Community Voice at RANZCOG

Community Voice at RANZCOG provides opportunities for consumers to contribute to the work of the College, and to women's health more broadly.
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About

RANZCOG values person-centred approaches to understand what is important to all people accessing O&G care. We hope that by fostering trusting partnerships with patients, families, carers, and communities, we can establish mutual respect and collaboration in decision-making processes and planned care. Community member roles are essential to this vision. These roles aim to:

  • Deepen the College’s connection to the broader community.
  • Enrich the College’s understanding of diverse perspectives held within consumer circles.
  • Provide non-clinical viewpoints on College matters.

Given that community member roles vary by the type of engagement required and the longevity of the role, there are a range of ways in which you can contribute to RANZCOG’s work. Depending on the role, community members may be asked to:
 

  • Represent the perspective of the wider community.
  • Share their own lived experience.
  • Provide professional non-clinical skills or expertise.

Consumer Engagement Framework (CEF) Project

The RANZCOG Consumer Engagement Framework (CEF) will establish the foundations and guiding principles of the College’s engagement with community.

Learn more

Be a Community Voice on a RANZCOG committee

Read video transcript

My name is Catherine. My name is Tara. My name is Michelle. My name is Lee. I’m Tess.

My experience on this committee has been really positive. My contributions have been valued and considered carefully. My comments at times have led to deeper conversation, but always with respect and always with a genuine desire to understand the community perspective and how people can be put at the forefront of healthcare decision making.

There’s been lots of different opportunities that I’ve been able to take up, ranging from, being involved in a panel was probably my favourite, with a range of medical professionals. I’ve done some facilitation. I’ve attended conferences, and meetings. Always lots of meetings, around reading agendas and preparing feedback and providing written feedback on documents for RANZCOG. Along the way, I’ve met some great people and, really been able to build and develop some of my skills.

It’s fulfilling. It’s a place where you can bring your lived experience, your connections and knowledge of the community to help women. And equally importantly, it’s a place where you will learn from college staff, other community members, college fellows and trainees about emerging and contemporary issues in the women’s health space. Community engagement at the college is a really exciting space at the moment.

In the five years that I’ve been involved, I have seen the community engagement growing and changing quite markedly. It’s become much more recognised and front of mind, and we’ve seen consumer voices invited into so many more spaces now. Part of the reason why I’ve been around for this amount of time in my experience, it doesn’t matter what the committee or working group I’m on or whether I’m sitting in a council meeting, I find that my voices always welcomed and valued and that I’m listened to.

I see my role as a community representative as providing a perspective on international specialists who want to become RANZCOG Fellows, and as a voice within RANZCOG to raise awareness about what women and girls want from their healthcare providers.

In my role, what I hope to achieve is building that bridge between the clinical and the consumer experience, because sometimes even with the best of intentions, the things that we create at the clinical end don’t necessarily translate into the source of experiences we wanted to create for consumers. And acting as the bridge means positioning yourself, so that you can listen to consumer stories and be a true representative.

Finding the most powerful way to bring that information from the consumer community back into the college and presenting it in a language in a way that makes sense to the diverse membership represented by the college.

If you are considering being part of the Community Voice at RANZCOG, I encourage you to reach out and have a conversation.

I just want to extend a big warm welcome, that we need you, we need your voice on these issues and your experiences to bring them forth and represent. I think that RANZCOG would benefit from having Aboriginal people from all of the community. Not just health professionals, but community representatives. I’d like to welcome you to our community and we look forward to working with you soon.

Read video transcript

My name is Catherine. My name is Tara. My name’s Michelle. My name is Lee. I’m Tess Val.

I work as a public servant, and I have a background in doing a range of advocacy and community building in different roles. When I’m not working, I like gardening, walking with my family and noticing and observing Nature Yama.

My name’s Michelle, I’m a proud Kamilaroi woman from Moree in northwest New South Wales. I’m an aboriginal registered nurse and I’ve worked in health for over 31 years, so many years. I worked in social services providing care and support to people who couldn’t look after themselves and couldn’t advocate for themselves. And in 2019 I had some spare time on my hands, so I decided to look for an opportunity to give back to society.

I found a community representative role advertised by RANZCOG on a volunteer website, and I decided to apply and I was invited to interview. I felt this would be the perfect opportunity to draw on my life experiences, my work experiences, to raise awareness and improve healthcare for girls and women and their families. I’m based in Queensland. I work in the human rights field as a lawyer. I’ve been with the college now since 2018 in a variety of capacities, but most recently with the Women’s
Health Committee. I’m one of RANZCOG’s long-term community members. I have sat on RANZCOG Council since 2018, and additionally have been on the Consumer Network Working Group, as well as a range of other communities and groups.

I’ve recently become involved with RANZCOG through a colleague and friend, Dr. Marilyn Clark. She was a role model and a mentor to me whilst I was doing my nursing degree. Dr. Marilyn Clarke is highly respected in the aboriginal community for the work that she does with obstetrics and gynaecology. Particularly in the aboriginal community. We are extremely proud of her.

In 2017, I had major gynaecological surgery and received really excellent healthcare. I decided I wanted to give something back to the community and to the women’s health space. So the next year in 2018, I joined the college for the first time and since then have never looked back. I’m attracted to community engagement at RANZCOG because I believe in reproductive justice for all that the rights that I have, that I enjoy, that I exercise; that all people should have access to them.

Join our Community Voice Facebook Group

If you’re interested in being a community voice at RANZCOG, but want to find out more about the positions, you can:

The closed Facebook Group aims to provide a space community to support, discuss, and share experiences with people interested in O&G healthcare. Read our Facebook disclaimer.

This space is inclusive of family, carers, friends, and other support people interested in advocacy for O&G healthcare.

The group will be provided opportunity to participate in feedback activities that will help inform RANZCOG work and advocacy. The group may also be consulted on issues such as media, language, and brand testing. Issues raised within the group may be progressed for further discussion in the College.