Hey listeners – this week we have a chat to Dr. Piyumi Wijesundera who is a general medicine registrar. Dr. Wijesundera is very passionate about her field and it is really great to hear from someone who so thoroughly enjoys their job. She provides a lot of information about the benefits of doing general medicine and the sort of care you are expected to deliver to patients and how this may differ from a more specialised field. She also gives us her thoughts on pursuing research in order to become a better candidate during job applications and whether or not it is necessary for medical students to be involved in research.
Dr Wijesundera goes into detail about the pathway from a medical student to a gen med consultant and the number of years and exams involved. She also discusses dual training and the option for someone pursuing general medicine to pick up a separate specialised field to also practice in as part of a dual training program. We ask her about her day-to-day jobs and the amount of hours she spends at the hospital, as well as how these hours are split between completing clinical and non-clinical work. Dr Wijesundera also gives a brief description of the types of patients and cases you treat in general medicine – it’s really a very wide variety!
We hope you guys like our sixth installment in this podcast series! Like usual, we appreciate any feedback you may have for us.
If you have any other questions you’d like us to ask Dr Piyumi Wijesundera, fill out the form below or shoot us a message!
Pathways into General Medicine
Medical School → Internship → Basic Physician’s Training (3 years full time equivalent) → Advanced Training in General & Acute Care Medicine (3 years full time equivalent) → Option to do an extra year in a different speciality for dual training → Consultant
Source: Royal Australian College of Physicians
Salary
According to the Australian Government Taxation Data, in the 2013-14 income year we had:
- 500 female general medicine specialists earning an average of $207,225
- 1,023 male general medicine specialists earning an average of $315,114
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