Clinical experience

From the very first week of the medical program students have patient contact in the various Clinical Schools: Western, Central, Northern and Rural Clinical Schools provide students with invaluable clinical experience in a variety of settings.

The Clinical network comprises large urban hospitals and smaller rural hospitals. This offers students a balanced view of urban and rural health care and their differences. Across the hospitals a huge range of specialisations are catered for, with paediatrics and its sub specialties being the focus of the Children's Hospital at Westmead.

Students have access to most parts of the hospitals; they are able to sit in on surgical procedures, visit wards and accident and emergency units.

Clinical Schools provide students with access to the internet, library catalogs and email as well as to study and exam areas. It is not all work, thankfully, as students can relax in common rooms, swimming pools, and lounges or whip up a meal in bbq areas and kitchens within the hospitals.

While practical clinical experience forms the basis for all learning in the latter two stages of the USydMP, it is accompanied by a structured teaching program. The balance between clerkship-based activities and scheduled sessions varies. In general, formal teaching sessions reduce in number and frequency as students move from the early part of their Stage 3 attachments to the last rotations in Stage 4 and are essentially withdrawn in the Pre-internship term.