Past conferences

About the conference

Date: 14 - 15 March 2025

Venue: UOW Shoalhaven campus

Healthcare professionals and researchers came together at UOW Shoalhaven for the augural conference exploring Multidisciplinary and Community-Engaged Approaches in Rural Healthcare. The event provided a valuable platform to share innovative practices, explore effective strategies, and engage in meaningful discussions. Attendees had the opportunity to learn from peers, exchange ideas, and build networks and partnerships aimed at advancing the future of rural and regional healthcare.

Sub-themes

1. Digital health
2. Rural and regional workforce development
3. Innovations in care delivery
4. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health

Welcome address

Fiona Phillips MP, Federal Member for Gilmore

Keynote speaker

Professor Russell Roberts, Professor of Management and Leadership at Charles Sturt University

Speakers

Rural Regional Workforce Development

• Professor Andrew Bonney and Professor Judy Mullan: Writing Effective Grant Proposals.
• Professor Rowena Ivers, Liz Halcomb, Fiona Williams and Rebecca Bosworth: The Curious Clinician – Clinician Researchers in Rural Settings.
• Tracey Parnell and Tana Cuming: Staff Education Promotes Inclusivity and Accessibility of Health Services for People With Disability
• Louise Roser: Strengthening the Local Workforce to Meet Local Need
• Katherine Riley: Domestic Violence – Understanding the Rural Landscape. A Scoping Review
• Karen Hayes: Preparing Occupational Therapy Students for Practice in Rural Areas: Initial Results of a Scoping Review
• Karen Hayes: Workforce Drought: The Persistent Maldistribution of the Occupational Therapy Workforce
• Karla Kuzmins: Unveiling the Hidden Rural Workforce: Exploring Nursing Roles and Challenges in Multipurpose Services
• Tracey Parnell: Staff Education Promotes Inclusivity and Accessibility of Health Services for People With Disability
• Samantha Avitaia: Growing Our Own – Regional Healthcare Traineeship Collaboration
• Ayele Kasa: Measuring the Effects of Nurse-led Frailty Intervention on Community-dwelling Older People
• Oluwadare Christopher T: Community Responses to Covid-19 Containment and Its Socio-economic Impact in Rural Kwara State of Nigeria
• Louise Roser: Strengthening the Local Workforce to Meet Local Need
• Professor Rowena Ivers: How Can Rural Towns Attract and Retain GPs? A Grey Literature Review
• Dr Colin Cortie: Medical Specialists in Australia: Who Are They and Where Are They Working?
• Isabelle Meyer: Supporting the Rural Workforce Through National Dementia Education and Training Standards
• Anne Davis: Why (Not) Rural Practice? The Literature Springboard
• Emily Vohralik: Rural Australians’ Perceptions of the Health Impacts of Extreme Weather Events: A Systematic Review
• Clare O’toole: The Impact of Remoteness on Adhd Assessment Availability in Australia
• Karen Hayes: Mapping Disease Burden Across Modified Monash Levels of Remoteness in Australia
• Associate Professor Philip Barker: The Use and Effectiveness of Sunscreens in Workplace and Recreational Situations

Innovations in Care Delivery

• Dr Margaret Jordan: C-reactive Protein Point-of- Care Testing in Acute Respiratory Infections: Perspectives of Rural GPs
• Jodie Brabin: Revolutionising Rural Eds: The Impact of Patient Experience Officers on Community Health
• James Linden: Whole of System Commissioning – Linking Copd Care
• Raphel Jomaah: Tackling the Hidden Environmental Threat of Iodinated Contract Media
• Dr Margaret Jordan: Co-designed Resources to Enable Quality Antibiotic Use for Acute Adult Respiratory Tract Infections
• Leigh Wilson: Suicide Interventions in Rural Australia: The Role of the GP
• Jodie Brabin: Innovative Approaches to Suicide Prevention Evaluating a Rural and Remote Mental Health Program

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health

• Dr Paul Saunders: Striving for Aboriginal Intercultural Development Through Medical Education
• Bronte Haynes: Placed Based Community Led Solutions
• Meg Kelly: Cultural Determinants of Health. A Scoping Review
• Leanne Mccarthy and Bronte Haynes: The Ironbark Standing Strong and Tall Project

• Robert Jerome: Australian rural General Practitioners’ attitudes towards antimicrobial shared decision-making aids. 
• Eliza West: Attitudes of rural General Practitioners towards the use of point-of-care CRP testing as a decision-making tool in the prescribing of antibiotics.
• Benjamin McAulay: Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of C-reactive protein point-of-care testing for antimicrobial stewardship in Australian rural General Practice. A qualitative study.
• Crystal Wilson: The effect of a delirium education intervention on delirium detection rates in perioperative PACU patients – a non-randomised pre-post intervention case study in a regional hospital. 
• Kara Warrilow: Impact of rurality and socioeconomic status on functional gain in multiple sclerosis patients attending impatient rehabilitation in Australia.
• Harison Towns: Reasons why Indigenous Australians do not wait to be seen by a Doctor in rural emergency departments.  
• Carmen MacGregor: Understanding perioperative delirium risk factors and improving delirium education within rural hospitals.
• Nicholas Mott: A descriptive study of the Royal Flying Doctor Service South Eastern section medical chest activity.
• Zoe Louise Ferguson: Exploring paediatric usage of the RFDSSE Medical Line.
• Bradley Dovenor: Describing the mental health and AOD services of the RDFS wellbeing place.
• Rebecca Castor: Compliance with surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP) guidelines in a regional hospital.
• Nathan Brown: Patient perspectives on using joint decision-making tools for the prescription of antimicrobials in rural Australian general practices. 
• Spela Berlec: Resilience levels of people in rural, regional and metropolitan Australia.

About the conference

Date: 15 - 16 March, 2024
Venue: UOW Shoalhaven campus

Health carers and researchers explored the theme of Innovative Models of Rural and Regional Health Care. Insightful discussions, dynamic presentations, and valuable networking opportunities focused on Rural Health Workforce Education & Training; Rural Health Workforce; Innovations in Rural Health Care; and Rural Health Community Partnership. Together diverse professionals and researchers shared expertise, exchanged knowledge, and fostered collaborations that drive innovation in rural communities, shaping the future of rural and regional health care!

Sub-themes

1. Rural Health Workforce Education & Training
2. Innovations in Rural Healthcare
3. Rural Health Workforce
4. Rural Health Community Partnerships

Keynote speaker

Professor Sarah Larkins is an experienced research leader, academic general practitioner and Professor of Health Systems Strengthening in the College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University.  Sarah has particular skills and experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research and health services and workforce research and is an internationally recognised expert in social accountability in health professional education.

Keynote presentation

Workforce implications of innovative models of care – the missing middle! What is a fit-for-purpose health workforce for rural and remote Australia?

The Australian health care system is generally considered strong by world standards, however inequities in access to health care and health outcomes persist, most pronounced for Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders and rural, regional and remote Australians. Health system issues include shortages and maldistribution of the health workforce, rising health care costs (driven by rising rates of chronic disease and multimorbidity and unhelpful funding models), and siloed care lacking in coordination.

This presentation will outline some of the health system issues, highlight some of the top down policy initiatives and ground up innovative models of care that have emerged in response to need, and highlight the “missing middle” of sensible regional place based planning for a sustainable health workforce and service delivery.

As technology continues to develop, the needs of our health workforce continue to change, with a requirement for a flexible workforce with high digital readiness delivering technologically augmented care but maintaining a person-centred model of care. This has implications for the current health workforce in terms of upskilling, teamwork and organisational culture change but also implications for how we select and train a fit-for-purpose health workforce for a sustainable and more equitable health system into the future. Starting with the end in mind is critical here to ensure that selection and training emphasizes diversity, equity, compassion and teamwork in addition to academic success.

Professor Sarah Larkins's Keynote presentation (PDF: 4.3 MB)