Background

A national meeting on Intern Allocation was convened by the Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils (CPMEC) in November 2009 where a working party was established to articulate the development of sharing information related to multiple acceptance of intern offers across jurisdictions. The working party includes representatives from AMSA and AMA DIT.

Goals of the Process

The audit will be run as a pilot for eligible medical graduates seeking an internship for the 2011 clinical year. The pilot is being run to provide jurisdictions with a greater understanding of the nature and extent of applicants holding multiple acceptances.

Benefits of the Process

The auditing process will:

Minimise the number of vacant intern positions across jurisdictions at the start of the clinical year
Enhance collaboration to support the national priority of providing Australian trained graduates with an intern year in light of the expansion of medical graduates

For Applicants

In accepting multiple positions adequate notice needs to be given to the state or territory in which they are not accepting a position, in order to avoid vacancies at the start of the clinical year.

A National Audit of Intern Acceptances will take place and specific information gained from application forms will be sent to an independent central administrator (based in NSW) responsible for administering the National Audit process.

If applicants are identified as having multiple acceptances they will be contacted by the independent central administrator and will be requested to decide by a certain date which position they will be accepting.

Being identified as holding multiple acceptances will in no way affect your opportunities to secure an intern placement.

Independent Central Administrator

NSW IMET will provide a staff member to act as the independent central administrator for the pilot audit process and will ensure all information received is stored securely in a password protected spreadsheet and that applicants' privacy is protected.

The central administrator is responsible for identifying applicants who have accepted more than one position and asking them to make a decision by an agreed date as to which position they will be accepting

Privacy Information

The independent central administrator will sign a confidentiality agreement which will include confirmation that:

All information received will be kept secure and confidential and in accordance with privacy legislation
Only the central administrator of the National Audit of Intern Acceptances will have access to the information sent
Once the audit has been completed all identifying date, documents and back-up will be destroyed

Due to State Privacy Regulations, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania will not participate in applications form their jurisdictions being contacted and will only share information to gain an understanding of the number of applicants holding multiple acceptances.

Applicants have the option of "opting out" of the process by contacting SA IMETs Recruitment Coordinator, Kylie Ward.

For more information regarding the National Audit of Intern Acceptances for the 2011 Clinical Year please contact Kylie Ward – kylie.ward@health.sa.gov.au or 08 8226 6129

For information on the full process in which SA is participating please click here.