Designed by Rural Generalists, for Rural Generalists, HEART helps you thrive in rural medicine. Delivered online over four weeks, this course combines self-paced learning with live virtual sessions. 

Grounded in systems theory, human factors, and applied psychology, HEART helps rural doctors enhance their well-being by deepening their understanding of the systems and cultures that shape rural medicine. It also builds reflective skills to recognise experiences that impact well-being, both positively and negatively, and to develop strategies that lead to meaningful change. 

The modules focus on helping you identify what you can control and influence, while also recognising the wider factors that shape your practice: 

• Module 1: Introduce professional well-being for rural doctors and key course concepts. Define well-being, consider professional identity, and use reflection to build self-awareness. 
• Module 2: Examine the broader environment of rural healthcare and how culture is shaped. Learn about human factors thinking and compare Safety I and Safety II approaches. 
• Module 3: Understand how teamwork and relationships affect well-being and performance. Build supportive relationships, foster psychological safety, strengthen communication, and learn ways to support colleagues after critical incidents. 
• Module 4: Turn inward to strengthen personal resources, manage burnout and compassion fatigue, and develop emotional literacy. Explore the role of boundaries and how to reframe mistakes as opportunities for growth. 

Our aim is to help rural doctors bring their full, authentic selves to work. This means normalising, embracing, and celebrating our shared human experience as doctors, helping us thrive in practice while continuing to provide safe, high-quality care to our patients and communities.

Let’s keep the HEART in rural medicine. 

Registration Information

Accreditation

Conditions

Fees must be paid at the time of registration in order to secure a place

Please note: It is mandatory that participants be present for the entire duration of all four virtual classroom sessions. If you do not attend the required sessions, you will be ineligible to receive a Certificate of Attendance or the allocated CPD hours.

Please contact the Clinical Training team at clinicaltraining@acrrm.org.au to discuss options for completion if, for any reason, you are unable to attend the full session/s.