Internship: NSW Preferencing and Explanation

[chinaski]

You are employed by the hospital network, and therefore can (and most likely will) be seconded to different hospitals during the period you are contracted to that network. So, in the case of Network 1, RPA is the "mothership" hospital, and Dubbo is a satellite to which you might be sent for rotations. Secondment hospitals are limited by the maximum amount of terms a JMO can spend there in a year (eg T3 = three terms).

 

[dwe]

You are employed by the hospital network, and therefore can (and most likely will) be seconded to different hospitals during the period you are contracted to that network. So, in the case of Network 1, RPA is the "mothership" hospital, and Dubbo is a satellite to which you might be sent for rotations. Secondment hospitals are limited by the maximum amount of terms a JMO can spend there in a year (eg T3 = three terms).

Where can I find the motherships in each network?

 

[chinaski]

They will be the T5 hospitals listed on the HETI website.

 

[dwe]

They will be the T5 hospitals listed on the HETI website.

Thanks again for you answer. I feel like I’m missing something here. The list of networks I see here https://www.heti.nsw.gov.au/__data/...te-Recruitment-for-the-2019-Clinical-Year.PDF

Network 1 has both Dubbo and Rpah as T5. Network 2 has Bankstown and Campbelltown as T5, network 4 has both Liverpool and tweed as the T5. What am I missing here? Or how do we know if I got network 4, that my home hospital would be Liverpool or Tweed?

 

[chinaski]

Thanks again for you answer. I feel like I’m missing something here. The list of networks I see here https://www.heti.nsw.gov.au/__data/...te-Recruitment-for-the-2019-Clinical-Year.PDF

Network 1 has both Dubbo and Rpah as T5. Network 2 has Bankstown and Campbelltown as T5, network 4 has both Liverpool and tweed as the T5. What am I missing here? Or how do we know if I got network 4, that my home hospital would be Liverpool or Tweed?

No, I understand your confusion - I'm not entirely sure of the answer (it's been a long, long time since I was an intern). Looking at the applicant guide, and how the networks are described there (https://www.heti.nsw.gov.au/__data/...er-Guide-for-Medical-Graduate-Recruitment.pdf) you're correct in that it doesn't seem clear as to how they allocate people within networks in which more than one T5 facility exists. It seems that secondments hospitals (denoted "OT" in the list) are specifically associated with particular T5 hospitals (so there is some assurance as to potential secondment terms), but what isn't immediately clear is how people are allocated to motherships. You'd probably need to read closer than I have (I have just skimmed) - but potentially it might mean that you have no guarantee that you'll get the T5 facility of your choice. Worst case scenario is that you have control over your network preferences, but once allocated to a network, you might not get much say beyond that (aside from submitting preferences to the network itself). Another possibility is that interns are shuffled between T5 facilities, so that although each can theoretically offer the full year as accredited time, they might do more of a 50:50 split throughout the entire intern body.

 

[mememe]

Thanks for the great guide. Still confused about how home hospitals are allocated. Each network has multiple T5 and T3 hospitals. Yet your guide seems to just refer to one of the T5 per network... how do you know which hospital will be your home one?

eg. Network 1 has both RPAH and Dubbo base, why do you refer to just RPAH? Isn't there a chance that your home hospital will be Dubbo?

Any clarity, or link to more information on this would be great thank.

My understanding is that if you are allocated RPAH through the nromal preferencing system (PTAP) your home hospital will be RPAH, but you may do one or more secondmnets to Dubbo just depending on your rotations;
vs
If you apply to a rural hospital through the RPR preferencing system you will be assigned the rural hospital as your home hospital and may do one rotation metro as a secondmnet.

 

[Desperato]

Does this information about preferencing apply to interstate students applying to NSW?

 

[kpsmms]

Hi all, I was wondering if distance to home will give you extra "leverage" in your preferences to hospitals to work at. For example I live in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, so hospitals such as St Vincents and Royal Prince Alfred (not even sure if they offer internships at all though) would be my first preference primarily because of the short distance to home. However, as these are famously known to be good hospitals, I'm sure that lots of people will be applying to there despite the potential distance to their own home. I was wondering if my home location would be able to make my preferences more "important" so to speak and I would get the internship over other people who live farther away. Thanks!

 

[chinaski]

Hi all, I was wondering if distance to home will give you extra "leverage" in your preferences to hospitals to work at. For example I live in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, so hospitals such as St Vincents and Royal Prince Alfred (not even sure if they offer internships at all though) would be my first preference primarily because of the short distance to home. However, as these are famously known to be good hospitals, I'm sure that lots of people will be applying to there despite the potential distance to their own home. I was wondering if my home location would be able to make my preferences more "important" so to speak and I would get the internship over other people who live farther away. Thanks!

Haha, nope. The health department doesn't care how inconvenient your commute may be. Where you live - or want to live - is irrelevant with regards to allocation to internship, as well as secondments within that allocation.

 

[n00bslayer]

Correct, there are multiple rounds of offers, and yes the person putting said hospital #2 would be competing with others who put that undersubscribed hospital #1 (and that other person who put it #1 would be more likely to get it because it minimises the overall score for that round - this is the entire point of this system).

If you absolutely must get a hospital somewhere in Sydney, for example, as a Cat 2 (for whatever reason) then that would be even more reason to avoid "stacking" and instead putting some safe hospital network first - if your only offer was in (for example) Wollongong, you'd be in a very bad position in regards to whatever it was that you needed to be in Sydney for. Stacking (and not putting a safe preference somewhere high) as a Cat 2 significantly increases your chance of getting something like this, because if the system is unable to give you any of your high preferences then the score it gets for allocating you is going to be high anyway, so it will allocate you somewhere which allows it to free a space for someone else to get a high preference (and thus make the system overall score lower).

I don't know what you mean specifically by cat 2, by I'm went to NSW for year 12 and Victorian Medical graduate (which places me in a higher preference category system than interstate medical graduates.) Does this mean that I'm at an even higher risk of not getting any places and virtually have no chance of getting into big 4 (given that probably most cat 1 guys won't have declines offers by then).
If so, does that mean to move back to Sydney, I almost have to preference a non big 4 hospital and infact interstate medical graduates have a better chance than me of getting into a big 4.
If I stick with my preferences, I would preference POW, St vincents (and probably stack the rest)

 

[Areyousure?]

NSW health has been increasing their intake by 5-10 interns every years for the past few years.
Do you guys think that with the health crisis we having right now, nsw health will significantly increase Intern numbers next year?
tbf with all resources being directed towards fighting corona, the application process will probably be delayed.

 

[n00bslayer]

Vicotira has rumors of getting med studnets to go into internship earlier than intended graduation

 

[chinaski]

NSW health has been increasing their intake by 5-10 interns every years for the past few years.
Do you guys think that with the health crisis we having right now, nsw health will significantly increase Intern numbers next year?
tbf with all resources being directed towards fighting corona, the application process will probably be delayed.

Not really sure how or why they'd increase internship numbers in response to the pandemic. If anything, we might be looking at a delay in graduations of current final year students, which may mean a delay in having them start their working year.

Vicotira has rumors of getting med studnets to go into internship earlier than intended graduation

Rumours mostly whipped up by medical students amongst themselves, little doubt.

 

[Areyousure?]

 

[A1]

NSW health has been increasing their intake by 5-10 interns every years for the past few years.

A little more than that, ~10 each year from 2014 960 to 2018 999, then by 25 to 1024 for 2019.

Med schools are not producing enough domestic graduates to keep up with NSW Health's demands

Vicotira has rumors of getting med studnets to go into internship earlier than intended graduation

They usually complete their uni course by Nov/Dec then start internship in January, don't need to wait for the graduation ceremony. So I don't know what that's about considering it's from AMSA.

 

[chinaski]

View attachment 3335

AMSA is not instrumental in pandemic crisis planning. The overwhelming feeling from people who are actually working (and who can't access adequate PPE themselves, let alone provide it for the protection of hapless students) is that medical students are not wanted on the front line. They hinder more than they can help.

 

[momo123]

Does anyone have any advice/information about the different hospitals? I'm having trouble deciding which hospital to preference. What things do people usually take into consideration in their choice?

 

[Areyousure?]

AMSA is not instrumental in pandemic crisis planning. The overwhelming feeling from people who are actually working (and who can't access adequate PPE themselves, let alone provide it for the protection of hapless students) is that medical students are not wanted on the front line. They hinder more than they can help.

It has pretty much confirmed now that final year med students would start working as pre-interns in the coming weeks. I think it has already started in Victoria.

 

[chinaski]

It has pretty much confirmed now that final year med students would start working as pre-interns in the coming weeks. I think it has already started in Victoria.

Again, this is not in response to clinicians requesting their help. It's not a popular or well-regarded move amongst those on the front line.

 

[Perplex]

It has pretty much confirmed now that final year med students would start working as pre-interns in the coming weeks. I think it has already started in Victoria.

Uh....has this been confirmed through any official channels? Are there any statements by any official Government body? Until then this sounds like pure speculation and rumours.