BE EXTRAORDINARY CPD

A doctor's continuing professional development & well-being retreat on bias & cultural safety.

Learn about bias and how it impacts doctors and medicine; develop your skills for self-awareness, transformative unlearning & critical consciousness; hear from expert speakers on cultural safety and identify how you can leverage your clinical practice; and make completing the mandatory CPD requirements easy and meaningful.

Turn your March into something extraordinary and just for you!

Join us next March 27-29, 2026 QT Newcastle Hotel in the coastal beach city of Newcastle, NSW.

BOOK NOW

Expect a weekend of relaxation & restoration, laughter, smiles, connection, new friends & growth.  Practice skills for well-being and self-awareness.  Hear from expert speakers on well-being, bias in medicine, & cultural safety.  Identify your own bias in medicine & find ways of optimising cultural safety in your practice.  Enjoy conducting a professional conversation to review your performance as a doctor & complete your mandatory professional development plan.  Conduct a cultural safety audit to leverage your practice. Be professionally supported & coached to complete up to 12 hours of CPD with 5 hours of reviewing performance, a professional conversation, completion of your professional development plan, & 5 hours of measuring outcomes on cultural safety. Be inspired & leave knowing yourself that little bit more masterfully.  Handouts with CPD templates and an acknowledgement of participation form are provided to use as evidence of the activities for your CPD home.  Mindfulness and self-care skills are incorporated into all group CPD sessions.  Enjoy optional daily yoga at Yoga Body Works, welcome drinks at Rooftop Bar QT Hotel, a private shopping experience at ) with afternoon & morning teas, lovely lunches, a 2-course Friday night dinner at Jana QT, & a banquet Saturday dinner at Oh My Pappa. All activities are optional offerings.  So, 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.  

Please note accommodation, travel, parking & breakfasts are not included.  Whether you choose to stay overnight at the hotel or just come for the day, QT Newcastle is a lovely place to be. Expect a spectrum of surprise through spaces where history and possibility live boldly in every detail.  To book using our delegate discount code visit QT Hotel Newcaslte and follow the steps:

  1. Select your dates
  2. Click BOOK
  3. Click on “I HAVE A CODE’
  4. In the “CORPORATE ID” field enter your corporate ID: QTNEWWEB
  5. Click “CHECK ROOMS”
  6. Your special rate will appear on the rates screen

Program (subject to change)

Friday 27th – Friday Funday, settle in and settle down.

Join the optional well-being activities or kickback and start the afternoon drinks early, enjoying the spectacular rooftop view of Newcastle Harbour at Rooftop QT

  • 2 pm: Arrival & afternoon tea at the fabulous QT Hotel Newcastle Newcastle.  Check into your room if you are staying or hang in our private room where all the action will happen.
  • 230 pm: Formal Welcome – meet your new friends over a bit of coffee & cake. We will discuss the program and plan for the CPD and the weekend.
  • 3 pm: Restless after your travels?  Stretch your legs with an optional coastal walk from the hotel to Town Beach.  Find your bearings and get to know Sydney’s most relaxed beach city – even in the cooler months, Newcastle Harbour shines, and the beaches are beautiful.  Keep walking along the coast for as long as your legs fancy or join us back at the hotel.
  • 430 pm: Have a play at Yoga Body Works, Newcastle, where sweat meets zen. If you have not tried heated yoga during winter, you are in for a treat! 
  • If yoga is not your thing, enjoy a private shopping experience with bubbles at one of Newcastle’s best clothes shops, Wilson & Hunter, just around the corner from QT.  The Wilson & Hunter experience is grounded in the philosophy that all women deserve to feel fantastic, both throughout the shopping experience and every time they wear their purchases. The staff are knowledgeable, approachable, and fun.  Current brands include Alemais, Alessandra, Bec and Bridge, Blanca, Devotion Twins, Layer/d, Nude Lucy, Alias Mae, Silk Laundry, Up! Pants, The Upside, East Axe, Peter Lang and Balyck, Fazeek and House of Nunu.
  • 6 pm: Celebrate the start of the retreat by joining us for welcome drinks at Rooftop QT. Nine floors up, the jewel in the crown of QT Newcastle is the Rooftop at QT. A refreshing wisp of gin and whisky delight greets you atop fresh views of the Harbour and the coast.
  • 645 pm: Indulge in a two-course meal at QT’s impressive Jana Restaurant. Explore Newcastle’s surroundings through plate and palate, paired with drops of local provenance as you wine and dine at Jana’s table. A neighbourhood favourite, we gather like old friends at tables blessed with crisp local produce. Simplicity and sustainability are nestled in Newcastle, where Jana’s scents and secrets spill from the open kitchen straight through to a relaxed setting for diners to unwind. Nose to tail and cheek to cheek, this is down-to-earth dining at its best.

Saturday 28th – 4.5 hours Reviewing Performance

  • 7 am: Optional yin yoga at Yoga Body Works
  • 10 am: Group CPD session: Formal welcome, 2025 CPD requirements, mindfulness, self-compassion & critical consciousness for leadership
  • 1115 am: Morning tea break
  • 1130 am: Group CPD session: reviewing your biases in medicine (webinar Dr Kirsty Forrest)
  • 1 pm: lunch at QT Hotel
  • 2 pm: Group CPD session: Professional conversation & complete your professional development plan
  • 330 pm: Afternoon tea & free time
  • 6 pm: Optional wine tasting at Artisanal Cellars
  • 645 pm: Banquet share dinner at Oh My Pappa. If you are looking for a roller coaster ride of taste, you will love this meal. The chef at Oh My Papa believes food feeds the soul.  They encourage a shared style of dining.  Oh My Papa is an intimate gathering where people eat, drink and be merry. 

Sunday 29th – 4.5 hours Measuring Outcomes

  • 8 am: Optional yin & yang heated yoga at Yoga Body Works
  • 10 am: Group CPD session: Cultural Safety in Medicine (Sarah Boyne)
  • 1115 am: Morning tea break
  • 1130 am: Group CPD session: Cultural Safety Audit Part 1
  • 1 pm: lunch at QT Hotel
  • 2 pm: Group CPD session: Cultural Safety Audit Part 2
  • 330pm Close
  • 4 pm: Optional yin & yang heated yoga at Yoga Body Works

Guest speakers
Sarah Boyne has over 25 years of working experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health at the Local, State-wide and National levels, building the community, workforce capacity and resilience.  She has developed primary, secondary and tertiary clinical and non-clinical care levels in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health services across urban, rural and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.  Sarah has co-designed and developed a number of Cultural Safety principles and frameworks by engaging Knowledge Holders, asking them, “What is cultural Safety? and “What does cultural safety look like for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce?”.  Sarah has consulted on and developed best practice community engagement principles for conducting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consultations in a culturally safe and appropriate way.  At Be Extraordinary CPD, Sarah will share her rich cultural knowledge of 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.

Professor Kirsty Forrest is Dean of Medicine at Bond University and Treasurer of the Executive Committee of Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand (MDANZ). Kirsty is a Consultant Anesthetist at Gold Coast University Hospital and a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA). She is the Chair of the Education, Development and Evaluation Committee and the Professional Practice Research Network of ANZCA. Her research focus is Medical Education, and she is co-author and editor of several best-selling medical textbooks, including ‘Understanding Medical Education: Evidence, Theory and Practice’ and ‘Healthcare Simulation at a Glance.’

The Host
Dr Susannah Ward is a Specialist Physician of Rehabilitation Medicine. She was awarded the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) fellowship Basmajian Prize in 2018. She has a special interest in wellbeing and is passionate about holistic health. She has been involved in research, piloting wellness and mindfulness sessions in hospitals, and was awarded the Advancement in Medicine Grant with Avant in 2018. She enjoys medical writing with several publications on health professional wellness and is a published author of the self-help book Mastering Real Wellness. In addition to her clinical work, she founded Ataraxia Collective, a health and wellness business offering doctor CPD & wellbeing retreats, well-being workshops and a blog. She is an accredited yoga teacher, RYT200 with Yoga Alliance. She was a board director for the RACP 2016-2018 and is the Chair of the Member Health & Wellbeing Committee (RACP), Chair of RACP Wellbeing Advocates, & director for Mood Active a NFP that promotes exercise as a mental health intervention. Dr Ward hopes to encourage a compassionate and mindful medical culture that supports holistic health for patients and health professionals.

CONTACT US WITH ANY QUESTIONS- WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!
[email protected]

* PLEASE NOTE ATTENDANCE TO RETREAT ACTIVITIES IS STRICTLY FOR DELEGATES ONLY. YOU ARE WELCOME TO TRAVEL & STAY WITH FAMILY & FRIENDS, BUT ALL RETREAT OFFERINGS ARE FOR THE GUEST DOCTORS ONLY. ALL ACTIVITIES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE & OPTIONAL, SO IF YOU PREFER TO SKIP A SESSION OR GROUP MEAL, JUST LET US KNOW.