Medical Educator and Associate Director of Training for North Coast GP Training (NCGPT), Dr Genevieve Yates has been awarded the prestigious General Practice Education Training (GPET) Australian Medical Educator of the Year Award.
Ballina based Dr Yates was acknowledged for her work training the next generation of doctors for the Northern Rivers Region.
In addition to her work for NCGPT, she works for MDA National (designing and delivering medico-legal education), the Royal College of General Practitioners (as an educator and examiner) and as a medical writer (columnist, novelist and playwright). She also plays violin, piano, and sings.
This year’s national GPET award was shared with Victorian doctor, Dr Gerard Ingham, who shares Genevieve’s love of medicine and the creative arts. Gerard and Genevieve co-wrote and co-produced “GP the Musical”, which has been performed in Melbourne, Daylesford and Darwin, and had a sell-out season at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival last year.
Stop Your Complaining from “GP the Musical”
Genevieve was not only nominated for the award by her peers at NCGPT but also by numerous junior doctors she trains and mentors.
Local registrar Dr Clare Collins has said “Genevieve consistently goes above and beyond for NCGPT registrars. Her caring, passionate and enthusiastic manner is inevitably a large driving factor for our continuing success”.
Genevieve has said of her award, “I am thrilled and humbled to receive this award and I'm utterly delighted to share it with Gerard who has been a good friend for many years."
Always searching for ways to combine her passions, Genevieve uses film and music to help teach her GP registrars (qualified doctors undertaking General Practice training).
“Physician Heal Thyself” is a play and workshop about wellbeing and self-care issues for doctors and has been adapted for use by other Regional Training Providers around Australia.
Another project, “What Would the Coroner Think?” is a 20-minute film designed to be used as a teaching tool to initiate discussion on a broad range of themes relevant to GP training.
Genevieve is not afraid to tackle the difficult topics with subjects such as infertility, breaking bad news, and sexual harassment of doctors by patients appearing in her films and workshops.
When asked about whether her love of music and theatre would ever overpower her love for medicine and medical education, Genevieve responded, “It is easier to be an amateur actor/ musician and a professional doctor, than to be a professional actor/musician and an amateur doctor! In all seriousness, it is not a matter of choosing one over the other.
My creative pursuits are not only important for life balance and personal wellbeing but inspire and assist me to be a better doctor and educator. I try to inject my creativity into medicine and medicine into creativity. I think I’ll always be someone with fingers in many pies.”
North Coast GP Training is the Commonwealth funded Regional Training Provider delivering the Australian General Practice Training and Prevocational General Practice Placements programs on the north coast of NSW.
