Training positions

[Alvin]

Hey @wilsontao

These are some good questions – understanding the system is important to preparation 🙂

Here are my thoughts…

1. Do you know how many positions LAN 1 and 2 usually offer historically?

Each home hospital within a LAN has a fixed number of trainee positions accredited by RANZCR, e.g. RPA has 18, Westmead has 15. The yearly intake for new trainees for that home hospital each year depends on the number of registrars moving on. For example, if 4 final year registrars pass their exams and move on to consultancy, then 4 positions will open for 1st year trainees for that same home hospital.

However, sometimes regs may need extra time to pass their exams, so a position would only open up once they pass – which could be mid-year for example.

Now to answer your question, I’m slowly putting together historical data on the Insights page (click here). It’s worth checking every once in a while as I slowly update the data from across the LANs. I also encourage other trainees to help provide input so we can paint a complete picture of radiology training across Australia.

2. When they say 50 positions for LAN 3, is that the intake across all 5 years as opposed to first year in take? Eg. there might be 20 positions to share between years 1/2 and 30 to share between 3/4/5 etc? So in reality there might only be like 10 positions for year 1?

Yes – 50 positions within LAN 3 includes all current trainees from all home hospitals. In NSW at least, there’s no set allocation for how many 1st, 2nd, 3rd yr trainees (I think the same would apply for other states/territories). This all depends on the movement of the registrars towards the end of the training. It may also be possible that no 1st year trainees are recruited for a home hospital if no registrars move on that particular year.

3. What is the difference between SRMO and Unaccredited Trainee? I assume being an unaccredited trainne would give you a higher chance compared to SRMO to get you onto a trainee position the following year? So strategically the best way to preference would be Trainee -> Unaccredited -> SRMO?

I assume you’re referring to SRMO and unaccredited trainee positions in radiology specifically.

On paper, an unaccredited trainee/registrar bears more responsibility than a SRMO. But… in practice, I imagine the job itself is much the same. i.e. I don’t know of sites where there is both an SRMO and an unaccredited trainee, where the latter assume more senior responsibilities. Thus I would think panels would view the two positions similarly. It’s probably different for other specialities like surgery and critical care where there is more of a distinction.

I think at the end of the day, if you were unsuccessful in getting a trainee position, I would probably choose the job that best suited my personal circumstances (distance, hours etc), personal interests or matched a training site that I would one day like to work in.

I’m going to slowly gather job data on these ‘stepping stone’ jobs (like SRMO/unaccredited roles) offered in the main recruitment and post it up in the insights page. Stay tuned 🙂