Exploring your options - how to research your specialty choice

Students

Medical school is a busy time. Significant contact hours and study, often combined with part-time work and an active social life, seem to leave little time for career concerns. However, just a small amount of time spent considering your future career at various stages throughout medical school can save quite a bit of heartache in the long run. Far too many doctors find themselves in their second or third postgraduate year ready to move on from residency, but either confused about which vocational training pathway is right for them, or with a CV that does not advantage them in the application process. Some simple steps as a medical student can help you to begin deciding on a training pathway that suits you, and to be a very attractive candidate when applying in the future.... more

Junior Doctors

In this section we examine what's in store for you when you graduate, and some of the important considerations for interns and residents when planning their career paths. Regardless of whether you excelled at medical school, your activities as a junior doctor can open many doors.... more

The following five tools help you explore your training options. The tools are: Risk categories tool Female trainees tool Part-time trainees tool Remote/rural trainees tool Exam pass rates tool They provide statistical information about many specialties.... more

Medical indemnity

Medical indemnity insurance protects you against the financial consequences of litigation. Claims are lodged when standards of care are felt to have been breached resulting in the personal injury or death of a patient. An important component of individual premiums is the your risk profile. This is typically determined by a number of factors: medical specialty income band/gross billings location (jurisdiction) of practice. Your risk profile depends largely on the claims experience of a given indemnity provider, and thus premiums can vary significantly between providers.... more

Specialty statistics

We have provided some tools for comparing specialty programs based on criteria which may be important to you when choosing your training pathway. These include: Exam pass rates Female trainees Part-time trainees Remote/rural trainees Medical indemnity risk category... more

Medical indemnity risk categories

Your risk category indicates the level of litigation risk on a scale from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) assigned to your specialty by one of the large medical defence organisations in Australia for 2007-08. For more information, see our medical indemnity section. The risk categories are reproduced by kind permission of MDA National Insurance Pty Ltd, for further details please refer to the MDA National Insurance Pty Ltd website.... more

Female trainees

Data is from 2006 unless otherwise stated. Please note that for colleges requiring a period of basic and advanced training, this data relates to advanced trainees only. Source: Medical Training Review Panel.... more

Part-time trainees

Data is from 2006 unless otherwise stated. Please note that for colleges requiring a period of basic and advanced training, this data relates to advanced trainees only. Source: Medical Training Review Panel.... more

Remote/rural trainees

Data is from 2006 unless otherwise stated. Please note that for colleges requiring a period of basic and advanced training, this data relates to advanced trainees only. Source: Medical Training Review Panel.... more

Exam pass rates

Data is from 2005 unless otherwise stated. Source: Medical Training Review Panel.... more