Work health and safety and adverse events
Work health and safety
The RACGP recognises our responsibility to promote the safety and wellbeing of registrars and minimise risk factors as far as practicable throughout the training program. This is supported by our GP in Training Safety and Wellbeing Policy.
Training sites have work health and safety obligations that are governed by federal and state legislation. Registrars should discuss work health and safety with their supervisor and/or training site manager during orientation, including the management of hazards, adverse events (including critical incidents), should they occur.
Registrars also have a duty to take reasonable care of their own and others’ health and safety. This includes managing risk of fatigue and ensuring their actions and omissions don’t adversely affect others. Refer to the Safe Work Australia website for more information.
The health and safety of registrars is also addressed by the NTCER.
Stress and fatigue in general practice
The RACGP’s policy position statement, Stress and fatigue in General Practice covers important information about what stress and fatigue means in clinical general practice and suggestions for effective discussions between registrars and supervisors on managing stress and fatigue.
Signs of burnout include:
- Low energy or motivation
- Feeling isolated or trapped
- Decreased work satisfaction
- Loss of empathy towards patients
- Feeling exhausted or drained.
If these signs are not addressed, they can impact a registrar’s mental health, patient care and progression through training.
Maintaining appropriate boundaries
All registrars should be encouraged to have their own GP, outside of the practice where they work. If your registrar has difficulty finding an independent GP, contact the Doctors’ Health Line (1800 006 888) for assistance.
The RACGP also recommends that registrars not provide medical treatment to staff at their training site. It’s important not to ask your registrar for medical care or prescriptions for yourself (or your family) if there is a realistic alternative available.
Helpful resources
You can find self-care resources and support services on the RACGP Wellbeing Hub.
The RACGP White Book also has a helpful chapter on Keeping the health professional safe and healthy: Clinician support and self-care.
Adverse events (including critical incidents)
Reporting adverse events is important, enabling prompt assistance and support to be given to the registrar, supervisor, and practice as appropriate. This can assist with management of the event, access to appropriate supports, and reduction of the impact on your registrar’s training. It also enables the RACGP to monitor issues on a national basis and reduce risks, promote safe learning environments, and continue to make program improvements.
This process is not an investigation but provides the RACGP the opportunity to support, educate and explore the event with the relevant stakeholders. It also enables the provision of safe learning environments and continuous improvement of training programs. Quality improvement is at the heart of this activity.
Under Australian Medical Council requirements, the RACGP is responsible for ensuring the safety of registrars and patients. Reporting of adverse events is an important strategy for meeting this responsibility. An adverse event must be reported to us if it involves a registrar or impacts their training.
Training sites are required to have processes to manage adverse events (including critical incidents), whether they involve registrars, supervisors and/or the training site itself. It is important that all staff are familiar with and understand these processes.
An adverse event is any disruptive event that causes, or risks causing, significant harm to patients, registrars, supervisors, training site staff, training program staff or the associated organisations involved in program delivery.
Reporting an adverse event
It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure adverse events (including critical incidents) are reported as soon as possible. Submitting of an adverse event is done via the Adverse Event Management module in the TMS. The relevant training team will reach out to you to provide support and assistance as needed.
Practice managers and supervisors should be familiar with the Adverse event and critical incident management and reporting guidance. For further information, contact adverseevents@racgp.org.au.