On Thursday the 29th of February 2024, a group of 19 fresh SET 1s descended on the “First Place to see the Sun” for a Training Weekend. Most of the group arrived after the sun had set, however, and Gisborne is not particularly known for its late-night venues on a weekday – nevertheless a good chunk of the team persisted and found a place to catch up on the year so far, before getting to business the next day.
On Friday morning, we all gathered at Gisborne Hospital and were welcomed by Matua Ken Te Tau and Duncan Cundall-Curry. The remaining faculty were then introduced, before moving on to the main event. This consisted of many clinical stations involving a wide variety of patients with excellent pathology and even better personalities, making for an incredibly enjoyable and rewarding learning experience. The mentally stimulating day was then followed by an afternoon of surf life-saving drills on the stunning Waikanae Beach, ending in a fiercely competitive race that was taken out by Jess Leary and Vik Gupta. The evening gave the trainees and faculty a chance to catch up in a somewhat more relaxed environment, and a chance to sample some of Gizzy’s finest food and drink.
The next morning, once everyone gathered back at the hospital, a bulk order of hashbrowns, McMuffins and coffees meant that everyone was refreshed and ready for the remaining teaching sessions. These consisted of practical stations around ultrasound, external fixation, casting, and arthroscopy, as well as some didactic tutorials from the consultants. All too soon, the weekend ended, and the trainees returned to their centres.
A huge amount of work goes into these weekends, and we are extremely grateful to everybody involved – to name a few, thank you to our Education and Training Manager Prue Elwood, consultants Duncan Cundall-Curry and Greg Alexander from Gisborne, consultants Dawson Muir, Simon MacLean, Georgina Chan and Matt Street from Tauranga, Cultural Advisor Matua Ken Te Tau, our Consumer Adviser Catriona Doyle, trainee rep Teriana Maheno, and Stryker and Smith and Nephew, for your input into a fantastic weekend – we all look forward to the next one!