2008 AIDA Workshops
Leadership Workshop
Dr Guan Yeo facilitating discussion in the Leadership workshop.
Leadership is a key component of our roles as Doctors. As Indigenous Doctors and Medical Students this is something we are aware of.
AIDA seeks to provide support to Indigenous Doctors and Medical Students through professional development opportunities to better equip our next generation of Indigenous Doctors and Medical Students.
This year at the 2008 Symposium, AIDA hosted a half-day professional development Leadership workshop. The Leadership workshop was facilitated by Dr Guan Yeo, a General Practitioner with skills in Clinical Education and Training, Mediation and Negotiation.
Approximately 90 people participated in the workshop which covered areas of communication, negotiating skills and handy tips on being a good leader. Participants also applied the skills learned through small group role-playing scenarios.
Student Workshop
On Sunday October 5 2008, as part of the student support offered to AIDA’s student members, Associate Professor Helen Milroy and Dr Kelvin Kong facilitated a workshop on cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical students.
The workshop gathered AIDA’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical students from across the country and gave them the opportunity to discuss many of the issues facing them as they go through the medical courses with what is at times, little or no support.
"I could feel that half the room were close to tears and the power of all being together and sharing something that we all most of the time face alone. For me it was the highlight of the whole weekend." Workshop participant.
Helen and Kelvin spoke about some of the issues they are likely to face – racism, discrimination, prejudice, inequities in funding and how the Western view of medicine differs from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s views – from individual body parts to holistic view of health encompassing mental, physical and spiritual health.
The group discussed gaining strength from culture and explored some of the difficulties as they were raised. Many students felt they had to not just survive the course load, but the additional pressures such as negative comments, ignorance of others and meeting family pressures and commitments. The group worked on developing strategies for not just surviving, but thriving.
The group was presented with some of the falsehoods of Indigenous health spending and negative perceptions in the wider community, discussing how to use evidence as part of a toolkit of strategies for dealing with racism, ignorance and naivety they are likely to encounter on their journey through medicine.
The workshop finished with Helen and Kelvin talking with the students about some of their own experiences and their own feelings when they were going through university and how to use some of the skills from the workshop to help each other through the course.