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INTRODUCTION

All Departments of Anaesthesia require assistance from secretarial and support services to allow the medical, nursing and technical officers within the Department to perform their duties effectively. For those Departments approved for College trainees, the secretarial, administrative and educational support needed will require the appointment of appropriate staff within the Department. The number of such staff should be adequate to fulfil all required duties. For large Departments, more than one full-time secretarial staff member may be required.

DUTIES OF SECRETARIAL AND SUPPORT STAFF

The duties of secretarial and other support staff will fall into three main areas: individual support, departmental administrative support and departmental educational support.

1.   INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT DUTIES INCLUDE:

Provision of general secretarial services to individual specialists, trainees and other members of the Department, including the handling of correspondence, filing, appointments, telephone answering and mail.

Assistance with the operation of computer based information and data processing services.

2.   ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT DUTIES INCLUDE:

Preparation, circulation and updating of departmental duty rosters, maintenance of departmental and medical records and general administration.

Preparation and distribution of operating lists and facilitation of the deployment of medical officers for their service and other requirements.

3.   EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT DUTIES INCLUDE:

3.1   Co-ordination of the administrative aspects of continuing medical education, clinical review, research and quality assurance activities.

3.2   Preparation and distribution of material for departmental meetings, including tutorials, peer review, clinical audit and quality assurance meetings.

3.3   Facilitation of correspondence between the College, trainees and Supervisors of Training. See College Professional Document TE5 Policy for Supervisors of Training in Anaesthesia.

3.4   Maintenance of the departmental library including books, journals, and other audio-visual material and preparation of visual display material.

3.5   Provision of secretarial and administrative assistance to the Supervisors of Training and Module Supervisor(s) in the performance of their duties (see College Professional Documents TE2 – Policy on Vocational Training Modules and Module Supervision, and TE5 – Policy for Supervisors of Training in Anaesthesia).

4.   OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES:

Depending on other facilities and support at the hospital, secretarial assistance may be required for performance of literature searches, photocopying and circulation of documents from within the department, other departments of the hospital and other libraries.

College Professional Documents are progressively being coded as follows:

TE Training and Educational

EX Examinations

PS Professional Standards

T Technical

POLICY – defined as ‘a course of action adopted and pursued by the College’. These are matters coming within the authority and control of the College.

RECOMMENDATIONS – defined as ‘advisable courses of action’.

GUIDELINES – defined as ‘a document offering advice’. These may be clinical (in which case they will eventually be evidence-based), or non-clinical.

STATEMENTS – defined as ‘a communication setting out information’.

This document is intended to apply wherever anaesthesia is administered.

This document has been prepared having regard to general circumstances, and it is the responsibility of the practitioner to have express regard to the particular circumstances of each case, and the application of this document in each case.

Professional documents are reviewed from time to time, and it is the responsibility of the practitioner to ensure that the practitioner has obtained the current version. Professional documents have been prepared having regard to the information available at the time of their preparation, and the practitioner should therefore have regard to any information, research or material which may have been published or become available subsequently.

Whilst the College endeavours to ensure that professional documents are as current as possible at the time of their preparation, it takes no responsibility for matters arising from changed circumstances or information or material which may have become available subsequently.

Promulgated(as E7):1989

Reviewed:1994, 1999

Date of current document:Feb 2005

© This document is copyright and cannot be reproduced in whole or in part without prior permission.

College Website: http://www.anzca.edu.au/