Training

Becoming a General Physician

Principles of Advanced Training in General Medicine

3. Other Aspects of Advanced Training in General Medicine

Mentors

IMSANZ offers trainees a choice of suitable and willing consultant general physicians who will act as mentors for advanced trainees. The mentor will be available for each trainee during the whole of her/his advanced training. From time to time, the mentor may be "supervisor" for a year or for a portion of a year of training. This mentor role will normally be separate from that of SAC-appointed supervisor, will be continuous during the period of advanced training and will be at "arms length" from the more formal role of SAC-appointed supervisor. This system is designed to encourage the most appropriate choice of rotations throughout the three year programme.

Procedural skills

Some basic procedural skills will be acquired during the undergraduate course, some in the intern year and some during basic and advanced physician training. IMSANZ does not make firm recommendations on which particular procedures are appropriate. Consultant physicians in general medicine are necessarily diverse in the extent to which procedural skills are relevant to their practice. Skills such as echocardiography, gastrointestinal endoscopy, liver biopsy, bronchoscopy etc may be desirable as part of the training programme, especially when subsequent practice in a rural setting is envisaged. It is felt that training does not cease with the award of Fellowship and that the acquisition of particular procedural skills should be possible following the completion of training depending upon the particular general consultant physician and/or the environment in which she/he wishes to practice at a particular time. While the capacity to competently perform procedural skills is critical, it is also considered inappropriate to define either a minimum number or a threshold of competence for procedural skills as a requirement for completion of advanced training in general medicine.

Specific programmes for particular advanced trainees

IMSANZ does not define specific programmes for trainees who may wish to train for particular positions (eg non-metropolitan practice, academic general medicine). The clinical, teaching, research and administrative roles that consultant physicians ultimately undertake are likely to differ somewhat from those skills attained by the end of advanced training. Self-driven continuing education and maintenance and improvement of professional standards, whereby existing skills can be extended and new skills acquired, must continue to supplement formal training. It is hoped, however, that the mentor system will enable trainees with specific goals to more satisfactorily design suitable programmes for themselves.

Post-FRACP accreditation in general medicine

The issue of subsequent acquisition of the skills necessary to practise general consultant medicine by those who have trained specifically in sub-specialty areas should be considered. IMSANZ does not specify minimal requirements for consultant physician practice, but will offer mentors for those sub-specialty trainees who may wish to practice more broadly based general medicine. Mentors will assist in the planning of appropriate post-Fellowship programmes. The SAC may also be involved in approving a supervised programme to the standard equivalent of that advanced training in general medicine.

IMSANZ considers that advanced trainees should attempt to plan ahead for the whole three year period, rather than for each year to be taken in its own context. The above programme is not intended to unnecessarily constrain flexibility and choice for individual trainees.

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Awards & Scholarhips

There are currently four IMSANZ awards/scholarships open to Advanced Trainees. See Resources > Awards & Scholarships.