NZMC runs 'pilot' training for The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia

The New Zealand Mentoring Centre took to the skies in September and ran a 'pilot' training for The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia in Queensland. The training, entitled Supervision Skills for Health Professionals, was trialled with a group of 16 staff from a range of disciplines including indigenous mental health workers, psychologists, nurses, social workers and of course, doctors. It was run in the historic Cairns Colonial Club with its tropical gardens and enormous verandahs along with resident mosquitos - 'a mosquito free venue' was the only improvement suggested by participants in their evaluation of the course.

The RFDS has been through a period of enormous expansion and set up a number of new services for remote and rural communities in Queensland and the Northern Territory. As one of the more established health NGOs in the area, they are ideally poised to win new contracts to provide a broader range of health services to indigenous communities.

The concepts of cultural supervision were of great interest to the group. How we support our Maori and Pacific Islands health workers in New Zealand to work out of indigenous models of health and develop culturally competent practice prompted some interesting professional discussions.

The practical course provided some solid generic tools for supervision which people had the opportunity to both see in action and to practice. Participants agreed that all staff should go through the training, and that for everyone to view supervision as a beneficial process and acknowedge its role in sustaining them in the very demanding work that they do was seen to be beneficial to the staff, their clients and the organisation.

NZMC will be returning to Cairns to provide training to new RFDS services in 2009.