BE EXTRAORDINARY CPD
A doctor’s retreat for wellbeing & CPD on bias, critical consciousness & cultural safety
Are you ready for an extraordinarily great weekend away?
In need of an indulgent, fun & empowering break with like-minded medical colleagues?
Keen to learn more about cultural safety in medicine & build your skills for critical consciousness to identify your biases in medicine & leverage your practice?
Bring your CPD to life & complete your Medical Board of Australia requirements with ease.
Make new friends & enjoy some much-needed R & R.
Give yourself a treat to look forward to & turn your winter into something vibrant & exciting!
Join us next August 15th-17th, 2025 QT Hotel in the coastal beach city of Newcastle, NSW.
You will learn
- Self-awareness skills for leadership & work as a doctor.
- How to cultivate critical consciousness, identify your biases, prejudices, and assumptions, and leverage your strengths & practice in medicine.
- The 2025 Medical Board of Australia CPD requirements for doctors & how to meet them easily without stress & in a meaningful way.
- Expert insights on what cultural safety is, why it is relevant for doctors & how to optimise it.
CPD
With attendance to all sessions and instructed activities you can complete 10 hours total of CPD, being 5 hours of Reviewing Performance, including a professional conversation and the mandatory professional development plan, and 5 hours of Measuring Outcomes. All activities embed wellbeing, cultural safety and professional behaviours. Attendance to all group sessions makes the minimum CPD requirements easy to complete. We don’t want you to stress, & we do want more for you than a tick-box experience. Following the retreat, you will be set up with self-directed CPD activities to complete your minimum requirements effortlessly yet purposefully. Give yourself the gift of making CPD easy, useful & joyful.
- Talks covering 2025 CPD requirements, wellbeing skills, critical consciousness, bias, & cultural safety.
- Participate in group CPD sessions designed to empower, & equip you with take-home skills for wellbeing, leadership, & cultural safety. Mindfulness & self-care skills practice are incorporated into all group CPD sessions.
- Pre-reading, handouts & templates to upload into your CPD home.
- Optional daily heated yoga at Yoga Body Works, Newcastle’s best & most cherished studio. You can amp up your flow or completely relax in the warmth of a child pose. There’s no judgment, everyone’s welcome including newbie beginner yogis.
- Opportunities to enjoy coastal walks & explore Newcastle’s town centre.
- Welcome drinks at Rooftop Bar QT Hotel
- Private shopping experience at Wilson & Hunter.
- Wine tasting at Artisanal Cellars,
- Afternoon & morning teas, lovely lunches, 3-course Friday night dinner at Jana QT, & banquet Saturday dinner at Oh My Papa.
Everything is optional – feel free to do as you need!
Enriching Newcastle’s prestigious East End, QT Newcastle is housed within the heritage-listed, 113-year-old David Jones building on Hunter Mall. Created with new beginnings & renewal at the forefront, every touch point soaks up the region’s majestic sand to sky. Designed with the colours of the coast in mind, as well as a signature dining concept & a rooftop bar offering sweeping views at every vantage point.
Make your weekend winter getaway one of style & great rest! Stay at the unique boutique QT Hotel using the delegate discount code. Immerse yourself in otherworldly luxury, where new-age possibilities delight. The best part about QT is not all the quirky room treats; it is not the cosy robes & slippers; it isn’t the warm & welcoming staff ready to jump through hoops for you; & it isn’t the free movies & well-stocked minibar with delish room service. The best part about the QT experience is the 5-star hotel standard comfy bed, mattress, bedding in the cool, dark & quiet rooms. You will get a night’s sleep to die for. Step into new rooms & find another phase of being, in a scene set for luxury & intrigue. Recline by design, refresh your senses & rediscover the joy of indulgence.
Expert Speaker – Sarah Boyne has over 25 years working experience in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health at the Local, State-wide & National levels building the community & workforce capacity & resilience. She has developed primary, secondary & tertiary levels of clinical & non-clinical care in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health services across urban, rural & remote Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander communities.
Sarah has co-designed & developed a number of Cultural Safety principles & frameworks by engaging Knowledge Holders, asking them “What is culturally Safety? & “What does cultural safety look like for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander workforce?” Sarah has consulted on, & developed Best Practice Community Engagement principals on how to conduct Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander consultation in a culturally safe & appropriate way. At Be Extraordinary CPD Sarah will share with you her expert insights, knowledge & rich cultural knowledge on cultural safety, why it is crucial in medicine & how you can optimise it in your practice as a doctor. Her warm & charismatic presenting style is entertaining, endearing & highly engaging. You will love connecting with Sarah.
Your Host is Dr Susannah Ward – Specialist Physician of Rehabilitation Medicine. She has a special interest in wellbeing & is passionate about holistic health. As a trainee doctor, she was the Deputy Chair of the Faculty Trainee & College Trainee Committees, & board director for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), advocating for a more supportive & nurturing medical culture. She has researched & piloted wellness & mindfulness sessions in hospitals, with several publications to her name on doctor wellbeing.
Dr Ward is a published author of the self-help book Mastering Real Wellness. She founded Ataraxia Collective, offering doctor CPD & wellbeing retreats, workshops & other resources. She is an accredited yoga teacher RYT200 with Yoga Alliance, Chair of the RACP Member Health & Wellbeing Committee, & Director for Mood Active, a charity that promotes exercise for mental health. Dr Ward will ensure you feel at ease to be yourself without judgement by holding a relaxed, fun, & inspiring space for you to reflect, learn & grow.
- Relaxation & restoration. Laughter, smiles, connection, make mates & enjoy learning from each other.
- Get clarity on your leadership style and tendencies of thinking & perception.
- Find new ways of optimising cultural safety in your practice.
- Hear from expert, passionate speakers on Well-Being, Bias, & Cultural Safety.
- Be professionally supported & coached to complete your CPD in a non-judgemental, protected retreat escape.
- Be inspired & leave knowing yourself that little bit more masterfully.
All activities are optional offerings & if you find yourself lost down a Newcastle Lane immersed in street art, don’t despair; you are most welcome to skip sessions to suit your needs. We want you to feel at ease & free to do as you need.
Click to View The Retreat Program
Please read the Be Extraordinary Terms & Conditions here
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