International Elective at Univ Sydney - Advice please!

[evajaclynn]

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My friend and I are students at a U.S. medical school and would like to do an international elective rotation in Sydney in Feb 2009.

There is this website available: http://www.medfac.usyd.edu.au/futurestudent/electives/apply.php
and we are to choose a school to where we want to apply. However, I know nothing about these hospitals. I was wondering if a student with experience concerning hospitals in/around Sydney might be able to offer some advice.

I realize that we should pick depending on what sort of rotation we would like to do, but many of these places offer similar programs (its hard to tell from the website).

The schools: Central, Concord, Westmead, Nepean, Northern, Western.

ANY advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Dr.Millisevert]

My friend and I are students at a U.S. medical school and would like to do an international elective rotation in Sydney in Feb 2009.

There is this website available: http://www.medfac.usyd.edu.au/futurestudent/electives/apply.php
and we are to choose a school to where we want to apply. However, I know nothing about these hospitals. I was wondering if a student with experience concerning hospitals in/around Sydney might be able to offer some advice.

I realize that we should pick depending on what sort of rotation we would like to do, but many of these places offer similar programs (its hard to tell from the website).

The schools: Central, Concord, Westmead, Nepean, Northern, Western.

ANY advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Westmead hospital is huge, and lots of great experience. However its located in a not so nice area of town. (will take you an hour by train to get back to the city and the beaches)

Liverpool hospital: even worse area of town (slighty further west), but one of the best trauma hospitals in the city. (usually those two things go hand in hand in any city)


RPAH (Royal Prince Alfred) would be good choice. centrally located (near main campus of the university), good hospital, and not too far from the beaches(Manly, Bondi, Bronte, etc "public city beaches"), etc if you wanted to get out for the day. They even film a local reality tv show here (think learning channel) where they follow doctors and residents ("registrars") around while they treat patients.

Royal North Shore Hospital: Nice Hospital located in a more surburban area(soccer moms), but still close to beaches (Northern Beaches are cleaner and more secluded than the public city ones, but you may need a car to reach them). (Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Mathew McCon.. etc usually have holiday homes on or near Palm Beach). They also film a local soap opera here (Palm beach). 🙂

Hope that helps. 👍

 

[evajaclynn]

Thanks for the info! Just wanted to get a basic idea of the hospitals - we probably won't have a car, so it would be nice to be near public transportation. Any other advice would be helpful - thanks again!

 

[Dr.Millisevert]

Thanks for the info! Just wanted to get a basic idea of the hospitals - we probably won't have a car, so it would be nice to be near public transportation. Any other advice would be helpful - thanks again!

I would opt for RPAH or RNSH then. 👍 Good luck

 

[aussiegirl]

Although check the Australian news about Royal North Shore...there have been a series of patient incidents leading to a government inquiry. While a lot of the problems at North Shore are common to most hospitals in NSW, perhaps it's not a great place to be right at the moment

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/25/2146296.htm

 

[KCShaw]

For USyd clinical schools, I'd agree with Royal Prince Alfred ("Central") as the best all-around option (location, teaching, reputation). You could also consider Prince of Wales Hospital (through UNSW), which is located closer to some of the beaches.

Concord is further west (towards Westmead), but would be good if you have a strong interest in burn treatment & could get in with that unit (though when I was there that particular unit didn't take many/?any students). Liverpool for trauma/surg, as already mentioned. The public transportation system is pretty decent (clean enough, safe, reasonably reliable), too.

Kinda depends on what you want to get out of it. I figure if you want to travel that far you should have some fun, unless there are other reasons for traveling to Australia. The central, higher reputation hospitals will generally be more demanding -- still, everyone I worked with while I was there encouraged all our elective students to take a few days to enjoy the place (no guarantees, of course). Most elective students were from Europe/UK, for what it's worth.

 

[lyndal]

I would be going for Royal Prince Alfred- you get the great experience of a busy hospital and the fun of being in the city- Sydney is a great place to be, so why be in the suburbs?

IMHO !!
Lyndal (now living south of Wollongong but born and bred in Sydney!!)

 

[JoeNamaMD]

RPA is probably the most well known hospital in Sydney. Good locale compared to Westmead which is in a ghetto like area.

Brad Pitt, Tom C, and Matt McConaughey have homes in Sydney??? Great more celebs to gentrify the place. I heard Brad Pitt's favorite place isn't warm or tropical, its Berlin, Germany, Pitt has a very German Nazi like look to him, it would not surprise me. Are you sure its not Palm Beach, Florida??

Mel Gibson's nutcase bigot father lives in Redcliff Queensland, if you want to see the Australian version of Bible Thumping Religious Looney Southeast USA, Queenlsand is it. Everyone in Sydney describes Queensland as "backward", I happen to be in QLD, one more year to go and I am going to Vic or NSW.

A cab driver told me Michael Jackson owns a home in Byron Bay.

I guess you have it made if you own homes in several high profile places on the planet. Boohoo, I am going to a be a lowly doctor.