Bringing people together at ACEM's Regional, Rural and Remote Emergency Medicine Conference 2024
As a highly regarded veteran of regional, rural and remote medicine, it’s unsurprising that FACEM Dr Liz Mowatt was the first choice to deliver the closing lecture at ACEM’s inaugural Regional, Rural and Remote (RRR) Emergency Medicine Conference 2024 on the weekend of July 7 – 9.
“It’s such an honour and I am completely blown away,” Liz says.
When you ask her about precisely what the content of that lecture will be when she takes to the stage to Darwin/Gulumerrdgen, she’s not afraid to admit she’s “a bit nervous” – and still a little undecided.
“RRR health care is “a space that is more about care and those who provide it – and we are just one of the players in that space”, says FACEM Dr Liz Mowatt.”
“I’m a real wordsmith – I love words. And I love metaphors and I love imagery – so it’s about playing around with all these ideas,” Liz says, adding that the concept of nurturing will play a significant part in her presentation.
“I live about one hour away from where I work and it’s a long commute down a very windy road. I often turn the radio off and just think about what I’m going to talk about and how I’m going to do that and how it will all fit together.”
There’s a lot to fit. When she reflects on her first rural experience as a PYG2 in Charleville, Queensland the word that comes to her mind is “formative”. Years later, as her first consultant posting, Liz became the Director of Alice Springs ED. It was a position she held for a decade.
Today, from her home on Yidinji Country with extended family, the former clinical lead of the Emergency Medicine Education and Training (EMET) Cairns Hub works part-time and continues to enjoy close relationships with the rural facilities in Far North Queensland.
The theme of the RRR conference in 2024 is Shaping Our Landscape. It’s an evocative title that aims to reflect the way the conference will bring emergency medicine professionals together with other medical professionals from Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and beyond to share their expertise and experiences – as well as to celebrate the landscapes that are the backdrop to the way people work, live and thrive.
“I’ve been thinking about who we are as practitioners and being the best that we can,” Liz says.
She is also actively reflecting on and exploring the ACEM values – “because they are all very core to who I am as a person and a practitioner”.
““You can feel the love, the thought and the attention that has been put into this conference.””
Liz describes RRR healthcare as “a space that is more about care and those who provide it – and we are just one of the players in that space”.
“What’s significant about the conference itself – having been quite deeply involved within the regional, rural and remote space within ACEM for close to two decades before I stepped back – is the way it’s bringing all these people together from all over Australia. It’s such an achievement.”
As well as appearing as a featured speaker, Liz is looking forward to being part of it the upcoming conference as a participant and says she doesn’t have any expectations – “beyond the fact that it’s an excellent program with amazing speakers”.
Those speakers include:
Dr Chame Blackburn (NZ): From Ashes to Action:: A Rural Hospital Responds to a Volcanic Eruption
Dr Rachelle Abouchedid (VIC): Paraquat Exposures – What Matters
Dr Shima Ghedia (QLD):The Healing Country: An Emergency Physician's Journey from Urban Burnout to Outback Renewal
Dr Katherine Lally (WA): On the road as a Rural ACEM Trainee
Dr Rory Miller (NZ): Rural Health Inequities in Cardiovascular Health
Dr Richard Johnson (NT): Agile System Re-Design in Remote Australia; Making Equity Reality
Dr John Craven (SA): Paediatric Packaging Pearls: Rural Trauma Cases
Keynote speaker Professor Richard Fleet (Canada)
“Having been involved in organising a conference in the past in Cairns, knowing the organisational process and seeing the diversity and range of speakers that are lined up – you can feel the love, the thought and the attention that has been put into this conference,” Liz says. “And that makes me really excited.”
The inaugural Regional, Rural and Remote Emergency Medicine Conference 2024 will be held at the Darwin Convention Centre, Northern Territory from July 7 – 9. Register your spot here.
