Physician training in Australia
All doctors wishing to practise adult internal medicine at a consultant level in Australia are required to be Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). A doctor must fulfil all training requirements of the RACP for admission into the Fellowship. The training program in adult internal medicine consists of at least three years each of basic physician training and advanced physician training. Basic physician training may commence from the beginning of the second medical postgraduate year; registration as a basic physician trainee with the RACP is optional in that year and mandatory in the third medical postgraduate year. The Fellowship Examination is an ‘entry’ examination; it has two components - a written and a clinical - which are usually conducted, in the final year of basic physician training. Success in both components of the examination and completion of the accredited basic physician-training program are prerequisites for recognition of advanced physician training.
Basic physician training in Australia
Basic physician training consists of at least 24 months of core training, to be completed in internal medicine rotations, and up to 12 months of non-core training, which may be completed in medical and/or non-medical rotations which have been approved by the hospital's Director of Physician Training. Detailed guidelines on the content of basic physician training may be obtained from http://www.racp.edu.au/page/btp.
International Medical Graduates (IMG's)
IMGs wishing to join an RACP training program after January 2010 must first have been assessed by the Australian Medical Council (AMC) as being competent to practice medicine in Australia and must provide evidence of satisfactory completion of the AMC Certificate.
