An overview
Medical education is a continuum - undergraduate, prevocational and vocational training progressing through to continuing professional development - and a range of bodies (or groups of bodies) are responsible for the various points within this continuum. As a result, the continuum of training is not a smooth and seamless process.Undergraduate
Undergraduate medical education is the responsibility of the universities and all university medical courses must be accredited by the Australian Medical Council in order for their graduands to be recognised as doctors. There is no formal prescription of individual elements of a university’s medical curriculum, with the exception of a requirement to use a specific Indigenous health curriculum framework. The peak organisation representing the university medical schools is the Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools (CDAMS).Pre-vocational
After graduation, newly qualified doctors are required to undertake a broadly based pre-registration year within an accredited hospital. During this time they will be employed by a public hospital. Each state has a postgraduate medical education council that accredits hospitals for training and the peak body for the councils - the Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils – has recently developed a common curriculum for the early postgraduate years.After successful completion of the first postgraduate year, a doctor is eligible for unrestricted registration in a particular state or territory through the relevant medical board. However, medical registration alone does not allow access to a Medicare provider number or the Medicare Benefits Schedule. To do this, a doctor must complete specialist training or meet other specified criteria.
Many doctors will undertake an undifferentiated second postgraduate year, which is also overseen by the postgraduate medical education councils, before entering specialist training. At this time, the doctor is also generally employed by a public hospital.
Increasingly, the medical specialist colleges are encouraging trainees to 'stream' or start specialty training in the second postgraduate year.
Vocational
From postgraduate year three, trainees usually start vocational (specialist) training under the supervision of a medical specialist college. During this time, they are still employed by a hospital. The training posts and/or programs undertaken by the trainees are accredited by the colleges for training. The process of accreditation varies from college to college. Some colleges have a basic training program followed by an advanced training program in a particular sub-specialty. For other colleges, there is simply an advanced training program.The training programs vary in length between four and seven years (minimum, assuming no delay in progression due to failure at assessments or undertaking part-time training). In general, the training programs are based in metropolitan teaching hospitals. An exception is the general practice training program for which only one year of the three-year training program is spent in a teaching hospital. The remainder is spent in functioning general practices.
There are eleven specialist colleges and the peak body is the Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges (CPMC).
It should be noted that often the same teachers, trainers, supervisors and assessors work in the undergraduate, prevocational and vocational parts of the system, mostly on a pro-bono basis.