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FROM THE CEO<br />
High<br />
Tea<br />
Networking for<br />
women in medicine<br />
SYDNEY<br />
Saturday 12 March 2016<br />
2:30pm to 4:30pm<br />
Museum of Sydney<br />
NEWCASTLE<br />
Saturday 19 March 2016<br />
2pm to 4pm<br />
Newton Room (2nd floor)<br />
Novotel Newcastle Beach<br />
5 King Street, Newcastle<br />
For further information and to<br />
register contact the AMA (NSW)<br />
Events Coordinator,<br />
Jenni Noble, 02 9902 8140<br />
Register www.amansw.com.au<br />
AMA (NSW) MEMBERS ONLY<br />
Sydney sponsors<br />
Newcastle sponsors<br />
Dealing with<br />
the big issues<br />
The AMA is working on<br />
several fronts to support<br />
professionals and improve<br />
care for the community.<br />
Occasionally this work<br />
involves dumplings.<br />
One of the great things about working<br />
for the AMA is the variety of issues<br />
we become involved in. From one<br />
month to the next, we can go from<br />
championing the cause of children in<br />
detention and talking about hospital<br />
violence, to taking <strong>doctor</strong>s-in-training<br />
out for dumplings and getting female<br />
<strong>doctor</strong>s together for afternoon tea.<br />
The common thread through all of<br />
these activities is the AMA’s role in<br />
helping the medical profession to be<br />
the best it can be. As I said to our<br />
intern members when welcoming<br />
them to the profession in O Week, as<br />
<strong>doctor</strong>s, you have an extraordinary<br />
capacity to make a difference in<br />
people’s lives, both the patients in<br />
front of you and also the community at<br />
large. Doctors have the chance to do<br />
that because they are used to doing<br />
what is hard. In our job as advocates<br />
we are so often told by politicians and<br />
policymakers that something cannot<br />
be done because it is “too hard”.<br />
It makes me glad these people are<br />
policymakers and not <strong>doctor</strong>s.<br />
On the topic of difficult issues, I was<br />
pleased to represent the AMA at<br />
the Ministry Forum on Violence in<br />
Emergency Departments. The Forum<br />
was convened in the wake of the<br />
shooting of a police officer at Nepean<br />
Hospital. The incident unleashed a<br />
significant amount of feedback from<br />
members about how common violence<br />
is in our hospitals and how much it was<br />
taken for granted and not reported. We<br />
were pleased to support the Ministry<br />
in starting with an audit of a number<br />
of hospitals to see what is really<br />
happening on the ground. However,<br />
we also want to use this as the basis<br />
of a broader conversation about the<br />
violence and abuse all <strong>doctor</strong>s seem to<br />
experience, not just in EDs and wards<br />
but also in their practices.<br />
On a lighter note, we have our<br />
Intern Dumpling Night. I have been<br />
asked why we are taking DITs out<br />
for dumplings. The answer is because<br />
it’s fun, and fun should be part of the<br />
AMA and medicine as well. Aside from<br />
it being fun, it’s an important chance<br />
to talk to your colleagues. Internship<br />
can be a difficult year and it’s important<br />
to keep in contact with colleagues<br />
and remain connected. Remembering<br />
to eat is also important and what<br />
better thing to eat than lots and lots<br />
of dumplings. dr.<br />
fiona.davies@amansw.com.au<br />
Fiona Davies CEO, AMA (NSW)<br />
4 I THE NSW DOCTOR I MARCH/APRIL 2016