Hello everyone

We have a lot of updates this month – a sign of all the wonderful things going on with AAAPC!

AAAPC Annual Research Conference

Exciting news – abstract acceptance for workshops, presentations and posters have been notified! Make sure to reply to the notification email to confirm your presentation. The Australian Journal of Primary Health (AJPH) will be publishing an online supplement with the accepted abstracts from the Conference.

Registrations are open - Please note that presenters must register by June 11. 

We are looking forward to seeing you online, and discussing all things primary care in August!

AAAPC awards and fellowships will be opened soon!

Nominations will be opening soon for 2021 AAAPC Charles Bridges-Webb Award for sustained high level contributions to academic primary care and the NEW Neil Carson Award for significant and sustained contributions to primary care education. Stay tuned for notifications in your email!

The AAAPC travelling fellowship is being revised in light of the global pandemic and the increasing financial constraints that have been experienced by our members. The fellowships will provide support for early career researchers to collaborate across institutions and disseminate results. Watch this space for an announcement of when the fellowships open!

Update from the Early Career Researcher and Capacity Development Subcommittee

The AAAPC Early Career Researcher and Capacity Development Subcommittee will hold a session FACES - Friends Advancing Careers through E-based Support via Zoom Wednesday 16^th of June at 12 midday AEST. The session will include conversations with recent graduates about their journey from PhD to workforce covering both academia and beyond. We will also hear what senior academics look for PhD graduates! 

Please contact Dr Rita McMorrow rita.mcmorrow@unimelb.edu.au if you would like to join FACES.

Jean Frederique webinar: bridging health services and research through building networks and collaboration

The webinar recording is now available online for members!  

Dr Levesque shared his experience on building networks across the health sector, and highlighted facilitators and challenges to collaboration. He also highlighted specific opportunities for primary care to collaborate with government to drive service improvements. The webinar was well attended and instigated fantastic discussion with members. Thank you Dr Levesque for sharing your insights!

Congratulations Dr Sharon James for successfully completing your PhD! Sharon’s thesis used a combination of video observation and interviews with nurses to investigate lifestyle risk communication by Australian general practice nurses. Her work provided a detailed exploration of how practice nurses talk with patients about lifestyle risk, and the barriers and facilitators to such conversations.

Congratulations to some of our members on successful publications!

• Kara Calma and team: Final-year undergraduate nursing students’ perceptions of general practice nursing: A qualitative study
• Liz Halcomb and team: Structured yet simple approaches to primary care data quality improvements can indeed strike gold
• Tim Kariotis and team: Knowledge co-creation in participatory policy and practice: Building community through data-driven direct democracy. 
• Sharon James and team: Barriers and facilitators to lifestyle risk communication by Australian general practice nurses.
• Mari Sommerville and team: Cultural adaptation of health interventions including a nutrition component in Indigenous peoples: a systematic scoping review.

This list does not comprehensively include the achievements of all of our members (sorry!). Please send me an email at katelyn.barnes@anu.edu.au when you or another member you know has an achievement that we can all celebrate! Some previous examples include a new PhD completion, publication, or an award.

Welcome to New AAAPC Members 

Hello and welcome to our new members! We would like to formally introduce:

Dr Shelley Roberts is an Allied Health Research Fellow in a conjoint position between Griffith University and Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service. Dr Roberts' is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian with research interests in malnutrition, patient participation in care and patient centred care, healthcare technologies, pressure injury prevention, and integrated knowledge translation. Dr Roberts' current project is on identifying and mangaging malnutrition and frailty in primary care. Find out how you could participate or contribute on the AAAPC Members Noticeboard!

Amy Kirkegaard is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and PhD Candidate at Griffith University. Amy's PhD explores how primary care dietitians use quality management and improvement principles to enhance the quality of care. Amy is passionate about advocating for a primary care system that is innovative, high-quality, and meets the needs and wants of health consumers.

We warmly welcome all our new members including: Sameera Ansari (University of NSW), Jennifer Neil (Monash University), Tim Staunton Smith (Monash University), Kym Thomas (University of Adelaide), Jeremy Chiang (University of NSW), Emma Baillie (University of QLD), Surriya Baloch (University of Melbourne), Flora Hui (University of Melbourne), Shakira Milton (University of Melbourne), and Amy Webb (University of Melbourne).