Medical interns take first steps

By Emma Shaw
Updated November 6 2012 - 1:25am, first published January 11 2011 - 9:21am
Dr Brendan Leslie is an intern at Wollongong Hospital. Picture: GREG TOTMAN
Dr Brendan Leslie is an intern at Wollongong Hospital. Picture: GREG TOTMAN

A new generation of doctors will take to the wards at Wollongong Hospital next week.The batch of 50 interns, including 17 recent graduates from the University of Wollongong's Graduate School of Medicine, arrived on site this week for orientation.Wollongong Hospital's director of pre-vocational education and training, Dr Lily Shen, said the new doctors would spend three days attending lectures and workshops before they were assigned to working teams."It's a big step from being a medical student to becoming a doctor," Dr Shen said."Although they will be very junior members of staff during their internship, they will be performing initial assessments and treatments."Dr Brendan Leslie, 26, a University of Wollongong graduate, is looking forward to following in the footsteps of his father, who is a doctor in the emergency department at Shellharbour Hospital.Dr Leslie, who grew up in Stanwell Park but is now based in Wollongong, will begin his internship working in the emergency department and said he was interested in eventually working in general practice or emergency. He said he and his fellow graduates were excited to start their new careers."There's always a degree of intimidation but we're as ready as we can be," Dr Leslie said."I'm looking forward to putting that knowledge into practice. I'm nervous but I feel ready."Dr Shen said the number of interns was growing, up from 37 last year, which would help address the shortage of medical professionals at the hospital."Next year we expect an additional 10 and in the years to come we expect the supply to be more than the demand," she said.

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