As the peak professional organisation for emergency medicine in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, ACEM has a duty of care to the emergency medicine profession and the wider community. Part of this entails training a sustainable emergency medicine workforce equipped to provide high-quality patient care and to uphold the highest possible professional standards in emergency medicine.
In late 2016 the ACEM Board initiated a project to investigate discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment (DBSH) in emergency medicine.
An independent, confidential and anonymous survey of all ACEM trainees, Fellows, Specialist International Medical Graduates, Certificants and Diplomates was conducted between April and May 2017.
In August 2017, the College released results of the survey. Those results led by March 2018 to the development of an action plan, which seeks to address some of the issues identified by members and trainees in that survey. Actions within the plan continue to be undertaken and overseen by the ACEM Inclusion Committee, which comprises members and trainees (link to Members page) and reports to the ACEM Board.