One of the most frequent questions I receive from doctors from overseas is how
do I get into residency training in Australia?
So in this video, I'm going to answer all the key questions that you may have about
the process of becoming a specialist doctor in Australia.
Hello, YouTube, I'm Dr Anthony Llewellyn,
the Career Doctor, I make videos to help you better manage your career process.
If you're looking for a bit of extra help,
then check out my website where we have a couple of really great courses,
including the really popular job interview skills course link in description below.
So becoming a specialist doctor is generally a very rewarding pathway,
which can afford a lot of independence and financial stability and is probably
the ultimate aim of most doctors in Australia.
So I put this blog together as an overview of how this all works for you.
What I'm going to do first is outline the basic process of how doctors become
specialists in Australia, including how both local graduates enter
into training, as well as how overseas graduates can as well.
Then at the end, I will answer a bunch of related questions and start.
I wanted to make three key points.
Number one, the process of becoming
a specialist doctor in Australia is termed specialty training and in most cases is
conducted by one of the six specialist medical colleges
to residency training, which is often what doctors from places
such as North American and Asian countries refer to when they are talking about
specially trained does not exist as a concept in Australia.
And in fact,
being a Resident Medical Officer means something quite different here.
Three, there are around 64 different medical specialties to choose
from in Australia, and this includes general practice,
which is recognised especially in its own right.
So how and when do locum graduates enter into specialty training?
Well, medical school has been rapidly
evolving in Australia, with the majority of schools phasing out
the old MBBS programs in favour of four or five year olds.
Some of these programs are graduate
programs, so it's not surprising to hear that for some, the process of choosing
and targeting a particular specialty begins very early in medical school.
However, unlike, say,
the North American system, you can't simply just apply for specialty
training at the end of your medical school program upon graduating.
That is a requirement for a minimum one
year supervised training, which was referred to as an internship.
It's only after you satisfactorily
complete your internship that you can gain general registration.
Doctors from the United Kingdom
and the Republic of Ireland would be familiar with something similar.
The Australian medical training system has largely been adapted from the UK system.
Now the internship period is heavily supervised and there are formal training
and assessment processes with oversight provided by bodies in each state
and territory called pre-vocational medical councils.
This prettification period often extends
for at least another year, and we call it pre-vocational training.
So resonant means something different.
In Australia, a resident or Resident Medical Officer or
ARAMA in Australia is a doctor in their second year out of medical school,
i.e. someone who has completed their internship.
Whilst it is technically possible to enter
into some specialty training programs as a resident psychiatry general practice
being examples, generally, most doctors wait until the end
of their second year to enter into specialty training.
And in the case of some particularly
competitive specialties such as surgery, specialise, anesthesia,
they may have to wait several more years to get onto a scheme.
A doctor who is still a resident in their
third year is generally referred to as a senior resident or senior
Resident Medical Officer or Istrouma for most senior year.
There is no set standard or oversight for their training,
so the quality of support provided can vary quite considerably and it can often
be left up to the individual to develop their own program.
This situation has unfortunately led to some fairly famous recent cases
of exploitation of doctors working on a turned on accredited posts.
These are places that are not oversalted as official training hosted by college,
so they are often also referred to as service roles.
It's for this reason that doctors in Australia are often relieved when they
finally make it into a specialty for international medical graduates coming
via the standard pathway or in some cases also the competent authority pathway.
It's a resident post that you are looking
to fill as your first job in medicine in Australia, i.e. a free specialty
training position, key requirements for specialty training.
The requirements for entry into specialty training differ between colleges.
And this video is not intended to address each one specifically.
But let's look at some of the general requirements.
You must have general registration to enter specialty training.
One thing that every doctor must have
to enter into specialty training in Australia is general registration.
So for local graduates, this means completing an internship.
First pharyngitis means completing a provisional year only as a resident,
either via the standard pathway or competent authority pathway after
which you will also be granted general registration.
This is why off until IMG candidates there
once you have completed your supervised year.
You are almost on an equal footing
with the graduates, you generally need at least two years experience.
Now, most, but not all colleges require
you to have gained a minimum amount of clinical experience prior to applying.
The most common requirement is for two years.
Whether this is a valid requirement or not is somewhat questionable.
As noted, some colleges now allow doctors to apply after completing an internship.
A key driver for maintaining a second year
residency in Australia is the need for doctors to fill service level roles.
But to be fair, many doctors themselves
also value having two years to consolidate after medical school.
Having permanent residency or citizenship can also be a requirement in some cases.
For example,
the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
You will also need to prove that you are a citizen or permanent resident to apply.
So this can be a barrier against doctors.
I'm often asked why there is this discrimination in place.
To be fair to the colleges,
they are really only just applying the Australian law,
which essentially dictates that jobs must be provided to citizens and residents
first before being offered to anyone on a visa.
Many other countries have similar arrangements for their own citizens.
The application process itself now
the application process itself is similar to a normal job approval process.
There are two main ways to get selected into specialty training in Australia.
Number one, the college goes first.
The first way is to get selected by the college first.
This is the approach that most colleges adopt.
Examples would include rax college of Ophthalmology, College,
Obstetrics and Gynecology and the College of Psychiatry for trainee doctors.
This selection process may be the most
rigorous job interview that they ever encounter, with many colleges employing
scoring criteria for both your CV as well as referees and submitting candidates
to psychometric testing and a multiple minute interview approach.
There is often a fee of several thousand
dollars to apply, with no refunds if you don't like.
After the college has selected
which candidate he prefers for training the employers, the hospitals may invoke
their own second selection process or just accept the findings of the college.
Number two, the employer goes first and only alone.
If you're applying for, say,
physician training or radiology training, then you start off by interviewing
for a training post which is held by a hospital or health service.
This would generally be a more standard
affair with an online application CV and referee checks and interviews.
Normally it's just a panel interview, but there has been a trend lately
to making some of these recruitment, multiple mini interviews as well.
There will generally be representatives
of the respective college on the selection panel.
And once you have gained a post, you will then apply to be recognized as
a trainee by the name of a college in the case of physicians.
You may even do this beforehand.
Process is generally just an application
and fee, and rarely a doctor's rejected at this point.
General practice selection, general practice selection is a whole base
to itself with many different pathways into training.
The main pathway into GP training is
conducted by the regional training providers, which are separate from the GP.
College's selection is quite rigorous
and also involves both psychometric testing as well as formal interviewing.
Once selected, candidates then apply
for one or both other college training programs for which they have already been
deemed eligible by bypassing the training selection process.
What specialties can you apply for?
Well, if we take the latest view from the Medical Board of Australia,
there are 64 recognised Physicians for Medicine in Australia.
And below that,
many hospitals and employers will recognise even more subspecialties.
Now, that seems a lot of choices,
but actually the initial choices made a little bit easier by virtue of the fact
that many specialties break their training up into basic and advanced training.
Basic training is usually around two or three years and more generalist.
Once you complete basic training, you can specialise further in advanced
training, which usually requires you to undertake an additional selection step.
Let's look at some of the more popular
specialty choices in Australia for general practice.
As indicated, there are a number of pathways,
but the main pathway is the Australian General Practice Training
Program, under which you train for fellowship
with either the Royal Australian or the Royal Australian College
of General Practitioners or Australian College of Rural
and Remote Medicine for both adult medicine and pediatrics.
You commence basic training with the Royal Australasian College
of Physicians, after which you can choose to stay
generally in your advanced training or do one of many different specialties.
The FRACGP also looks after some other smaller training programs,
including occupational health and rehabilitation medicine.
For radiology,
you apply to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiology.
This is a relatively straightforward specialty.
There are really only two options diagnostic radiology and radiotherapy.
For psychiatry, you apply to the Royal Australian
and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists for Emergency Medicine.
It's the Australasian College College for Emergency Medicine.
Surgeries are different because in such a competitive specialty,
trainees have generally completed a lot of experience and courses just to get in.
So then you apply directly for what's called a set surgical education training
in either of general vascular orthopedics, your nose and throat pediatrics,
cardiothoracic neurosurgery, neurology or plastic surgery.
We have a more detailed post about
specialty colleges on my website, other related questions.
So first question, how long does specialty training run for?
Well, the answer is most training programs are around five or six years minimum.
Well, the general practice can be as little as three years.
Question, do you get paid when training?
Well, it's surprising how often this question is asked.
And I guess it must be because in many countries you do have to actually pay
for specialty training post or residency position.
Now, if you're employed as a doctor in Australia, you get paid.
This includes training roles.
The salaries are pretty good, although the work can be quite long in some cases.
Again, we have a salary guide or a bunch of salary guides on my website.
Question how do you enter training via the competent authority?
But the answer is, first of all, like any other think,
you'll need to get your credentials reviewed by the Australian Medical Council
and then gain an appropriate job offer which permits you to have provisional
registration with the Medical Board of Australia.
What post you're able to fill will largely
depend on your current level of experience and training.
If, for example, you just finished foundation years
in the UK, then you'll probably only be able to apply for resident level jobs.
But let's say you've almost finished your residency in anaesthetics in the US,
then you'll probably be permitted to fill an unaccredited anaesthetic registrar
post, but not something that you have not experienced, such as psychiatry.
Now, once you've completed your 12 months
of supervision successfully, you can apply for general registration,
after which you can apply to enter training in Australia,
you may be eligible for some recognition of prior learning question.
How do you enter training via the standard pathway?
Well, the answer is you again must register with the Australian.
Legal counsel and complete your AMC certificate, part one and two,
as well as obtain a post that allows you to work towards general registration.
It's at this point that you can start applying for Trampas question.
Is there some recognition for prior learning?
Well, in the past, it has been difficult
to obtain much in the way of recognition of prior learning or appeal from colleges.
But recently I was successful in helping
one trainee doctor get almost three years credit for psychiatry.
Generally, you might expect to get one or two years of basic training.
This will depend on how much training
you've already done and how similar it is to training in Australia.
Candidates from competent authority
countries tend to do better with this particular process.
Question how a specialist from overseas trained or specialists from other
countries can apply directly to the relevant college for an assessment
of their capability to work as a specialist in Australia.
This is known as a specialist pathway and we've got a series of videos about that.