The Remote Supervision Road to Registrar Training in Australia - Paving the Path with Pixels and Phones (A narrative review).

Authors

Nicholas Coburn, Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Australia.
Kylie Fitzgerald, Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Australia.Follow
Brett Vaughan, Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Abstract

Purpose: Specialist medical training in rural or remote Australia is limited due to current requirements of specialist medical colleges to supervise and train registrars onsite. Remote supervision, where the registrar is supervised via telephone and videoconferencing technology remotely, offers a solution that allows doctors to train in rural or remote areas. This review describes the opportunities, challenges, and recommendations to pave the path for a best practice model of remote supervision for private practice focused registrar training in Australia which may offer insights for other countries with rural and remote medical workforces.

Methods: Ovid Medline and Ovid Embase were searched with keywords related to “remote, distant or blended supervision” and “physicians, registrars or residents undertaking training, learning or education” in July 2022. Full text articles were then analysed for relevant information.

Results: Of the 136 articles identified, 11 met the inclusion criteria. Opportunities included increased access to specialist healthcare to rural communities and professional development for the registrar. Challenges included remote supervision technology failure, difficulty identifying struggling registrars, and the inability for supervisors to step in for perform physical examinations if required. Recommendations included having adequate preparation, reviewing and modifying the program as needed, and specific personal characteristics that should be sought in registrars and supervisors including motivation and accessibility, respectively.

Conclusion: Remote supervision offers a feasible alternative to onsite supervision for the training of registrars in rural and remote areas. It offers many opportunities for the community and the registrar, while posing challenges that raise safety and quality of care concerns. This review details a synthesis of the literature and offers recommendations for developing and monitoring a remote supervision program for specialist medical training in Australia. These insights may be of interest to those developing training for other health professionals in Australia, and other jurisdictions with rural and remote healthcare workforces. Future research should determine the true risk remote supervision may have to patients, what the patient and community experience entails and the registrars educational learning experience to inform policy and program planning to enable paving the way with pixels and phones.

Recommended Citation

Coburn, Nicholas; Fitzgerald, Kylie; and Vaughan, Brett (2025) "The Remote Supervision Road to Registrar Training in Australia - Paving the Path with Pixels and Phones (A narrative review).," Health Professions Education: Vol. 11: Iss. 2, Article 9.
DOI: 10.55890/2452-3011.1336
Available at: https://hpe.researchcommons.org/journal/vol11/iss2/9