Reflective Clinical Practice Workshop: Reconnecting with the Heart of Healthcare.
In May 2024, the SSSIO facilitated two face-to-face workshops on Reflective Clinical Practice for Healthcare Workers with an underlying theme of, ‘Reconnecting with the Heart of Healthcare’. They consisted of presentations by two eminently qualified and experienced professionals, Dr. Rajat Gyaneshwar and Dr. Swaran Naidu.
The presenters have collectively over 40 years’ experience in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji with a wealth of knowledge from clinical academic responsibilities as well as consultancy work for several NGOs, including WHO and UNFPA. They currently operate a free community health centre in Fiji where they also provide teaching and mentoring for Pacific healthcare workers through the Fiji National University and University of Fiji.
The 3-hour workshops had activities designed to engage the audience. They were conducted in Sydney and Canberra and attracted 19 and 11 participants respectively. The topics covered included:
- Respectful Care.
- Self-Care for Effective Practice.
- Negotiating Challenging Times.
- Clinical Risk Management.
- Values for Ethical Practice.
Feedback from the participants was very positive with some responses included as follows.
Testimony from Senior Occupational Therapist:
The reflective practice workshop by Dr Rajat Gyaneshwar and Dr Swaran Naidu was not what I expected. I was pleased to discover, within 15 minutes of the workshop that the workshop was not the usual, self-care, how-not-to-burn-out presentation. The presenters dived into “spiritual depth” of clinical practice and exposed us to the beautiful scene of how to be strong and vulnerable while helping a fellow human in pain or discomfort. Simple language, humility, science, facts and wealth of life experience were all presented to support reflective practice. It was powerful and spiritual and I felt a better clinician at the end of it.
Testimony from a medical student:
I attended the reflective workshop and it was very, very helpful as a 4th year med student myself. I was able to take some really good tips from both the guest speakers and I really hope there is more events like this in the future.
