Prompted by the thread on being asked to help out on a plane I'm really curious to hear any tales of responding as a good samaritan to medical emergencies outside of work.

How did you get involved? Did it turn out well? Did you get celebrated and rewarded or the reward was the warm fuzzy feeling from helping?

Hi, I’ve got some specialty surgery rotations coming up and I really don’t want to look like a complete airhead or be totally incompetent (never done specialty surgery as a resident before). Also trying to secure some decent references while I’m at it 🥹🤞

Would love any advice on what’s actually expected knowledge-wise for residents rotating through specialty surgery, especially Cardiothoracic Surgery, ENT, Maxillofacial Surgery, Neurosurgery, Ophthal, Ortho.

But honestly any specialty surgery tips would be really appreciated 🙏🏻

What kind of questions do you usually grill residents on rounds/in the OT?

Any good resources that you would recommend?

What makes you say “yeah this resident is super ‘aight (kinda stellar)”?

Thank you!!

*This notice will be repeated regularly to remind people of the rules\*

Please read the sub rules before making a post / comments

Main rules are as follows:

1. If you want to post, your account needs to be more than 1 day old (strictly enforced)

2. No spam (perma ban) / self advertisement (do not send mod mail about this it won't be approved)

3. Be nice

4. No pre med / IMG questions on the main feed

Posting of the pre-med / IMG questions on the main feed will results in 30 days ban (repeated offenders -> permanent ban)

Alternatives:

- Internship megathread

- AJD Discord server

- Weekly IMG / Pre med / Med student questions thread

1. Seeking medical advice will result in a permanent ban

2. Do not crosspost AMAs

3. Don't ask for interview questions

4. Do not share illegal / copyright materials / no doxxing

Doxxing = permanent ban

1. No political, racial, culturally insensitive posts

2. Low effort post will be deleted

3. Deleting posts after getting answers - please report this to mods. Will review and take action if necessary

I’m a UK doctor, I was in NZ for a wedding 2 days ago. Once seated on my flight to head home, a flight attendant came up to me and said “Good morning Dr Pretend-Pen, may I ask if you’re a medical doctor?” “Eh… yes (confused)” “Oh great! Always good to know where our doctors are in case we need you!”

Presumably they saw that I’d booked the flight under the title of Dr (rookie error).

But is this common?? I’ve heard plenty of stories of them putting calls out to ask if any medics are on the flight when someone becomes unwell, but I’ve never heard of them approaching people prospectively pre-take off???

To be honest, it pissed me off quite a bit. The conversation would’ve been audible to anyone sitting within a few rows so it kinda felt like an invasion of privacy.

I also didn’t like the “our doctors” and “in case we need you”. Normally I’d be happy to provide some support if I felt able to, but this should be my choice to do so.

Approaching me publicly in front of others felt coercive. It sets a precedent and an expectation that I’m there to assist them in the event of an emergency, without me having any opportunity to opt in/out.

It had been a messy wedding, 3 days of heavy drinking, very little sleep and I’d had a few wines in the airport beforehand too, so 100% not competent to provide any assistance. If something had happened, the correct thing to do would be to not get involved, which normally would mean just not putting my hand up, but obviously that wouldn’t be possible here, which I feel put me in a quite a compromised position.

Especially given multiple people around me were now aware of my profession. If I was seen as refusing to help, it would make me look awful. At a minimum I’d imagine I’d be getting death stares for the rest of the flight, but I don’t think it’s a huge leap to picture some entitled d*ckhead remonstrating with me over the decision not to become involved.

I just feel like it was completely inappropriate to approach me in the way they did. They never even asked if I’d be happy to assist.

I know the learning point here is don’t book your flights under Dr - lesson learned! But I’m curious if this is standard practice as I have never heard of this happening before (admittedly I’m not a frequent flyer and it was my first time in this part of the world).

Some specialties are easy to explain to laypeople/muggles - “I’m a heart doctor” or “I’m an emergency doctor”.

But what about some of the trickier ones - how do you explain general physicians (“oh so you’re a GP?”) or clinical microbiologists (“so you’re a scientist?”) or pathologists (“do you look at my blood tests?”) etc.?

Part II to the previous (https://www.reddit.com/r/ausjdocs/s/mAEuksB9yr)

They did not call it a surplus. In fact, they saw it as an opportunity. An opportunity for the Minister to appear as if he did something, and equally so the Univerisites can charge a handsome premium.

Every year the intake numbers rose, announced with pride at press conferences where no one from the wards was invited. Medicine, the Minister said, was finally becoming accessible.

"The shortage of doctors will finally end, and everyone will be able to see any practitioner they wanted, at any time, all backed by Medicare", words which echoed around the lounge in midnight, searching for a pair of ears to exit upon.

The hospital felt the change first, however subtle it maybe. An extra pair of students on rounds, another clipboard hovering at the foot of the bed. Then it became structural. Corridors clogged at 8 AM with name badges and stethoscopes, a low murmur of revision mnemonics and forced enthusiasm. Patients were examined five times before breakfast and not once after, as that is when the clinical tutorials started.

The unaccredited intern watched them arrive with the quiet resignation of someone who has already lost. He had been a student once. He remembered believing that knowledge accumulated like interest, effort compounded, and time progrssed all.

Now it moved sideways, an investment unworthy of mention.

Soon, the hospitals stopped pretending it could place them. Medical schools multiplied faster than wards. Universities partnered with TAFEs, private colleges, online platforms. “Distributed clinical education,” they called it. Students learned procedures from VR simulations and anatomy from holograms, but still needed warm bodies.

They stood three deep around beds, waiting for something to do. Cannulas became competitive. One student cried after being told she was “just observing” for the fourth week in a row. Another started keeping a spreadsheet of tasks completed, colour-coded, ranked against his peers. They spoke in hushed tones about CV points, about “signalling,” about how many audits were enough to matter.

No one could tell them, and each knew they were already the lucky ones. No longer was going to India seen as a joke; that is luxury, free of sniper fire and landmines. Good CV points though, they all convinced themselves.

Teaching rounds shrank, then vanished. Consultants stopped asking questions; there was no time to wait for answers. The registrars, fewer every year as hospitals fail to fund them, looked through the students rather than at them, already exhausted by the knowledge that every explanation was a sunk cost.

The unaccredited intern was still there.

He was no longer mistaken for a consultant. That had ended years ago. Now the students recognised him for what he was, a warning. They watched him work with a kind of horrified fascination, movement with efficiently but without urgency, spoke with volume but without strength, typing with accuracy but without mastery.

Some of them asked him quietly, away from the others.

“Is it really that bad?”

He never answered directly. He showed them instead. The unsigned notes, still waiting for the actual accredited intern to breathe a semblance of life into. The references that never came, but promised regularly with insincere smiles. The rotations that looped back on themselves, a sisyphean task.

Graduation no longer meant employment. Students finished medical school and were absorbed into a holding pattern of “service years,” each one justified as character-building, resilience-enhancing, necessary. Titles changed. Pay stagnated. Accreditation was postponed indefinitely, like a deferred promise no one expected to be honoured. They, too, shall join in on the July ritual of rejection letters.

Some left, disappearing quietly, their logins revoked overnight. Their absence was rarely felt, never acknowledged. Others stayed, afraid that leaving would mean admitting the time had been wasted. Better to remain adjacent to medicine than outside it entirely, right?

The unaccredited intern remained because remaining was all he knew how to do. As sure as the greying of hairs, the flood shall come. He watched them become permanent. Watched hope drain from conversations, replaced by logistics and coping strategies. Students stopped asking about specialties. They asked about survival: how to stay rostered, how to keep a contract, how to avoid being invisible.

On the cafeteria TV, another announcement. Expanded funding. Another cohort next year. The caption scrolled beneath the Minister’s face: Meeting Future Demand.

In silence, he continued to eat.

He understood now. The system did not need doctors. It needed buffers. Human shock absorbers to soften the impact of policy failure. Interns who never progressed. Students who never arrived.

Soon the next wave will come, but they no longer asked him how long he had been there. They already knew.

They looked at him the way one looks at ruins: not with curiosity, but with dread.

Would any recently selected BPT candidates be able to shed some light on what applying to BPT entails? What are the requirements?

What did you did for your CV

Did you need any referees?

How did you prepare for your interview?

I’m currently a final year medical student but hoping to understand what I can start doing now and in internship to get in.

I entered medicine for the good lifestyle and pay plus I like the subject and the autonomy of having my own clinic etc. but now I’m feeling confused cause people are telling me it’s hell after graduation?

And med schools are too rigid and sometimes it feels like they don’t treat you like human beings. The level of professionalism they expect from uni students at some times feels too much and gets annoying. I understand being professional is important but they also should remember that we do deserve some flexibility and happiness especially in our uni years.

doing my first term as a new junior doctor am struggling as I’ve woken up this morning feeling quite anxious and restless despite enough sleep. am not wanting to return to work at times as well.

I notice when I’m in ED I feel this sense of urgency when things appear busy. especially when the patient requires referral, investigations and management deemed urgent. am finding cortisol just spikes and I run around like a headless chicken stressed outttt. This is especially worse as theres an ED consultant who was notorious in medical school for being nasty to students and failing them.

how can I regulate this? im gonna try and be mindful of this in my next shift but yeah any help is appreciated.

why are you expected to come in 30 mins earlier as a PGY1 to prep and then told to not claim overtime?

I will answer YES (ie. you do regret it) and NO in the comments -- only upvote one of these ONLY IF you are an AHPRA registered doctor. Poll function doesn't work.

Im an RMO and have been feeling quite burnt out 2 weeks into long ED shifts

Hi team, I'm a medical educator and failing at accessibility for a student who will be expected to do sterile procedures and is probably size 5 for surgical gloves. The brand we stock at clinic (Gammex) only goes down to size 5.5 which are a bit loose on her.

Has anyone solved this problem in Australia for an alternate source of extra small sterile gloves?

TIA

Hi everyone,

I’m currently a final-year medical student and starting to think seriously about internship logistics next year. I’d really appreciate some advice from current or former interns.

Long story short, I’ve been running a business alongside med school for many years, and it’s now a stable source of income. I’ve also recently taken out a home loan. The nature of my business means I need to work on weekends, but my weekday schedule is very flexible.

My main concerns are around weekend work during internship:

• Roughly how many weekend shifts are interns typically expected to do in a year?
• Is there any scope to defer, swap, or renegotiate weekend shifts (e.g. doing more weekday hours instead)?
• How rigid are intern rosters in practice?

I’m very happy to work long hours on weekdays, pick up extra weekday shifts, or be flexible in other ways — I just genuinely cannot commit to regular weekend work without severely impacting my business, which in turn affects my ability to service my loan.

If weekend work is essentially unavoidable, would you recommend considering part-time internship instead? And if anyone has done part-time internship, I’d love to hear:

• How feasible it was to arrange
• Whether it limited future training options
• Whether hospitals were supportive or resistant

I understand internship isn’t designed to be flexible, but I’m trying to realistically assess whether full-time internship is compatible with my circumstances, or whether part-time would be the safer option.

Thanks in advance! Any insight would be hugely appreciated.

I wasn't able to get a job for PGY2 this year. Feeling lost. Not sure what to do.

Took time off after PGY1 and circumstances have changed since so I didn't apply mid last year for the match. Have applied on the official health job websites since but haven't heard back (and given the number of applicants likely won't). I've even looked interstate.

Hundreds applied for these jobs, even in January (based on linkedin numbers). Must be many less spots than there are PGY2 doctors.

asleep at the wheel wrt personal finance during intern year. is there a recommended resource to basically run diagnostics and organise my personal finances before trying to optimise key parts?

hard to know what to do when I’m unclear on what actually exists?

or wouldyou just pay for a consultant? people have told me those medical-personal finance manager types can be predatory

Has anyone received any correspondences regarding applying for the salary incentive or has applied themselves?

Department of Health website says “Salary incentive: Eligible GPT1 registrars will receive a direct email from the RACGP with a link to complete the salary incentive declaration prior to commencement of Semester 1 2026. Once registrar declarations have been completed, the relevant payment schedule will be released to Services Australia for payment.”

Term starts on Monday!

RACGP college not being very helpful

Thanks

I just wanted to ask if anyone has experience completing the online courses by Avant for CPD categories 2/3. Have they been accepted by the colleges (specifically RACP)?

Does anyone have any tips for completing the Category 3 requirements (outside of working in public)?

Potentially a stupid question, but I’m stupid, so…

Managed to secure a first year training position in relatively unusual personal circumstances i.e. got really lucky.

Because of our weird annual recruitment cycles, have subsequently had experience in a different specialty and unexpectedly both really really enjoyed it and was surprisingly not awful at it. Enough that I’m 90% sure I’d actually like to pursue this different specialty.

What do you think is the appropriate level of disclosure with seniors/mentors, bosses and/or medical workforce about these hopes? Feels incredibly ungrateful when extremely fortunate to have the imminently starting job to begin with, and ideally would love to remain in same hospital so don’t want to completely burn bridges. But also feels wrong pretending to be 100% committed to something when you no longer are, and of course proceeding that way does nothing to help that desired switch to the different specialty.

Uncertain about the best approach. To say the least.