We are delighted to announce the publication of four compelling papers in this volume.
We have many medical professionals working in our health system who are not in a specialised training program. However, they provide essential support in various healthcare settings. Unfortunately, their training and professional development needs are frequently overlooked. Thistlethwaite and colleagues' paper emphasizes the importance of creating professional development plans for physicians. This pilot project illustrates the need to address individual and site-specific needs of this critical clinical workforce.
While healthcare providers focus on taking care of their patients, they often neglect their own well-being. A popular adage states, "Ask your colleagues what matters to them, not what is the matter with them." Reflecting on our experiences helps us learn and grow. In healthcare, team building is critical in reducing stress and preventing burnout, while also improving resilience. Marjoribanks and colleagues employed photoreflection in their paper, "The Seed Journey", to enhance team building. Effective teamwork and team building are critical to achieve the best outcomes for our patients and healthcare professionals.
Paramedical staff play an important role in healthcare, as first responders, and it is important that they are culturally competent. Dr Lisa Holmes and her team revised the undergraduate paramedical degree curriculum, incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and approaches where and when appropriate. This work will go a long way toward closing the gap and making the delivery of care by paramedics culturally safe.
Our patients expect person-centred care. To accomplish this, they require relevant information that is easy to use and backed by evidence. This empowers patients. We must listen to consumers and respond to their needs. In the paper by Elder et al, they describe how they revamped the website for antenatal care, making it more user-friendly. We need to consider similar sites for all other medical specialties.
We are very pleased to present this latest volume to our readership and continue to contribute to the scholarship of health profession education research.
1 For correspondence: Prof Kichu Nair, Director - Educational Research, Health Education & Training Institute (HETI), Locked Bag 2030, St Leonards NSW 1590, Australia.
Email: [email protected]
Health Education in Practice: Journal of Research for Professional Learning, vol 6, no 1, 2023