The CMVH Introduction to Military Medicine Course - Gestation, delivery and postnatal period.

Tri-service post-graduate vocational education in Medicine has not previously been available in the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Introduction to Military Medicine (IMM), originally designed as an introduction to the practice of medicine in the military, ran for the first time in 2008 as an on-line postgraduate course in the Master of Public Health (Defence) program provided by the Centre for Military and Veterans Health. This paper recommends that the course should be a core component of the MPH (Defence) Program for Medical Officers, rather than an elective; however, greater opportunities to develop IMM exist in blending it into existing programs to train new military Medical Officers to a deployable standard (Competency Level 2). Introduction to Military Medicine also supports military clinical supervisors to apprentice new Medical Officers facilitating their passage through civilian vocational training towards becoming competent and confident military and civilian general practitioners. A broader student scope is also recommended to accommodate military medicine training needs for Reserve Force and Civilian Contract Medical Practitioners. Improvements will now require expansion of the teaching staff and exploration of new delivery methods in closer collaboration with the ADF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]