Rural health showcased at Darwin conference
The 2015 13th National Rural Health Conference was held in Darwin from 24-27 May 2015. The conference was well attended with approximately 1200 attendees.
SRH presentations
The School of Rural Health was well represented at the conference with many staff and students presenting at the conference:
- Marnie Connolly: Innovative professional development for Primary Care nurses – a rural paradigm.
- Belinda O’Sullivan: Planning integrated outreach: service patterns from the metropolitan and rural hubs PhD
- Angelo D’Amore: Rural research capacity building: a five-year case study.
- Lisa Lavey, Matthew McGrail: Getting research evidence into rural health policies: what does it take?
- Deborah Russell: Important new empirical evidence to guide rural health workforce retention policies
- Jenny May: Scope of practice in rural Australia- Horses for courses? Or a one horse race? PhD
- Angela Crombie & Evan Stanyer: Development of regional dementia services pathways PhD
- Peter Orpin, Judi Walker, Matthew Carroll, Kim Boyer: Supporting Rural Ageing Well: How important is the rural?
Keynote addresses
The Opening Address by Senator Fiona Nash, Assistant Federal Minister for Health, announced an overhauled and much fairer GP Rural Incentives Program which means smaller rural communities would be able to more easily attract and retain GPs. Some 450 rural and regional towns will receive greater incentives to attract GPs from 1 July 2015. An independent expert panel consulted with stakeholders before compiling a report for the Minister, using the new Modified Monash Model to classify rural and regional towns and cities. Minister Nash acknowledged the work of this expert panel and gave particular acknowledgement to Emeritus Professor John Humphreys for his work as a member of the expert panel and for the Modified Monash Model.
Professor John Wakerman from Flinders NT presented a keynote address on the Monday afternoon entitled “Research excellence, knowledge exchange and policy development”. This presentation drew on the work of the Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care to examine the key features of an effective knowledge exchange process. John discussed the Modified Monash Model and also acknowledged the work of John Humphreys and Matthew McGrail.
Click to view John Wakerman’s presentation.
Dr Carole Reeve, a PhD student of the Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care (CRE), based at Alice Springs, presented a very interesting and thought provoking opening address on the Sunday evening entitled “The challenge of providing fair care” also referring to the work of the CRE.
Click to view Carole Reeve’s presentation.
Networking
The conference was jam-packed with entertainment, information and lots of food. Importantly, it provided wonderful opportunities for our School of Rural Health staff and students to connect with other researchers and services from across the country who are interested in similar areas.
Although there was little time available to see the sights of Darwin, a few managed to find a little time to wrestle with crocs and enjoy the local cuisine.
Lisa Lavey