MUMUS 2017 medical careers night presentation about Eastern Health

1. w w w . m u m u s . o r g
Internship at Eastern Health
Dr Vanessa Wong, Eastern Health intern

2. About the network

3. Sites
Victoria’s second largest health service (behind Monash Health),
with a diverse range of hospitals. Hospitals with intern placements
ares:
• Box Hill Hospital
• Maroondah Hospital
• Angliss Hospital
• Peter James Centre
• Epworth Eastern (private secondment)
• Bairnsdale Regional Health (rural secondment)

4. Process
• 67 rotation blocks
• Preference 1-67
• 66 out of 67 people got their top 5
preferences, the 67th got in their top
20
• Broad internship experience (I will be
working in 4 different hospitals this
year)
Rotations
• Core rotations
• General medicine
• General surgery (bariatric, colorectal,
breast & endocrine)
• Emergency
• + 2 of
• Another core rotation
• Renal medicine
• Urology
• Psychiatry
• Aged care/rehabilitation
• Nights/cover
Internship rotations

5. Pros and cons

6. Teaching
Weekly paid teaching (for medical rotation):
• Medical grand rounds
• Medical unit meeting
• Intern teaching
Teaching available:
• Case presentations
• “What’s the evidence” (journal club)
• Booking simulation lab

7. Mentoring/support
• Every intern is offered a mentorship program where they are
matched with a consultant
• The Director of Postgraduate Medical Education (Dr Jenny
Brookes) and the Supervisor of Junior Doctor Training (Dr Jane
Lukins) are very supportive, and you will meet them one-on-one
• Doctors are generally friendly

8. Experience a private hospital
10 in 67
• Medical and surgical rotations offered at Epworth Eastern
• Different range of demographics and conditions
• More exposure to various specialists who round daily

9. Nights/rural distribution
Avoid nights
(52)
25 27 15
Avoid rural
(42)
Avoid both

10. Cerner Powerchart
• Patient pathology, radiology, medications, previous discharge
paperwork in the same window
• Enough computers on the ward
• Accessible on your own device
• Automatic discharge summaries and medication lists!

11. My time is valued
• Culture where you feel safe handing over your patients at change
of shift
• Consultants support you to get overtime when required due to
workload
• Overtime provided for updating handover, online training

12. Committee opportunities
• RMO Society
• This year 7/8 of committee positions held by interns
• Run (excellent!) social functions, furnishes common room etc.
• Junior Medical Staff Advisory Committee
• Workplace issues affecting JMS
• PMCV
• Accreditation surveyors, JMO forum etc.

13. Employee perks
• Guaranteed car parking for doctors for a nominal fee
• Accommodation (utilities, wifi) for rural placement available for a
nominal fee
• Salary packaging, discounted purchases

14. Potential concerns
• “Eastern doesn’t have my training program”
• HMO2 paediatric program includes secondment to RCH
• No neurosurgery or cardiothoracics is performed, but the general medical
team I have been on has had 3 patients referred to a neurosurgeon (who
visits on site, and is happy to discuss the case with), and patients who
have had cardiothoracic surgery
• “I’m worried about my future prospects if I didn’t train at a major city
hospital”
• Our Dean, Prof Mitchell, did her advanced physician training at Eastern
Health

15. Application process

16. z score
• 70% of selection process
• No set minimum z score
• Traditionally third hand word of mouth data for lowest score is mid-
2s
• For z score estimations please visit http://kevinshi.cf/internz/ (raw
data on Github)

17. Clinical references
• 18% of selection process
• These are the two references you upload to PMCV (i.e. the same
for all hospitals you apply to)
• No additional requirements (2 consultants you’ve interacted with in
a clinical environment in the past 2 years)
• Comments are important, not just the numerical score

18. Non-clinical reference
• 4% of selection process
• Unique to Eastern Health
• Can be from anyone (Prof at university, someone you worked on a
committee with, your part-time work supervisor)
• Workplace based attributes
• Basically a standard reference letter an employer would ask for in
most jobs

19. Cover letter
• 4% of cover letter
• Standard employment cover letter
• Address to Director of Medical Workforce Unit (name in PMCV
guide)
• Why you want to work here, qualities you have, your clinical
interests etc.

20. Curriculum vitae
• 4% of selection process
• Upload to PMCV (same as for all hospitals)
• You’ll hear LOADS about this if you haven’t already

21. What you don’t have to do
• “Answer in 500 characters or less” on an online form
• Everything you want to be known about yourself should be on your cover
letter, references and CV
• Interviews
• Eastern Health get about 900 applicants for 67 positions – not practical to
interview
• Have previously had placement here
• 12 out of 67 interns were Monash students (last year, over 40 were)

22. For more information
• Visit Eastern Health official Medical Careers Afternoon
• Friday 28th April 1-3pm

23. Good luck!

24. w w w . m u m u s . o r g
Dr Vanessa Wong
E a s t e r n H e a l t h
v a n e s s a . wo n g @ e a s t e r n h e a l t h . o r g . a u
@ f i r s t d o n o wo n g