Communicating COVID-19
‘Communicating COVID-19 – Helping Clinicians Answer Challenging Questions’ an online short course
Associate Professor Rosemary McKenzie
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic health care workers have been faced with a tsunami of information and rapid changes in government policy and community sentiment. Misinformation has been rampant. This presentation outlines the short course for the health workforce developed by Melbourne School
of Population and Global Health in partnership with the Doherty Institute and Royal Melbourne Hospital, with the objective of empowering frontline health and community care workers to communicate clearly and accurately about COVID-19. The course was designed around four pillars of interprofessional knowledge:
Epidemiology, Science, Clinical care and Ethics, law and society. Interprofessional production and editorial teams were established, drawn from health professions and academia.
Enrolments reached 2,552 within 10 weeks of launch. Most learners were based in Australia, however, there were learners based in over 40 countries including over 50 from India and 20 from Nepal. The inclusion of practicing clinicians and experts answering questions in plain language ensured the course
was immediately applicable in practice. The interprofessional focus and frontline worker involvement provides a model for interprofessional education.
This Zoom presentation was part of the Melbourne CSHE Teaching and Learning Conference 2021 held on Wednesday 2 June 2021.