Broader Education

Specialist Training Program

The Federally funded Specialist Training Program (STP) extends vocational training for specialist registrars into settings outside traditional metropolitan teaching hospitals, including regional, rural and remote and private hospitals. The program at Cabrini continues to enhance our culture in terms of education, research, team work and patient care, attracting the best clinicians and providing support for our medical student program. This year, Cabrini had 14 positions funded by the Federal Government and directly employed a further 15 positions. A total of 99 doctors rotated through the 29 training opportunities across the year, engaging with 48 supervisors.

Cabrini partnered with five specialist colleges including the Royal Australian College of Physicians, Royal Australasian College of Pathologists, Royal Australian College of Medical Administrators, Australian College of Emergency Medicine and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. Our partner were the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne Pathology, South West Healthcare, Melbourne Health, St Vincent’s Health, Alfred Health and Austin Health.

We express our gratitude to the supervisors. We offer special thanks to Dr Martina Welz who fulfilled the duties of Director of Physician Training for the last two years at Cabrini. Martina has provided excellent support to trainees; assisted with orientation and the design and delivery of our education program; led RACP supervisor training at Cabrini and supported the regular accreditation cycle of physician training positions. Martina handed over to Dr Shehara Mendis in 2021. We look forward to working with Shehara and we thank her for accepting this challenge.

Q & A

The Cabrini Q & A education program is a platform to discuss challenges, innovations and improvements relating to governance, safety, quality and risk management. It is one of the principal vehicles by which Cabrini ensures we are providing our staff with relevant and engaging educational and professional development activities, enhancing their knowledge of evidence-based practice.

The highlight of the Q & A series this year was “Where to from here? An Update on Cabrini Group Strategy and Clinical Services Plan” where our Chief Executive Sue Williams outlined her strategy and responded to questions from the audience of 126 Zoom participants. Feedback included appreciation of the opportunity to ask questions and receive responses beyond scripted documents.

Another session that attracted a large audience was “The Board and I… What is our role at Cabrini?” when participants relished the opportunity to hear from Chairman of the Cabrini Board, Sylvia Falzon and Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee, Lisa Harker. Feedback noted the humility of these women who provided insight into their roles which hold high levels of responsibility.

Associate Professor Melita Kenealy chaired “Choose to Challenge… Celebrating Women in Leadership at Cabrini” which also attracted a large audience. The panellists included Professor Helena Teede and Professor Susan Davis AO. Melita was well-researched and engaging. The presenters provided personal and relevant insights. We heard about challenges, barriers and progress being made.

Feedback from the sessions is helpful in designing future sessions. We are grateful to those who raise their questions in the forums and those who suggest future topics. We welcomed Craig Bosworth, Group Director Strategy and Marketing to the team this year. Craig has chaired most of the sessions and added to the professionalism of this educational offering.

Quick Clinical Updates

The Quick Clinical Update education program is designed for specialist trainees but everyone is welcome. The topics are mostly issues that are relevant across the specialities and include new knowledge. Topics this year included

precision medicine, immunotherapy in genitourinary cancers, Covid-19 updates, common therapies for gastrointestinal cancers, drug allergies, recognising depression in the physically unwell patient; and heart failure management. We thank all presenters.

Peter & Judy Lowthian & Family, Lee & Brian Johnstone Library

Driven by our major supporters, Mrs Lee and Mr Brian Johnstone, the library changed its name to further acknowledge the support of Peter and Judy Lowthian and Family. Associate Professor Peter Lowthian (formerly the Executive Director of Medical Services and Clinical Governance at Cabrini) was a driving force behind the library’s vision to become an online electronic library to support all health professionals.

The library is truly indebted to A/Prof Lowthian. We also wish to thank Lee and Brian for their ongoing financial support. Highlights The library has set up Cabrini authors in real time through syndicated feeds, to highlight publications originating from Cabrini-based researchers. Any new studies can be viewed through the library's main page or Research Skills Libguide.

Guides to assist staff to learn and develop their own expertise in information searching have been developed and enhanced. The high usage of these guides demonstrates the value in developing these sort of tools to assist our staff.

The librarian and the Clinical Governance Department have developed written protocols for reviewing internal clinical guidelines. This will streamline the review process with the upcoming hospital accreditation in February 2022.

Nurses and accredited Cabrini specialists were the two highest users of the library resources in 2020-21. The resource UpToDate is valued by our clinicians, with over 12,780 topic views in the last 12 months alone.

Leesa Horrigan (left) and Donna Li coordinate undergraduate and postgraduate education.

The Cabrini Q & A education program is a platform to discuss challenges, innovations and improvements relating to governance, safety, quality and risk management.

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Infrastructure

CABRINI RESEARCH TEAM

Professor Gary Richardson OAM, Group Director, Cabrini Research, Director, Szalmuk Family Department of Medical Oncology, Director, Oncology Clinics Victoria, Professor of Medicine, Monash University Anne Spence, Director of Infrastructure Dr Emma Baker, Director of Research Jacky Fernandez, Coordinator Infrastructure Leesa Horrigan Coordinator Engagement and Undergraduate Education Donna Li, Coordinator Postgraduate Education Bianca Noble, Coordinator Scholarships, Grants and Communications Luka Keighley, Cabrini Research Receptionist and Clinical Trials Assistant Associate Professor Wei Wang, Biostatistician Di Horrigan, Librarian

CABRINI RESEARCH HEALTH DATA MANAGEMENT

Dr David Rankin, Director Clinical Governance and Informatics

Sharon Guo Matthew Horrigan Dr Stefanie Elbracht-Leong Justin Lang Karen Oliva Ashley Fletcher Vibhasha Chand Melissa Vereker Mr Gilbert Shardey