How long does it take to become a paedeatrician - 10 years? (1 Viewer)

[Schoey93]

I am aware that the shortest time it takes to become a FRACGP (qualified Australia and New Zealand General Practitioner) is 10 years, with a five-year undergraduate MB BS or B Med.

Normally it takes 11 years to become a GP. Does it take 11 years to become a paediatrician, which seems to effectively be a Children's GP? How long does it take? What is the postgraduate fellowship called? FRACP - Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Paediatricians?

Thanks for your help on this matter.

Regards

James Schofield

 

[KFunk]

A rough minimum in NSW would be:

- Undegraduate medicine (5 - 6 years)
- Two years of hospital rotations for registration and experience (2 years - PGY1 & PGY2)
- Basic training (3 years)
- Advanced paediatric training (3 years)

Therefore you are looking at ~ 14 years if everything runs smoothly, however, life tends to slow a lot of people down (love, death, marriage, kids, etc).

Also note that paediatrics is quite a competitive specialty. I expect that this is in part due to the relatively small number of training places. From memory paediatrics only accounts for a little over 5% of training places (depending on how your carve up the statistics, based on either first year or total places). As with other competitive areas of medicine this will often entail that you need to obtain more experience before you will be admitted to the training program.

In any case, paediatrics is a hard thing to count on. In general you would be better off getting a general feel for medicine and whether it suits you. Some people stay committed to the same medical pathway from day one, but from my experience most change their minds as they go a long. Even at my stage in undergraduate medicine it is difficult to have a full sense of what each area of medicine is like.

 

[KFunk]

FRACP stands for Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. The RACP has two primary divisions, one of which oversees training in adult medicine, with the other dealing with paediatric medicine.

The website is probably of more use to a medical student, but see if you can get something out of it: RACP: Training Pathways

 

[Paradox1345]

thanks for the info. wow 14 yrs.
Another question, when you apply for these colleges, what is the criteria that they use for acceptance into these specialisations. i.e. assessments of performance or something, certain tests? I understand there is also interviews?

 

[KFunk]

thanks for the info. wow 14 yrs.
Another question, when you apply for these colleges, what is the criteria that they use for acceptance into these specialisations. i.e. assessments of performance or something, certain tests? I understand there is also interviews?

Currently there are no formal intern examinations, though the possibility is being discussed by a number of bodies, partly due to an increased need to rank junior doctors in training due to the sudden influx of graduates from all the new medical schools.

Relevant factors will include references from clinical supervisors (i.e. it will help if you impressed and got on well with the supervisor for your paediatrics rotation), past research and higher education (published papers, masters, PhD), level of clinical experience (e.g. are you a PGY1 just about to complete internship, or a PGY3 with experience as a senior resident), type of clinical experience (do you have challenging, relevant terms under your belt like emergency, ICU and general paeds or have you remained in 'fluffy' or overspecialised territory - dermatology, psychiatry, shoulder orthopaedics - not to speak of these in a 'low' manner), relevant projects and advocacy (have you been involved in medical politics or public health initiatives?), etc...

Also important - are you a likeable person? The training director of a given hospital, and their associates, will end up having to spend a lot of time with you working/training if they select you. Simply put: if you are an asshole they won't want you on their team. Note that there is also a halo effect here. I seem to recall a study which suggested that surgeons, on average, are taller and more attractive than their physician counterparts (note: surgery is more competitive).

Add to this the usual common sense stuff.

 

[ninjapuppet]

Also important - are you a likeable person? The training director of a given hospital, and their associates, will end up having to spend a lot of time with you working/training if they select you. Simply put: if you are an asshole they won't want you on their team. Note that there is also a halo effect here. I seem to recall a study which suggested that surgeons, on average, are taller and more attractive than their physician counterparts (note: surgery is more competitive).

spot on mate.

I do add, that quite a few junior doctors i have worked with eventually go overseas, to the UK / US or canada their specialty training. sometimes, you might even think race has something to do with it...... Nearly all orthopeadic surgeons of asian background that i know of, have had their training overseas.

you'll have to sit exams upon returning to Australia, but its an alternative if you're dead set on becomming a paedeatrician.