Phase 3

Teaching Periods

  • Internal medicine
  • Surgery
  • Critical care (emergency and intensive care)
  • Selective term
  • Psychiatry
  • Obstetrics & gynaecology
  • Paediatrics
  • General practice
  • Elective term – this term may be completed at any hospital in the world, subject to Faculty approval (for more information, see the Faculty Website)
  • Internship preparation (PRINT)

Clinical Allocations

Students are allocated to a teaching site for both years of Phase 3 although a number of courses are allocated independently to the individual schools that run them.

Local students must complete at least 4 weeks in one of these courses in a rural hospital:

  • Grafton
  • Lismore
  • Kempsey
  • Orange
  • Broken Hill

Please note that international students are now able to undertake both short or long attachments to rural hospitals and/or the Rural Clinical Schools. This was an advocacy win in 2019.

Students can do both years at a Rural Clinical School:

  • Wagga Wagga
  • Albury
  • Port Macquarie
  • Coffs Harbour

Each takes around 14 students in each of year 5 and 6, meaning that roughly a quarter of local students will spend a significant amount of time in a Rural School. Preference is given to rural entry students; however rural entry students may also be co-opted to attend a Rural Clinical School if insufficient students preference Rural Schools.

Assessments

Each term has varied assessments with specific learning outcomes. More information will be added later.

At the end, a Biomedical Sciences viva voce Examination must be passed before your elective term.

The Phase 3 Portfolio, a barrier examination, must be submitted. Details regarding other final assessments are still being finalised.

After Medical School

Once you graduate, you will be entitled to the title Doctor and you will be able to work as a Junior Medical Officer (commonly called an intern). Almost all JMOs complete their intern year in a new graduate training program to provide appropriate supervision and training while they gain experience. Places are allocated according to a preference system; currently, the supervising body in NSW is IMET (NSW Institute of Medical Education and Training, a division of NSW Health). Each state has a separate body, meaning a graduate can apply to multiple states and receive multiple offers (only one offer per state however). Each state gives slightly different preference to local and international graduates, and to graduates from within the state, from another state or from overseas.


After 2 years as a JMO (the 2nd year is usually referred to as the resident year), you will be eligible to apply to one of the specialist Colleges to study a Fellowship (specialty) with them – trainee specialists are called registrars. Fellowship training can take anywhere from 3 – 6 years depending on the specialty, meaning a grand total of 11 – 14 years since you started your medical degree.


Once you have earned your Fellowship, you can go into private practice – you can continue to work in hospitals without a Fellowship but without a Fellowship the Federal Government will not allocate you an unrestricted Medicare provider number which is necessary for private practice. This is true even for General Practice, which is not the case in many other countries.