Global Challenges for CME/CPD in Australasia

摘要

The key professional development challenges for physicians in Australasia arise from our colonial history, the sociocul-tural and gendered changes in our profession, expanding educational expectations, and legal and ethical demands placed upon professionals. In this presentation I will focus on promoting skills to serve a culturally diverse population, supporting modern medical careers, providing access to high-quality educational resources, and instilling in Fellows a sense of their ethical responsibility for continuing professional development (see TABLE 1).The medical system's culture in Australasia derives from the 19th-century wave of European immigrants and the British traditions in particular. Most physicians are monolingual English speakers, and our medical schools and hospitals are modeled on the British system of health care delivery. My first challenge is that of our cultural diversity. There is great concern that the aboriginal people of Australia and Maori people of New Zealand are not being well served by our health care systems. The difference in life expectancy between Maori and non-Maori people is 9.1 years. Indigenous Australians are expected to live 20 years less than the rest of the population. Aboriginal populations are overwhelmed by the significant migration of other populations from the Mediterranean, Pacific Islands, Asia, and Africa. Medical graduates have always formed part of that migration, but immigrant doctors have had to conform to the dominant medical system. In 2006, 41 percent of doctors in New Zealand were international medical graduates.