The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) is the biggest professional body for anaesthetists in the Asia-Pacific. It supports over 7,000 certified anaesthetists and 3,000 trainees with education and training at every stage of their careers.
It’s also the chosen professional membership organization for over 6,000 specialist anaesthetists and 460 specialist pain medicine physicians—experts who’ve completed ANZCA’s rigorous training to become leaders in their field.
Now, ANZCA is expanding its offerings with a brand-new course in perioperative medicine designed to support continuous learning and professional development in their field. We sat down with Amelia Che Ajid, education coordinator, chapter of perioperative medicine and Colin Lynas, learning technology team lead at ANZCA to learn more about their new course offering, how it’s driving retention and tailored to meet the needs of their members.
Identifying and filling a gap with education
Over the last year, ANZCA has implemented a new course offering for members and non-members to align with strategic plans of the college.
ANZCA already teaches anaesthetics and pain medicine and is now branching into a perioperative medicine specialisation—a course built due to an evidence-based gap needed for this type of care. Based off information from members in not only Australia and New Zealand, but also Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand, it was discovered that courses in perioperative medicine didn’t exist, resulting in ANZCA being pulled in to help fill the gap.
There are currently about 33 course participants in the program, which is on target for the early stage roll out of a course in a niche field. Right now, ANZCA is looking to grow the program, and Lynas explains that it’s going very well.
“There’s a lot of government lobbying going on and institutional promotion through different hospital training sites and the Minister of Health and all that’s been getting involved,” he says. “It does take time to get traction, and we’ve only got a certain amount of staff members and resources that can facilitate delivery of this course so that it’s a cautious commencement. I think that ANZCA is doing the right thing by rolling out at the speed that it is.”
“We do have a high demand, but at the moment the committees are actually planning to have it run in a very strategic way to make sure the supports are all being met,” says Che Ajid. Since only accredited supervisors are able to run the course, expansion to other hospitals needs to be carefully considered to those that are approved to run the clinical aspect of the course.
How is ANZCA driving retention?
Providing lifelong learning to its members
Providing lifelong learning options to its members is how ANZCA engages and retains members.
“We have an endeavour, you might consider it across our membership base, which we call lifelong learning,” explains Lynas. “It’s a concept to ensure that from the moment a brand-new trainee even considers the possibilities of becoming an anesthetist, they are supported throughout their educational journey all the way through to, effectively, retirement.”
The association achieves this lifelong learning by dividing its cohort into two groups: trainees and fellows. Trainees focus on curriculum development and furthering their understanding of how to pass exams. Once their prerequisites have been met, they move into fellowship, which is around continuum and professional development.
Incorporating feedback from graduates
After participants complete the perioperative medicine course, they’re admitted to the graduate chapters of preoperative medicine.
“We will invite them to be part of the community to continually support the future success of the course delivery,” explains Che Ajid. These graduates will be on the ground gathering evidence in practical situations like surgeries, and able to report back to the college on how the program can continue to grow.
How is ANZCA tailoring learning to its members?
Providing self-directed, interactive learning
Self-directed learning provides course participants, who are often busy with their full-time medical roles, the freedom to tackle materials when they have the time.
“You can see it allows the participant to actually learn at their own pace and at their own schedule.,” says Che Ajid. “Because the nature of the physician’s job, their schedule can be hectic at certain times, and they only have a small window to actually do their course work. From that aspect, it allows them to focus on the area of their primary duties as well as aligning the interest to make sure these course requirements are met.”
Through the use of ANZCA’s learning management system, D2L Brightspace, they’re able maintain the academic integrity of the program.
“We use Brightspace to host the course materials, to track the progression, to be that one source of truth to all our participants and supervisors to use to meet the requirements of each of the units of study,” says Che Ajid.
Brightspace’s ease of use and flexible design options have also benefited ANZCA. The freedom for the association to design the courses and make them interactive has led to a rise in satisfaction levels.
Using hybrid course delivery
The perioperative medicine course is delivered in a hybrid format, allowing for online knowledge capture that can be practiced in person.
“One feature that sets ANZCA’s perioperative course apart from other offerings is its hybrid delivery,” says Lynas. “It includes about 40 hours of online learning run through the LMS and the clinical assessments are done by a supervisor at one of the 30 training sites.”
This hybrid approach also allows for continuous learning and assessment. Through this learning modality, course participants are given opportunities to apply their digital learnings through interactive, reflective activities with their supervisor during in-person assessments.
“This actually allows them to not just involve that application of the knowledge in the practical situation, but also in the reflective activities,” says Che Ajid. With around four assessments per term, continuous learning and assessment is evenly spread through the length of the course.
What’s next for ANZCA?
When ANZCA looks to the future of its new perioperative medicine course, Lynas sees it spreading to a larger international market.
“Hospitals and governments want people to live longer and healthier lives and this is one avenue that could help,” he says. “We’ve got to bed it down in Australia and New Zealand first, make sure that the program and structure works well, we know where the pitfalls are, plug those gaps, fix those things. And then at that point we can be more…secure in promoting it outside of this region.”
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