A Resident Medical Officer with strong advocacy to improve the education, training and wellbeing of Junior Medical Officers in Rural and Regional NSW, a Director of Prevocational Education and Training for her dedication to JMO wellbeing, education and mentoring; and a JMO Manager for her advocacy and passion to improve Junior Doctor education and wellbeing have been announced as recipients of the 2023 NSW Prevocational Training Awards organised by the Health Education and Training Institute (HETI).

The prestigious Awards celebrate the substantial contributions made by inspiring individuals to the education and support of Junior Medical Officers (JMO) across the NSW Health system.

“Starting your first placement as a JMO has to be one of the most challenging transitions in life,” said Dr Claire Blizard, Medical Director at HETI.

“Providing our JMOs with the right training, education and support is essential to their integration into the workforce, their success in these first years, and their ability to provide the best possible patient care,” said Dr Blizard.

“Across the medical community there are many individuals delivering exceptional care, thinking innovatively and providing inspirational leadership in the area of JMO education and wellbeing.

“Through our Awards we honour and recognise a number of impressive health professionals within the NSW Health community making outstanding contributions,” added Dr Blizard.

The three Awards celebrate inspiring individuals and their support of junior doctors: the Geoff Marel Award recognising the work of a supervisor or Director of Prevocational Education and Training; the Judy Muller Award for managers or administrators; and the JMO of the Year Award.

HETI’s Prevocational Training Program oversees the training of JMOs in their first two years, and these Awards recognise outstanding individuals who provide support and help make these early years a success for NSW JMOs and for our health system.

JMO OF THE YEAR – Dr Alec Pham

Dr Alec Pham is a Resident Medical Officer at Concord Hospital.

Dr Pham is the recipient of the prestigious NSW JMO of the Year Award in recognition of his substantial contributions to the education, support and mentoring of prevocational trainees, in Concord Hospital.

Dr Pham contributes enthusiastically to ward-based supervision of medical students from Western Sydney University and University of Sydney at Concord Hospital.

During his time at Concord Hospital, Dr Pham has been involved in several projects in the well-being space, working with MDOK at Concord Hospital. Dr Pham was instrumental in the Tastebuds Lunch initiative at Concord, which was presented as a poster at the national Australasian Doctors Health Conference in 2022. Dr Pham then completed a literature review and write-up of this work which has been accepted for publication in the Internal Medicine Journal in 2023. He conducted an educational presentation on sleep hygiene and physiology and presented this to junior doctors and other staff working in the emergency department. He has submitted an abstract to the Cardiac society of Australia and NZ on his work on reviewing outcomes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders following coronary angiography.

Dr Pham holds the position of RMOA Resident Medical Officer Representative, 2023 as well as being the RMOA JMO wellbeing representative and is the resident representative of the Complex Care Committee 2023.

Dr Pham will represent NSW in the Australia and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Forum awards, to be announced in November 2023.

THE GEOFF MAREL AWARD WINNER – Dr Jessica Green

Dr Jessica Green is the Director of Prevocational Education and Training and an Emergency Physician at St Vincent’s Hospital.

Dr Green has been awarded the Geoff Marel Award in recognition for her commitment and passion for implementing education programs and supporting the education, training, and welfare of junior doctors.

Dr Green’s dedication to teaching includes providing teaching in the Emergency Department. She also coordinates and attends all JMO protected teaching sessions.

Dr Green takes an active interest in the careers of the JMOs by setting up a CV and interview session prior to job applications.

Dr Green ensures that JMOs' voices are heard and meets regularly with each JMO 2-3 times a year to identify challenges.

Dr Greensupports and promotes the wellbeing of JMOs bycreating the "Paws the Pressure" event, developing on-site JMO counselling and a grant for a JMO wellbeing package.

Dr Green mentors JMOs on how to be better doctors, provides verbal and written constructive feedback to JMOs and provides resources for JMOs to gain a better understanding of how to be better doctors when in the hospital setting.

As the Director of Prevocational Education and Training (DPET), Dr Green attends all GCTC, Network meetings, St Vincent’s JMO Forum and the NSW DPET conference. She is also a member of the NSW Prevocational Training Council (PvTC) and a member of the HETI Extenuating Circumstances Committee.

This Geoff Marel Award honours the work of the late Associate Professor Geoff Marel, a long-time contributor to prevocational training, advocate for trainee welfare, and a pioneer known for his vision, creativity, insight and humanity.

Dr Green will represent NSW in the Australia and New Zealand Prevocational Medical Education Forum awards, to be announced in November 2023.

The Judy Muller Award Winner – Ms Alicia Butchers

Ms Alicia Butchers is the JMO Manager at Coffs Harbour Health Campus.

Ms Butchers has been awarded the Judy Muller Award in recognition of her commitment to the wellbeing and education of JMOs at Coffs Harbour Health Campus.

Ms Butchers advocates for teaching time and has re-invigorated the JMO training program to include more relevant and improved quality teaching sessions, twice a week. She requests feedback for each teaching session to ensure it is valuable or could be improved and what training is required in the future. All feedback is taken seriously and immediately actioned. Ms Butchers performs a welfare check on JMOs who are missing from teaching to ensure that the workload is not too high for JMOs to attend.

Ms Butchers checks in on every JMO weekly and sometimes on a daily basis, to ensure the workload is manageable. She makes sure the JMOs take their lunch breaks, ADOs and that the JMOs are taking care of themselves.

Ms Butchers has endeavoured tirelessly to fill all positions (plus extras) to ensure the JMOs workload is safe.

Ms Butchers has an open-door policy, so JMOs can drop in to discuss work, career prospects and personal life. Ms Butchers provides counsel to all JMOs and does her best to ensure they have the best terms allocated for their future career ambitions. She takes each of their concerns seriously and her primary goal is to ensure her junior doctors are supported.

The Judy Muller Award recognises the work of a JMO Manager or administrator who has made substantial contributions to the education and support of prevocational trainees. This award is in honour of the late Judy Muller for her longstanding contribution to the education and support of prevocational trainees throughout her career.

The Prevocational Training Council, consisting of education, training and medical leaders from across NSW select Award recipients following an open nomination process. A list of previous recipients can be found on the HETI website.

About HETI and our work with Medical Graduates

Together with our health partners, HETI provides education and training support to around 2200 junior doctors in that pivotal space between medical school and vocational training.

This year 1090 interns were placed into NSW Health facilities through HETI’s Medical Graduate Recruitment Program. HETI is accredited by the Medical Board of Australia as the intern training accreditation authority for NSW with responsibility for setting quality education standards and overseeing the training of all prevocational trainees in their first two postgraduate years.

HETI also supports the JMO Forum of NSW which provides an opportunity for JMOs to network and share innovations relating to prevocational supervision, education and training, accreditation and welfare, and advise the NSW Prevocational Training Council.

HETI, part of NSW Health, works with health partners to develop education and training that support the NSW Health workforce to deliver world-class health care.