Would you be able to offer any insights into the medicine program at ANU (structure, offers etc.)?
Thanks
I'll try my best. Incidentally, my sister did her medical degree at the ANU and I did do an elective rotation in Canberra in my final year, so I have a tiny amount of familiarity.
Looking through the handbook, looks like Year 1 and 2 are preclinical years and Years 3 and 4 are clinical years.
Year 1 and 2
Looks like the preclinical material is studied in "blocks" organised by organ system.
- Year 1 Sem 1
- Foundation (Cell and Molecular Biology)
- Year 1 Sem 2
- Cardiorespiratory and Renal - cardiovascular, respiratory and renal systems
- Endocrinology and Reproductive Health - endocrinology, gynaecology and some andrology potentially
- Year 2
- Musculoskeletal and Neuroscience
- Gastroenterology and Nutrition
- Haematology, Oncology and Infectious Diseases
- "Consolidation" - appears to be an integration of all the previous blocks
Each block in Year 2 appears to be examined via an end-of-block MCQ test/exam, and there are mid-year and end of year written examinations and an OSCE.
Year 3 (Clinical)
You do four rotations:
- Medicine - you do a rotation in a medical unit (when I was on elective in The Canberra Hospital, there were a couple of third-years with me in the Cardiology unit)
- Surgery
- GP
- Paeds
Two exams - an MCQ exam and an extended answer "Minicase" exam which in my sister's year was 4 hours long, and there was an OSCE too.
Year 4 (Clinical)
You do four blocks - here you are expected to take on some of the jobs an intern would do:
- Medicine/Surgery (again)
- Acute Care - I think this means an Anaesthetics or an ICU term
- Psychiatry
- Obstetrics/Gynaecology
There doesn't seem to be any exams in this year.
Pathways from high school
From the website, there are a couple of pathways:
- PhB Pathway - You do a Bachelor in Philosophy (Science) at ANU for 4 years. This enables you to apply for one of up to 10 places in the ANU Medical program without doing the GAMSAT. You have to do an interview and they look at your academic record. It's not clear whether you just need to meet a hurdle to get in, or whether offers are competitive.
- Health Science - You do a 3-year Bachelor of Health Sciences at the ANU; here you do not have to sit the GAMSAT either. Offers are competitive, and they look at your uni marks (40%) which must be minimum 75%, interview (40%) and an application statement (20%).
- Tuckwell Scholarship - ANU offers 25 scholarships to Year 12s who are outstanding in character, leadership and grades. If you get a Tuckwell Scholarship and you state that you want to do Medicine consistently, you are ?guaranteed a place in the Medicine program without a further interview or GAMSAT.
Hope that helps!
Hi there! My questions are kinda far into the future but I'm just curious. How stressful was your intern year, and how many hours in average would you work per week? Also, how competitive was it to get into your registrar position, and do you mind sharing what specialty you're working in (you don't have to if you don't want to!)?
Intern year was stressful at the start as you get used to the job and the workload/workflow and learn how the hospital system works. Being proactive as a final year med student takes the pressure off a great deal.
Working hours are pretty variable, depends on the rotation. Per week I usually worked about 38-43 hours? Didn't do very much unpaid overtime in the terms I was in. There are some units where interns/residents have to spend multiple hours a day doing unpaid overtime - I kind of lucked out of sorts.
I'm doing Basic Physician Training (BPT) with the Royal Australasian College of Practitioners, currently in my third year (BPT3) - just did the written exam! As I understand it, the structure in Victoria works a little differently from NSW; in Victoria, the structure is as such:
- PGY1 - intern (1 year contract)
- PGY2 - BPT1 (you can do BPT1 straight after internship in Victoria, you'd be what NSWers call an RMO); some people get into BPT in PGY3 or 4 etc and do BPT1 then. Getting into BPT is reasonably competitive and is not limited by the College, but limited by the hospitals as there are a limited number of hospital jobs that are BPT-accredited.
- PGY3 - BPT2; mostly RMO jobs with occasional junior General Medicine registrar jobs
- PGY4 - BPT3; junior registrar in General Medicine
- PGY5 - Advanced Training (Year 1 of 3)
The first big bottleneck is getting into particular specialties in Advanced Training, especially procedural specialties like Cardiology and Gastroenterology which are also the most lucrative due to the way Medicare works and because you can charge a fair whack for procedures.
,could you please offer any advice/strategies on studying the content - Phase 1?
thanks mate