WE LOOK FORWARD TO CONTINUING
OUR GREAT TRADITION OF EMERGENCY
MEDICINE AT PINDARA AND HELPING
TO CREATE THE NEXT GENERATION OF
EMERGENCY SPECIALISTS.
including intensive care and paediatrics in
addition to emergency medicine.
At the end of their training, registrars must
undertake a fellowship exam which will
determine whether or not they are granted
fellowship into the College and if they can begin
their career as an emergency medicine specialist.
“We only take on a small number of trainees,
mostly senior registrars who are nearing the end
of the program and who are actively preparing to
take their fellowship exam,” Dr Walters said.
“The beauty of having only a small number of
trainees is that we can provide a more tailored
learning experience while they are at Pindara.
We can work with the registrars more closely
and assist them through the areas they think
they will find most challenging within the
fellowship exam.”
Current Registrar within the Pindara program,
Dr Jessica Tipene, applied to undertake her
training at Pindara as she wanted to experience
emergency medicine within both the public and
private settings. She had been very impressed
by the quality of the program, especially the
personalisation and support available.
“There are significant differences between
practicing medicine and undertaking training in
the public verses private sector and I wanted the
opportunity to experience both,” Dr Tipene said.
“Private medicine offers more opportunities to
work and learn from specialist staff and you
are able to consult directly with a specialist on
cases that require referral. This is experience you
don’t often get in the public system and I thought
it would be beneficial for my training. The
patients you see in private and public emergency
departments vary greatly as well.”
It was the wide scope of patients and
presentations that drew Dr Tipene into
emergency medicine in the first place.
“I enjoy the variety of patients you see in the
emergency. I can be seeing an older patient with
a cardiac issue or a young child in respiratory
distress, or even a young man with a complex
fracture. No two days are the same; no two hours
are even the same,” Dr Tipene said.
With only 12 months left in her specialist training
and after having seen emergency medicine from
both sides, Dr Tipene said she would probably
like to work in both sectors.
“There are things to like about both. Private tends
to be less chaotic and you have more time to
spend on individual cases – you are not rushing
to get patients in and out, it’s more personalised
and patients just tend to be happier.
“In public you can see 300 plus patients a day,
there is a lot of pressure to move patients through
quickly, lots of pressure for beds, but you do
get to be involved in the big stuff, like major
traumas, which tend to get the adrenalin flowing
– something we emergency doctors can enjoy,”
Dr Tipene said.
Dr Walters agrees there are definite character
types who are drawn to emergency medicine as
a specialty.
“In addition to being slightly crazy, with an
extremely short attention span, emergency
specialists need to be excellent organisers, like to
work quickly and are able to prioritise. These are
essential attributes we value and look for in our
trainees, because without them the patient won’t
make it,” Dr Walters said.
Over the last couple of years, government
funding for emergency medicine programs has
been cut and the number of facilities offering
these opportunities has contracted, however
Pindara’s program has remained steadfast
due to the excellent teaching provided and
the quality of the opportunities and facilities
available to students.
We look forward to continuing our great
tradition of emergency medicine at Pindara
and helping to create the next generation of
emergency specialists.
12 Pindara Magazine ISSUE 14 | 2018