You may have noticed many different position titles and unfamiliar terminology when scrolling through medical job ads, and just to make it more confusing, different titles in different states and territories. I’ve written this brief post to explain them.
DiT stands for “Doctors in Training” and refers to doctors who have completed their medical degree (MBBS or MD) and are not yet specialists. DiTs include Interns, Residents, Career Medical Officers, International Medical Graduates (non Fellow), and Accredited and Unaccredited Registrars.
PGY stands for “postgraduate year”. In Australia, doctors are Interns in their first postgraduate year, referred to as PGY1. While some specialist medical colleges accept entrants into their accredited training programs directly after completion of PGY1, most prefer applicants to have completed a second or even third year of prevocational training (PGY2/3) in the hospital system to gain more clinical experience and greater levels of responsibility. Doctors during this period of prevocational on-the-job training are known as Hospital Medical Officer (HMO) in Victoria, Trainee Medical Officer (TMO) in South Australia, and Resident Medical Officer (RMO) in all other states and territories, or “Residents”. The designation of Junior, Senior, or Principal House Officer can be appointed at the discretion of the employer. This prevocational training stage helps equip junior doctors with the prerequisite experience and procedural skills for entry into specialist training programs.
Accredited Registrar is the title given to doctors undertaking vocational training with a recognised specialist medical college. Vocational training is mostly undertaken in public hospitals, however, can include rotations in private hospitals, regional, rural and community health settings. The exception is general practice, where doctors undertake most of their training in designated private general practices in a community setting.
DiTs can also be appointed the position of Unaccredited Registrar, working within a particular specialty with the level of responsibility of a Registrar, without being formally enrolled in an accredited training program with a specialist medical college. Unaccredited Registrars have typically worked in Senior Resident roles already and thus have adequate experience to fulfil the responsibilities of a Registrar. Experience as an Unaccredited Registrar, however, does not count toward progression to fellowship.
Upon completion of an accredited training program with a specialist medical college, doctors are awarded fellowship from their college and can register as a specialist with the Medical Board. With specialist registration, doctors can practice independently and unsupervised in their area of expertise. Specialists are typically recognised by their specialty profession name (e.g. General Practitioner, Radiologist, Pathologist, Orthopaedist, etc.). Physician broadly refers to specialists in any of the internal medicine sub-specialities. Surgeon broadly refers to specialists in any of the surgical sub-specialities. The titles Specialist and Consultant are generally interchangeable.
Career Medical Officers are doctors that have completed an internship, are employed by a hospital, and are not seeking specialist training.
Locums are Residents or Registrars who work casually.
Points to note:
· IMGs on the Standard Pathway should (in most cases) apply for Resident (PGY2+) positions (HMO, TMO, RMO, JMO, SMO).
· In general, IMGs on the Standard Pathway (prevocational medical practitioners) should refer to themselves as “Doctor”, not Physician. In Australia, Physician refers specifically to an internal medicine specialist.
