Welcome Junior Doctors 2022!

January 14, 2022

This week, 50 enthusiastic junior doctors commenced their internship orientation virtually.

Dr Carol Chong, Supervisor of Interns, said the Omicron variant made things unpredictable for the Medical Education Unit.

“Our aim was to ensure the safest and best experience for the new interns. Half of the intern cohort are from the Northern Clinical School and are familiar with the hospital and the other half of the cohort is a mixture of Monash, Deakin, interstate and overseas interns,” she explained.

One of them is Joshua Lendon, who moved from Geelong into Melbourne’s north for this opportunity. He is now looking forward to becoming more familiar with how the hospital is set up, and the tasks he will be performing every day.

“I am actually from Deakin, and was trained in Geelong. I am excited to do some hands-on doctoring and explore different areas through my rotations. Northern Health staff have done a great job of organising the online orientation. Thank you Northern Health for taking me on. I am excited to be here and make a difference,” he said.

His colleague Christie Yung, who studied at the University of Melbourne, is also is very excited about her internship and the upcoming rotations.

“I am starting at Psychiatry and looking forward to seeing how it looks at Northern. Everyone has been saying a lot of good things about Northern Health, and I am looking forward to being in this culture and working here. I also had to move houses to live closer to work and I am looking forward to getting to know the north better,” she explained.

“It’s the first time that we’ve had to go virtual for most of the orientation. Interns have done very well to navigate around MS Teams and the various channels we have created online to ensure a smooth virtual transition. It has been great watching them using the chat function to ask questions and seek clarification,” said Susie Sangas, Medical Education Manager.

Susie and the team also held a face-to-face two-hour workshop, which involved rotating through Basic Life Support, Cannulation, PPE and Indwelling Catheters skills stations in small groups, in N95 masks and face shields.

“There is also an opportunity for the interns who are not familiar with the Northern Hospital to get a tour by the outgoing interns,” Susie added.

“It has been a huge effort from many staff in the hospital to ensure orientation runs smoothly. We’d like to thank everyone who has participated so far. Some of them are Jeff Khoshaba and team Pharmacy and the Junior Medical Staff Association (JMSA), who have been integral in the running of the orientation,” Dr Chong added.