Internship places for international medical graduates

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-12332,00.html

im a prospective international med student in UWS, and just when i thought i can start planning my med student life and my future, this news pop up.

anyway, this is for you prospective international med students as well.

and im in a big dilemma, possibly the biggest... yet.

haiz.

I'm afraid you are quite rightly concerned about this news. The number of medical graduates in 2012 is going to be more than double the number of people who graduated in 2005. Naturally, the hospital systems in Australia are going to have a hard time trying to accommodate all of these new medical graduates.

It is generally agreed upon, however, that the crux of the problem will really manifest itself as this 'tsunami' of medical graduates start competing for training positions to become specialists. Thus finding enough places for interns is only the tip of the iceberg with regard to this 'medical student tsunami' problem.

In response to the argument in the Australian newspaper though, my opinion is this. I think it is fairly unlikely that international graduates will not have an intern position available to them on graduation after 2012. What is more likely is that priority for intern position will be given to Australian students. International students would then be likely offered intern positions at hospitals that, for various reasons are undesirable to: i.e. they might be poorly supported in terms of teaching and supervision or they may be in a rural setting or they may be both.

Thus I see the international medical graduate who is looking to enter the Australian medical workforce at a fairly severe disadvantage in terms of career prospects.

holy crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what to do if you cant find any internship programs?

Originally Posted by Muhammad Samour

holy crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what to do if you cant find any internship programs?

Wait till you get in i guess?
Most of us are just hoping to get in to start of with

Originally Posted by Muhammad Samour

holy crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what to do if you cant find any internship programs?

Good question. Your registration as a doctor is provisional upon you completing your internship. So there's really very little you can do if you can't find an internship position.

Originally Posted by nottellingu

Most of us are just hoping to get in to start of with

What point is there in studying medicine if you can't practice as a doctor?

Originally Posted by Matt

What point is there in studying medicine if you can't practice as a doctor?

Agree
What I meant was that intern positions is like the last thing on my mind atm with umat results coming up ect. the main concern at this stage is getting a position wherever it be. Anyway didn't the govt. extend the amount of time they are going to guarantee intern positions?

Preference for internship goes to:
1. Local graduates with Australian Citizenship (or PR)
2. THEN the remainder to local graduates who are international students but do not have permanent residency.

Sorry, but we do discriminate and look after our own first. After all, they're more likely to stay in the country post-medical training.

Same with advanced training speciality posts. If you are from overseas and don't have PR (or where applicable, the AMC) then you will find yourself excluded from most training positions and will have to work in a service/house medical officer or ED non-accredited post.

I'm afraid, medical graduates will soon have to join the ranks of law, engineering and other graduates where they cannot take 'having an internship guaranteed on graduation' for granted as it won't happen anymore.

Originally Posted by nottellingu

Agree
What I meant was that intern positions is like the last thing on my mind atm with umat results coming up ect. the main concern at this stage is getting a position wherever it be. Anyway didn't the govt. extend the amount of time they are going to guarantee intern positions?

Perhaps this is an issue you should be taking more time to consider, then. The government did recently extend the guarantee of internship positions but the future is much less clear for international graduates after 2012.

Medicine is still one of the most secure careers out there. Yes this whole tsunami may inhibit you from getting an internships or make it even harder to get into your desired speciality.
Worse comes to worse and it'll probably delay you from an internship for a year or 2 (yes pretty damn unfair for 4-6 years of study). But in the whole scheme of things, its only a year or 2 out of your life and once again it's still a secure career path, tho not as secure as before.
If you think about the large numbers of people who graduate from uni only to work in an irrelevant area from what they studied, we have it pretty good.

so for now, all we can do is wait for the government to rectify it.
or we could organise a combined med school rally to pressure the government into rectifying it sooner than later.

who's up for it?

Why is it unfair?

Why should everyone who makes it through medical school be automatically employed instead of hospitals being able to choose from the best graduates?

Engineers graduate without jobs. Law students graduate and compete VERY heavily for article clerkships if that is what they want and it is even harder if they're after a big law firm.

Yes, it will make it harder for internship positions and even harder for speciality positions and training posts. But there's nothing like a bit of competition to drive up standards is there?

You could rally the Government but remember, not only are they limited by funding - but they are also your employers.