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Clinical Education & Training Unit

The Clinical Education & Training Unit (CETU) supports, develops and coordinates the clinical education of junior doctors at TTe Whatu Ora | Te Toka Tumai Auckland.  

Teaching and Learning:  House Officer teaching programme | Registrar teaching | Senior doctor workshops | Grand Rounds

Career Support:  Auckland Regional RMO Careers Fair | Careers website

Publications:  RMO Clinical Handbook | Clinical Supervisions and Teaching Guide


Teaching and Learning

House Officer teaching programme

A range of learning options are available to PGY1 Interns and PGY2 House Officers at Te Whatu Ora | Te Toka Tumai Auckland to ensure everyone has the opportunity to meet their own learning requirements and to fulfil the requirements of the Medical Council of New Zealand’s Curriculum Framework for Prevocational Medical Education.

Tuesday afternoon teaching programme. This weekly programme for House Officers is essential for clinical teaching and is aligned to the Curriculum Framework. Teaching sessions are held from 2-4pm and all first-year House Officers have the opportunity to get two hours of "protected time" each week for this teaching.

Clinical Skills Sessions are offered once each quarter from 5 to 7pm. Patients with specific clinical conditions are invited to attend the teaching sessions where they are examined by small groups of House Officers under the guidance of more senior doctors. This teaching offers excellent practical help and tips to improve clinical practice.

Procedural Skills: a one day workshop is available at the beginning of the year for some PGY1 House Officers. Thereafter, certain procedural skills are offered to all House officers within the regular Tuesday afternoon teaching programme.

Acute Life-Threatening Events Recognition and Treatment – ALERT is offered to PGY1 year House Officers. This one day workshop teaches how to anticipate, recognise and prevent critical illness at an early stage using a structured system of patient assessment and management. This multi-professional programme is internationally recognised and complements other life-support training programmes at TTe Whatu Ora | Te Toka Tumai Auckland.

E-modules: CETU has developed a range of online learning tools that support and extend the other teaching programmes.

Teach the Teacher skills workshop is offered within the regular Tuesday afternoon teaching programme. This short workshop aims to improve presentation skills as well as assist House Officers in their role of supervising and teaching their more junior colleagues and students.

Stepping up: Becoming a Medical Registrar workshop: A one/two-day programme for House Officers stepping up to a Medical Registrar role is offered every December.

Research: House Officers are encouraged to undertake research whenever appropriate – either to study something in more depth or to add something extra to their Curriculum Vitae. House Officers are offered support to carry out some research which could be presented at the annual Prevocational Medical Education Forum in Australia or published in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

House Officer Curriculum Committee (HOCC): House Officers at Te Whatu Ora | Te Toka Tumai Auckland are encouraged to have input into their teaching programme. The HOCC meets once per quarter to review the teaching programme to ensure the topics and speakers are relevant and up to date for House Officer needs.

Registrar teaching

CETU runs the regional teaching for doctors preparing for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) written examination. This teaching uses a video conference linkup with Te Whatu Ora | Counties Manukau, Te Whatu Ora | Waitematā and Te Whatu Ora | Te Tai Tokerau.

Regional mock exams: Run under exam conditions, the mock exams are offered to all those preparing to sit the clinical RACP exam.

Senior doctor workshops

Designed to help support and develop senior doctor teaching and supervision skills, these workshops are run on an as-required or needs basis.  Past topics include: Supervising Doctors in Difficulty; Clinical Supervision; Teach the Teacher. Conducted by the Director of Clinical Training the topics list can be modified from 1 to 4-hour workshops. Contact Dr Stephen Child for more information.

Grand Rounds

Speciality grand rounds are held each week at TTe Whatu Ora | Te Toka Tumai Auckland.  Aimed at practising doctors, the grand rounds are clinically based and interactive. Presentations can include local research and innovations, new basic science and theory.

Career Support

CETU offers practical support for junior doctors as they move towards specialisation. 

2021 Auckland Regional RMO Careers Fair Monday 3 May and Tuesday 4 May.

The RMO Careers Fair is for all RMOs and interested medical students in the Auckland region. It aims to help RMOs think about their career options and gives practical advice on how to apply for particular training programmes. 

This year, there are 34 sessions over two evenings, with specialists coming from all the hospitals in the Auckland region. Each session has several speakers – senior doctors who have been practising for a while, members of the Auckland Vocational Training Committees and RMOs currently in training. This is an excellent opportunity to talk to people working in the specialties to find out what their specialty is really like and what is required to apply for a training place.

Take a look at this year's programme [PDF, 1.2 MB].

Careers website

Developed by CETU, www.careermed.co.nz() helps answer questions about all the major specialties and includes useful video clips, tips and comments by practitioners in the field. 

Publications

RMO Clinical Handbook

The handbook is designed to help RMOs with their decision-making regarding common medical problems. The guidelines try to introduce a standard approach across services for treatment of common medical conditions. The book's 38 chapters include many algorithms, flowcharts and tables that are particularly useful. Available on the Te Whatu Ora | Te Toka Tumai Auckland intranet or on your handheld device.

Clinical Supervision and Teaching Guide

By Dr Stephen Child and Gill Naden. This book provides useful tips for teaching within clinical practice, with the goal of stimulating ongoing reflection and learning in all those who are responsible for guiding RMOs. Available through CETU.

Contact us

Clinical Education & Training Unit
Level 15, Support Building
Auckland City Hospital
Private Bag 92024
Auckland
Phone: 09 307 4949 ext 23208 / 23209
CETUAdmin@adhb.govt.nz