The Australian journal of rural health
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Aust J Rural Health · Apr 2000
Area health services as learning organisations: the rural experience.
Staff development units (SDUs) across New South Wales Health are in a state of flux. Traditional models of training may no longer be meeting the continuing professional education needs of staff. This paper outlines how one SDU, the Rural Health Education and Research Centre at Tamworth, with few resources, has successfully negotiated the transformation from delivering ad hoc, face-to-face teaching, to a model encompassing competency-based training, recognition of prior learning, workplace assessment and distance education.
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The Regional Australia Summit brought together 282 invited delegates from all parts of Australia. The aim of the Summit was to develop partnerships between the government, business and community sectors to deliver a better future for regional, rural and remote areas facing significant change. ⋯ The ultimate success of the Regional Australia Summit will be gauged over time by the extent to which the health, wellbeing and prosperity of rural, remote and regional Australians has been improved, and existing problems and issues addressed. Nonetheless, the Summit is a significant event because it addresses issues at the highest level of government, emphasises coordination and the adoption of an intersectoral approach, and recognises the need to empower local communities and build partnerships between the government, corporate and community sectors.
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Rural general practitioners (GPs) traditionally provide the initial care for the very ill and severely traumatised in small and medium-sized rural hospitals. It has been said that these patients would be better managed in a level 1 trauma centre. The present paper will test this hypothesis and shows that the benefits of the expertise available in the large centres may be outweighed by the loss of life in the prehospital phase, most of which occurs before the arrival of the ambulance. ⋯ A national standard for training rural GPs in emergency management skills is needed. Emergency facilities and equipment must be maintained and improved throughout rural Australia. These facilities and their staff must be accredited so that the ambulance service can more appropriately determine its transport priorities.
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Aust J Rural Health · May 1999
The emergency medicine training needs of rural general practitioners.
This study aimed to identify the emergency medicine training needs of rural general practitioners (GPs) in the catchment area of the Hunter Rural Division of General Practice. The GPs were surveyed using a questionnaire in which they were asked about their confidence levels in a number of specific emergency medicine skills, and about the areas of emergency medicine that they saw as priorities for upskilling. ⋯ These emergency medicine domains were also seen as high priorities for upskilling by the majority of the respondents. The study shows that rural doctors need the opportunity to access emergency medicine training that provides upskilling not only in the management of clinical problems, but also in practical procedures.
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Aust J Rural Health · May 1999
ReviewThe role of ultrasound in the assessment of the trauma patient.
Ultrasound assessment of the patient with blunt abdominal trauma will enhance diagnostic accuracy and facilitate decision making about the need for urgent surgery. Numerous studies have reported the role of ultrasound in the assessment of the trauma patient. Focused ultrasound has been shown to compare in sensitivity to diagnostic peritoneal lavage and is helpful in assessing the need for a laparotomy. ⋯ The technique is not difficult to learn. Advances in technology are likely to make portable ultrasound increasingly appropriate to rural clinical practice. Detection of haemoperitoneum will be more accurate when ultrasound is available in the early care of trauma on a 24 hour basis and, to achieve this, clinicians managing trauma will need to become competent in the application of the focused ultrasound exam.