Organisation: Fiona Stanley Hospital – South Metropolitan Health Service
Job Title: Registrar – Trainee – Respiratory Medicine
Location: Fiona Stanley Hospital
Demonstrated clinical and procedural experience sufficient to undertake the safe care of
patients of the specialty
My dedicated experience in respiratory medicine includes a 10 week rotation as a Hospital
Medical Officer at Frankston Hospital and a 2 week rotation in a relief capacity as Registrar at Sir
Charles Gardiner Hospital. In addition to these terms, I have gained significant clinical and
procedural experience as a Hospital Medical Officer, a Resident Medical Officer and a Registrar in
treating patients with respiratory symptoms in positions including a 13 week Intensive Care Unit
rotation, Emergency Medicine and General Medicine rotations and experience in the Medical
Admitting Unit.
During my various experiences, I have encountered patients suffering from a wide range of
respiratory conditions, including bronchogenic carcinoma, interstitial lung disease, pleural
effusion, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, bronchiectasis and respiratory failure. I have
successfully diagnosed respiratory conditions and provided appropriate treatments. As well as
dealing with specific respiratory cases during my dedicated respiratory medicine rotations, I have
needed to maintain an awareness of respiratory conditions to allow me to identify and treat those
which may emerge during my other rotations such as emergency and general medicine. I have
identified respiratory conditions through physical exam, taking of patient and family health
history, and tests such as pulmonary function tests.
Adding to my exposure to respiratory medicine, my diverse and rigorous training and experience
in other aspects of medicine add to my ability to provide safe care of patients. In 2010 I had the
opportunity to commence working as a medical officer at the La Trobe Regional Hospital. In this
hospital I successfully completed rotations in emergency, psychiatry and surgical specialties, and
rehabilitation medicine. To expand my horizons and learning opportunities, I moved to Frankston
Hospital as a senior medical officer in 2011. As a senior medical officer at this hospital, I was able
to accumulate valuable clinical experience in a wide variety of fields including general medicine,
emergency medicine, respiratory medicine, oncology, cardiology and neurology.
For the past two years I have been undertaking Basic Physician Training at Sir Charles Gardiner
Hospital, completing training in renal medicine, neurology, general medicine, geriatric medicine,
medical oncology, rehabilitation medicine and the intensive care unit. The extensive and thorough
training and experience I have received throughout my career to date, ensures that I am
wellequipped to provide care as a Registrar in respiratory medicine.
Demonstrated ability to provide medical education, teaching, supervision, training and support
to resident medical officers and interns
As a Registrar I have gained a substantial amount of experience in the supervision of interns and
resident medical officers in a hospital setting. During ward rounds, I am accompanied by interns
and residents and provide information and advice and allow for the extension of knowledge by
encouraging questions and asking for the opinions of those accompanying me. I provide training
through demonstrating medical procedures and skills, such as detection of clinical signs and taking
of history from patients. Maintaining a flow of communication and discussion through ward
rounds, I discuss the actions I am undertaking and the reasons for my actions. This demonstration
allows interns and residents to then gain confidence in performing procedures themselves for the
first time.
I undertake hospital teaching through case presentations and make myself available for questions,
discussion and advice. This extends to making myself available for after-hours calls to answer
questions over the phone. With the belief that it is important for the development of knowledge
to be able to gain experience in a supportive environment, I make efforts where appropriate to
allow interns and resident medical officers to undertake new procedures and practice new skills
under my guidance. While new skills are being developed I provide supervision and guidance, and
make myself available afterwards for feedback and discussion. Through providing positive
feedback and constructive advice for improvements as appropriate, I encourage the development
of high standards of ability in those whom I train.
Maintenance of a professional and approachable demeanour provides interns and residents with
the confidence to approach me with questions or requests for advice. By taking the time to
demonstrate and discuss techniques, conditions and diagnoses, I contribute to the development of
knowledge. I ensure that my communication with interns and residents is clear and concise, in
order to accurately provide information that will be useful to them in their future medical practice.
As a doctor who reads widely to extend and maintain currency of my own knowledge, I enjoy the
opportunity to share my learning for the benefit of others. Through discussion of current research
or new published material, new knowledge is gained.
Demonstrated verbal and written communication skills and interpersonal skills to effectively
interact with patients, their families and staff at all levels
A confident and clear communicator, I am equally comfortable conversing through written or
verbal means. While most of my interaction in my role as a doctor is in person, I possess a
demonstrated ability to communicate clearly across electronic and print forms, on the telephone
and in face-to-face environments. As an effective communicator, I am able to adapt my
communication style to suit my audience.
In my personal communications I possess a professional and amenable interpersonal style and am
able to communicate professionally and appropriately with all levels of staff, patients and their
families. In communicating with patients, I make efforts to place myself in the shoes of the patient
and understand the hospital experience from their perspective. In this way, I can empathise with
their concerns and more effectively explain their diagnosis, proposed treatments and prognosis.
Through understanding of the patient’s needs and responses, I am able to build rapport with the
patient and their family. This rapport encourages the open exchange of information and allows me
to provide reassurance and comfort to patients and families who are upset by the hospital
experience and hence resistant to treatment that would be in the best interests of the patient.
My interactions with staff see me maintain professional courtesy with all hospital staff and
communicate clearly and concisely with appropriate respect for the position held and the
professional knowledge and expertise of the staff member. I am able to build good relationships
with hospital staff, which serve to enhance the care of patients.
With English as my second language, I undertook the International English Language Testing
System (IELTS) testing in 2009, the same year I arrived in Australia. Obtaining scores of 7 and 7.5 in
each of the categories (listening, reading, writing and speaking), my band score falls in the
category described as “generally handles complex language well and understands detailed
reasoning’. I have continued to develop and refine my English language fluency over the past six
years in Australia and continue to seize opportunities such as the chance to make case
presentations to continue to extend the effectiveness of my communication.
Demonstrated organisational and time management skills to provide safe, timely patient
centred care
An effective planner, I am able to manage my shifts and my caseloads in a manner which allows
optimum care to be delivered to my patients. Meticulous in my personal and professional habits, I
ensure that attention is paid to the detail in my work. This ensures that errors are not made and
patient care is not compromised through haste or inattention. My attention to patient needs
supports active involvement of patients and their families in decision-making about individual
options for treatment.
Through planning of my day I am able to maintain effective care of a high volume of patients while
maintaining the ability to attend to constantly evolving priorities. Even in high-pressure, rapidly
evolving environments such as emergency medicine, I have found that my organisational and
planning skills have provided me with the ability to attend to urgent matters within appropriate
timeframes, without being distracted by other less urgent demands. By prioritising and
maintaining a clear understanding of the relative urgency of competing demands on my attention,
I am able to ensure that optimum patient care is not compromised by a high workload.
I am conscious that patient experience of hospitals can at times be frustrating, and I ensure that I
communicate clearly and regularly with patients to ensure that they are informed of the next
steps in their treatment and when they can expect those steps to occur. By communicating well
and ensuring that the patient is notified of any delays, I contribute to the patient’s experience of
feeling that they have received appropriate and timely care.
Priding myself on punctuality and reliability, I keep commitments I have made to my colleagues
and complete actions by the agreed time. I maintain open lines of communication with fellow
health professionals on my patient’s care team, ensuring that others know what they can expect
of me and when I will be able to deliver treatment or results. As a single person, I commit my time
to my profession and furthering my medical knowledge, experience and skill. I am more than
willing to undertake overtime and participate in on-call roster as these assignments provide me
with additional opportunities to develop as a physician.
Demonstrated participation in continuing medical education activities including regular
performance reviews to maintain and upgrade knowledge & skills
Demonstrating my commitment to my profession and furthering my medical knowledge, I
dedicate substantial amounts of my personal time to reading new studies and journal articles in
order to broaden and deepen my knowledge of medical practice and contemporary methods.
Wherever possible I attend teaching sessions, lectures and stimulation courses. I attend weekly
grand rounds and participate in presenting the medical problems and treatment of a particular
patient to an audience consisting of doctors, residents and medical students.
At the commencement and conclusion of each rotation, I conduct a learning needs analysis to
ensure that I am obtaining the necessary knowledge and competency through my experience in
each particular field of medicine. I also participate in mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise cases to
assess my learning and competency.
Demonstrated ability to monitor and review their clinical effectiveness, note their limitations
and put in place strategies to ensure safe patient care
It is a habit, in my professional practice, to continually assess my own performance and identify
the areas where I could improve my knowledge and skill or seek opportunities to gain further
experience. Whilst I have a strong interest and thorough theoretical knowledge of common
respiratory medicine conditions, I recognise that my direct experience in this field is still
developing. To this end, I would ensure that in practicing as a Registrar in the field of respiratory
medicine, that I did not allow over-confidence to compromise patient care.
By drawing on the knowledge, experience and advice of professionals around me, I would aim to
extend my own knowledge in any area where I identified weakness. I am aware for example that I
do not possess particular expertise in interpreting CT scan images; for this reason I would be likely
to draw on the expertise of the radiology department in reading CT results. Likewise, I would
potentially request supervision the next time or two I undertook a pleural tap procedure, as this is
something I have not done in some time. Through recognising areas such as these where my
knowledge is still developing, and putting in to place strategies to ensure that I can effectively gain
experience without compromising patient safety, I demonstrate awareness of my own ability and
the capacity to monitor my own effectiveness.
I am dedicated to continuous improvement in the quality of care that I provide to my patients. In
this process, it is important to have a specific improvement program with a well-defined objective.
To this end, I set myself concrete goals of extending my knowledge in particular areas where I feel
my skills could be improved. I then seek opportunities to learn through observation, attending
lectures or seminars, reading articles or initiating discussions with other physicians. Through taking
as many opportunities as I can to observe and then repeatedly undertake a procedure, I improve
my level of expertise and ability, rather than allowing myself to develop areas of skill shortfall. In
this way I continue on my journey to become a well-rounded physician with depth and breadth of
skill and knowledge.
