Kia ora Members,
Earlier this week STONZ had the opportunity to present to Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa (MCNZ), alongside the NZRDA and ASMS. The invitational brief was to present our feedback on the workforce pipeline and training pathways.
The council are a committed and deep-thinking group who were a privilege to meet. I am hopeful they took on board the concerns raised about the pipeline and areas for improvement that STONZ suggested.
The major concerns I presented were that the pipeline is very prescriptive with multiple, unblended stages from medical school through to final Registrar exams. These highly prescriptive steps from multiple training administrators, converge on the RMO, and can actually detract from clinical training. The multistage journey to become a specialist is appealing for a diminishing minority, when the practical commitment of the journey, as a whole is truly analysed.
As a tangible step, we challenged the council to revisit the nomenclature used along the journey and to consider alternatives away from the non-sensical, TI, House Officer, Registrar progression we know well. Over the years these terms have become ceilings for clinical experience and pigeonhole capable RMOs into perpetual junior, and overly administrative positions which serve more to fill in time and tick off requirements, than to actually contribute to training towards becoming a specialist.
Here are some of the slides presented to the council.
Ngā mihi,
Rich Storey
