Sexual health training for health providers

Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine (ASHM)

ASHM is contracted by Queensland Health to support health professionals in Queensland by delivering free, high quality HIV, viral hepatitis and sexual health education sessions and workforce development programs​. Training is available for doctors, nurses, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers/practitioners, and other health professionals.

ASHM training calendar

• Fundamentals of HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health (this links to course outline only—see training calendar for current course dates). Suitable for nurses, and other health professionals.  Face to face training with online 1.5-hour introduction module – 7.5 Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) CPD hours.

True Relationships and Reproductive Health

True Relationships and Reproductive Health delivers training for people working in different fields and offers online education, group webinars, half and full day training for professionals. Costs vary depending on course.

True medical education and clinical training course catalogue

• Sexually Transmissible Infections: The Big Picture (online course) – Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) 18 pts (6pts per module)
• Introduction to Sexual and Reproductive Health (online course) – RACGP pts available
• Migrant and Refugee Reproductive and Sexual Health: Culturally Responsive Clinical Practice – RACGP 40 pts

ThinkGP

The NSW STI Programs Unit offers free, online training modules and informative videos about STI testing, management and partner notification for GPs and other primary care clinicians through the Think GP portal. To access the modules you will need to create a ThinkGP user account and then search for ‘sexual health’

• STI management essentials in general practice (5mins 14 sec)­ – a short, introductory video with a rural GP and an urban GP talking about how STI testing is easily built into routine GP practice, including opportunistic testing for patients.
• STI management in general practice: key features – RACGP 2 pts | Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) 1 pt
• STI management in general practice: contact tracing – RACGP 2 pts | ACRRM 1 pt
• Youth Alcohol and Other Drugs and Sexual Health – RACGP 40 pts | ACRRM 30 pts

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP)

Find a sexual health course through RACGP

• Contact tracing for STIs – New resources and supportive evidence – an article containing resources and evidence to assist GPs to initiate partner notification when a patient is diagnosed with an STI.

Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM)

• Rural Sexual Health – 01 Introduction and overview ACRRM 1 pt
• Rural Sexual Health – 02 STI Testing and treating ACRRM 1 pt
• Rural Sexual Health – 03 Contact tracing ACRRM 1 pt

Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health (CERSH)

The University of Melbourne’s Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health (CERSH) provides free online training specifically for professionals who deliver healthcare in rural and remote settings.    

• Online learning modules – Rural Sexual Health Care – RACGP 2 pts per hour of learning

Andrology Australia

Provides a free eLearning portal offering male reproductive health education for GPs and primary health care nurses including content on engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and men’s business, and reproductive health in young adult males.

• Engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males in different primary health care settings – RACGP 40 pts | ACRRM 30 pts
• Reproductive health disorders in young adult males – RACGP 40 pts | ACRRM 30 pts
• Reproductive health disorders in middle-aged and older adult males – RACGP 40 pts | ACRRM 30 pts

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers

True Relationships and Reproductive Health

• Djiyadi Can we talk? A resource manual for sexual health workers who work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth. Funded by the Department of Health and Ageing.

• The No Shame: Yarn About It Training Video tells the story of Liz and Dan, sexual health workers in the ‘Harmony Bay’ clinic in Queensland and how they support the sexual health of their clients Tracey and Marcus. The video includes interviews with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sexual health workers, and scenarios of having conversations about sexual health, STI testing and partner notification.

This video helps Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sexual health workers to:

• support young people to feel safe about coming to their clinic
• break the ice and get clients yarning about sexual health
• balance the worker's own values and beliefs with the responsibility to be professional
• know the important things to tell clients about STI testing.

Viewers of this movie are respectfully warned some of the people whose images appear in the video may have passed away.

This resource was produced in 2012 by Family Planning Queensland (now known as True relationships and reproductive health), with funding from Queensland Health.

Video run time: 33 mins. Read the video transcript (PDF, 95KB)

Department of Health Western Australia

• The WA STI Education Project contains a special modulespecifically for Nurses and Aboriginal Health Workers (primarily for those in WA but available to practitioners in other States and Territories). Funded by the WA Department of Health — Australian College of Nursing (ACN) 2 CPD hours.

Contact tracing and partner notification training

Partner notification or contact tracing is an essential part of reducing the transmission of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and blood borne viruses (BBVs). It can be done via patient referral (where the patient contacts their partners, or provider referral (the health provider discreetly contacts the patient’s partner/s for them). This can be a difficult and sensitive undertaking which requires support and training.

Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine (ASHM)

See the Australasian Contact Tracing Guidelines

• Fundamentals of HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health. Suitable for nurses, and other health professionals. Face to face training with online 1.5-hour introduction module. Contains a specific partner notification module­­–Breaking the cycle: discussing contact tracing with your patients:

Key partner notification information included:

• Understanding contact tracing
• Understanding patient and doctor responsibilities following a positive STI diagnosis
• Initiating conversations
• Supporting index patient to notify their partners
• Knowing where to get support for contact tracing.

Australian College of Rural & Remote Medicine

• Rural Sexual Health–Module 03 Contact tracing training. For GPs.Online, free for ACRRM members – ACRRM 1 pt

Includes:

• Importance of the GP in contact tracing
• How to initiate partner notification
• Different methods of contact tracing
• Available resources to support GPs and patients.
• STI management in general practice: contact tracing – RACGP 2 pts | ACRRM 1 pt
• Sexually Transmissible Infections Module 1: The Big Picture (Module 1, Unit 5 is Contact Tracing)

ThinkGP

• STI management in general practice: contact tracing – RACGP 2 pts | ACRRM 1 pt

True Relationships and Reproductive Health

• Sexually Transmissible Infections Module 1: The Big Picture (Module 1, Unit 5 is Contact Tracing)  - RACGP 6 pts per module

Queensland Health

• Appointed Contact Tracing Officer training Online course for health professionals (Queensland Health employees only) who will be applying for official appointment as a Contact Tracing Officer.  The course contains the following elements:
• The concept and importance of contact tracing
• Legislative requirements re. privacy and confidentiality
• Communication strategies to be used when undertaking contact tracing.

Note: This course does not specifically address contact tracing for STIs.

Other training

• Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland (ECCQ) – runs a range of courses for professionals working with people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
• Police and blood-borne viruses, Australasian Society for HIV Medicine – A resource for Australian police officers about blood-borne viruses (BBVs), rights to confidentiality about BBV status, and what to do if exposed.
• Hepatitis Education Project – a free online learning program funded by the Department of Health Western Australia, delivered by Edith Cowan University in Western Australia.
• Iris Education – provides professional development with flexible delivery options focusing on reproductive and sexual health education for health professionals.