Supervision for interns
Prevocational medical training for interns incorporates aspects of the apprenticeship model of 'learning on the job’ as part of a team. Senior doctors supervise and assess the interns’ performance, providing them with ongoing feedback and gradually increasing their responsibilities.
Prevocational medical training for interns in PGY1 and PGY2 is overseen by prevocational educational supervisors and clinical supervisors.
Prevocational educational supervisors
All interns are assigned a prevocational educational supervisor. Prevocational educational supervisors are vocationally-registered doctors appointed by Council to provide educational supervision, pastoral care and support to a group of up to 10 interns over the course of a year.
Key times an intern will meet with their prevocational educational supervisor include:
- At the beginning of PGY1 to support the intern to develop their PDP.
- After each clinical attachment to discuss the intern’s progress.
- Towards the end of PGY1 to review progress and discuss the intern’s plans for PGY2.
- Following completion of MSF to discuss the feedback report.
Reference documents
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The Prevocational Educational Supervisors Guide outlines the role of the prevocational educational supervisor in the prevocational medical training programme.
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This document is a guide for prevocational educational supervisors on how to support their interns to complete the MSF process and provides information on how to interpret the collated report before discussing the results with their interns.
Clinical supervisors
On each attachment an intern is assigned a clinical supervisor. The clinical supervisor’s role is to supervise and guide an intern’s learning on a particular clinical attachment and to provide formal feedback on performance and progress.
Clinical supervisors meet formally with the intern three times during the clinical attachment as described below.
Beginning of clinical attachment
To discuss learning opportunities and help the intern develop goals in their PDP. These should target areas for improvement identified in the intern’s previous ‘End of Clinical Attachment Assessment’.
Mid-attachment
To discuss the intern’s progress and performance, and review goals in the intern’s PDP. This is an important meeting where the intern is given feedback on areas for improvement for the remainder of the attachment.
End of clinical attachment
To discuss the overall performance, achievement of PDP goals and progress on the 14 learning activities. This meeting will form the basis of the intern’s ‘End of Clinical Attachment Assessment’.
Reference documents:
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The Clinical Supervisors Guide outlines the role of the clinical supervisor in the prevocational medical training programme