EPSOs, TSOs, finance, general enquiries
SLO team
RLO team
RME team
Online support for MeL, SWAN and website
PEP
PALS
Rural program including rural generalist
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health.

Paid support for ACRRM supervisors – Case Based Discussion preparation

There are resources available to support supervisors of ACRRM trainees in ACRRM-accredited practices to assist them in gathering and preparing cases.

These resources include:

MCCC’s online CBD module available on MeL

and funding for:

completing the MCCC online module on MEL about CBD
face-to-face tutorials for 2 x 1 hour blocks.

We are having an MCCC Medical Educator review the cases prior to submission to ACRRM and so supporting ACRRM trainees and supervisors in gathering and preparing cases.

Finance processes a one-off payment to the practice of $300 ($60 for completing the MeL module and $240 payment for 2 x 1hr tutorials).

Changes to Supervisor Reports in SWAN

Supervisor Reports for the Initial Assessment (IA), Further Assessments (FA) and Term 3 Assessment (T3A) are due by week 6 of the 2021.1 semester. Registrars value your feedback and so we recommend you consider doing some direct observation of registrars you are supervising, regardless of their training level.

There will now be a section within the Supervisor Report for you to record your feedback on the consultations observed, so that both you and your registrar can refer to it.

The consultation feedback section will look like the below and further information about the changes will be provided to you in the new year.

Please see here for 2021.1 Initial Assessment, Further Assessment and Term 3 Assessment dates.

Update for supervisors of training term 2 registrars in 2021

We are trialing a registrar self-refection (SRT) and practice feedback tool (PFT) as part of the Further Assessment for this cohort, replacing the practice manager report.

Full details of the steps required for this new process are available in the IA/FA/T3A guidance document.

Summary of FA steps:

The registrar completes a self-reflection on MeL
The practice manager is sent a link to the feedback tool on MeL and shares it with 4 other staff members to complete (recommended: two clinical staff, not including other registrars or supervising GPs)
The registrar is sent a collated, anonymous report of PFT by MCCC in week 7
The registrar discusses the PFT with the PM and/or supervisor and completes a validation on MeL
Any concerns that cannot be managed at the practice level are to be discussed with the RHE
The training advisor will ensure that the discussion has taken place and will liaise with the registrar at approx. week 10.

Further information about the above steps will be issued to practices in 2021 and we welcome feedback from practices regarding the trial FA format.