News from Flinders Northern Territory Medical Program (NTMP) Year 3

Workplace based learning underpins the NTMP Year 3 program with students placed in the following locations:

  • Katherine region – Katherine Hospital
    • Wurli Wurlinjang AMS
    • Gorge Health Medical Practice
  • Gove region – Gove Hospital
    • Miwatj Health AMS
    • Endeavour Health Service
  • Central Australia – Alice Springs Hospital
    • Central Australian Aboriginal Congress
    • Central Clinic
    • Tennant Creek Hospital
    • Community outreach sites
  • Darwin/Palmerston – Royal Darwin Hospital
    • Palmerston GP Superclinic
    • Danila Dilba Health Service
    • Northlakes Medical Centre
  • Remote Top End Health Services
    • Palumpa Clinic
    • Wurrimiyanga Tiwi Islands
    • Milikapiti
    • Pirlingimpi
    • Warrawi
    • Minjalang
    • Batchelor Health Service, Adelaide Rr and Pine Creek

We have changed assessment considerably this year across all sites in South Australia (SA) and the Northern Territory (NT). Assessment has a strong focus on students gathering evidence of their performance in both clinical competence and underpinning knowledge. Students manage learning plans that are tailored through their meetings with their supervisors and the feedback they receive through the year.

I thank all the Yr3 supervisors for their commitment to working with the students to improve knowledge and skills and acknowledge that student learning occurs through their involvement in clinical care and therefore occurs in addition to the clinical care provided in all the hospitals and community services in the NT.

We deliberately promote the importance of the student in the clinical care team. Learning in our profession must be interconnected to the meaningful work students provide. The student must make a transition – often significant – in adapting to the workplace context in order to learn effectively.

In 2017 we have focused on the development of our Common and Important Conditions booklet, used as a guide for focusing student learning priorities within the clinical context. We appreciate the work of our clinical leads and supervisors who provide feedback on the priorities for learning in Yr3 and subsequently Yr4. This work will also underpin a review of our teaching program provided through small group tutorials and lectures.

In response to feedback from supervisors and students we are reviewing the focus for lectures to align them to the placement learning. In 2018 we hope to have furthered the clarity of the purpose of the lectures with lesson plans and a clearer connection between the lecture/teaching session and the student’s other learning.

This is ongoing work that needs to develop gradually to incorporate feedback from all involved – however we see this as a fundamental process of review for our course.

The context of the NT is important and we are developing clarity on how the remote curriculum weaves through the program.
This with the continued development of the Aboriginal Health curriculum will continue to be our focus over the next period.

We look forward to continuing the developments of our program with all stakeholders in 2018 and I thank very much the staff and all the people involved in supporting the student program

Dr Emma Kennedy
Yr3 academic coordinator NTMP

Posted in
Flinders NT Medical Program (NTMP)