Physicians who practise in operating rooms in rural Alberta hospitals are often regular attendees at the annual Rural Surgical Skills workshops in Banff.
It can also make the operating room teams they work with that much stronger if their OR nurses are there to learn with them.
This year, the Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP) contributed $6,250 to the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada (SRPC) event so that registration fees for OR nurses could be reduced to just $50.
At the three-day Rural Surgical Skills event, rural surgical teams learned current best practices.
“The ability to learn with your team is incredibly valuable cause you go back home and you start at a much higher level,” said Dr. Nicole Ebert, chair of the 2023 SRPC Rural Surgical Skills event.
Randi Galenzoski, RN, a clinical nurse educator in Medicine Hat, Alta., elaborated.
“You can learn about successes. You can learn about opportunities and quality improvement initiatives that you can take back to your own site.”
I always find these type of conferences and the networking opportunities to be so invigorating. – Randi Galenzoski, RN
Learning covered both everyday occurrences, to rare events such as catastrophic hemorrhaging during a Cesarean hysterectomy.
Obstetrics was a popular topic, including obstetrical ultrasound.
“If a rural doc can look at mother and say yes that baby’s head is down, we’re all good,” explained Dr. Ebert. “It’s just really valuable.”
RhPAP endeavours to make continuing professional development accessible and affordable for rural health professionals, and learning opportunities like Rural Surgical Skills helps keep rural health professionals practising rural.
“We know that the relationships and the collegiality of rural is part of the reason people stay,” said Dr. Ebert.
“I always find these type of conferences and the networking opportunities to be so invigorating,” beamed Galenzoski.
“I always come back to my site re-energized.”