Psychiatry

1. Intern (PGY1) — from PGY1, 12 months ranzcp.org
2. PGY2 general hospital year (ideally with a psychiatry rotation) — apply during this year — from PGY2, 12 months ranzcp.org
3. Selection: state BTC application + job application (Apr–Aug of PGY2; QLD/NSW/NT also Aug intakes and late rounds) — from PGY2, 5 months ranzcp.org
4. Optional: Psychiatry HMO3 / unaccredited registrar year (now common in metro Melbourne; not the norm elsewhere) — from PGY3, 12 months reddit.com
5. Stage 1 — 12 months adult psychiatry, ≥6 months acute (Formal Education Course begins) — from PGY3, 12 months ranzcp.org
6. Stage 2 — 24 months (CAMHS, C-L, old age, forensic, addiction rotations) — from PGY4, 24 months ranzcp.org
7. MCQ + MEQ examinations (during Stage 2) — from PGY5, 6 months ranzcp.org
8. Stage 3 — 24 months — from PGY6, 24 months ranzcp.org
9. CCA-MPR portfolio review, Psychotherapy Written Case and Scholarly Project (due by 60 months FTE) — from PGY7, 12 months ranzcp.org
10. FRANZCP — consultant psychiatrist — from PGY8 ranzcp.org

• RANZCP writ…: MCQ can be sat in Stage 1 but the community says the fail rate is noticeably worse without a year of clinical context; most sit Stage 2. The clinical OSCE was abolished after the Zoom debacle; the CC…

• Psychiatry Junior Registrar / Registrar — Canberra Health Services (ACT)
  Ads Jun–Jul plus extra rounds year-round; small cohort; no relocation between rotations.
• Psychiatry SRMO / Stage 1 — NSWSESI network (SESLHD / ISLHD) (NSW)
  The only NSW network to grow in 2025 (+2) while the others collapsed — relative stability post-resignations.
• Psychiatry registrar — NT Health (Darwin / Alice Springs) (NT)
  Feb AND Aug intakes plus case-by-case entry; whole program completable in the NT; tiny applicant pool (3 commenced 2025).
• Psychiatry Registrar (Principal House Officer) — Queensland HHSs (via Smart Jobs) (QLD)
  Advertised as rolling Expressions of Interest on Smart Jobs outside campaign windows — the easiest off-cycle entry in the country. Pairs with the December/January second Feb-intake round.
• Prevocational psychiatry RMO (via SA MET PGY2+ EOI) — Adelaide Prevocational Psychiatry Program (SA)
  SA's dedicated prevocational psychiatry feeder, preferenced through the SA MET EOI (10 Jun–1 Jul) ahead of the SA BTC interviews in August.
• Psychiatry Hospital Medical Officer (year-long, PGY3+, rotating and substantive) — Alfred Health (Alfred Mental & Addiction Health) (VIC)
  The purest 'psych HMO year' product in the country; explicitly framed as support toward RANZCP-accredited positions; adult inpatient + community.
• Psychiatry HMO / unaccredited registrar (recruited Jul–Sep); Stage 1 (12 FTE, recruited May–Jul) — Eastern Health (VIC)
  12 FTE Stage 1 places — one of the largest single intakes; huge rotation breadth (Turning Point, Spectrum, eating disorders). Requires a psychiatry rotation and a psychiatrist referee.
• Psychiatry HMO (community specialist clinics, youth, homeless, acute inpatient) — RMH / NorthWestern Mental Health (VIC)
  RMH requires a 10-week psych term as an essential criterion for Stage 1 — doing it in-house both satisfies the criterion and builds internal preference. Ads open 20 Apr.
• Psychiatry/Mental Health HMO — Western Health (VIC)
  Named psych HMO line in the PMCV PGY2 match.
• Psychiatry PGY3+ HMO — Bendigo Health / Latrobe Regional Health (VIC)
  Regional psych HMO posts recruited direct (PGY3+ outside the PMCV match); rural applicants auto-progress to interview at selection.
• Rural psychiatry registrar — RPTWA (rural psychiatry training WA) (WA)
  Rural applicants auto-progress to interview; counted in the 25–30 positions against ~50–60 applicants.

Same boat. Pgy3, unacc this year, didnt match again. Honestly, I dont think its worth more attempts for me. I gave it my all. Got first preference for GP, so will go ahead with that, which I am actually pretty excited about. Its degrading putting in so much effort and not getting in, especially for a discipline that is…

Have a pulse and don’t swear at the interview. But otherwise he a good intern, be keen to learn, let your consultant know you are keen so you can get a reference. Also isn’t being a “set registrar” what surgical specialities call it?

But your kiss of death appears to be mainly not applying widely.

Don’t stress, join PIF, publish a paper in psychiatry (which will likely count as your scholarly project down the line), get good references from psych terms as a junior

This system is cruel and unforgiving. I wish we could adapt the US model so people don’t have to suffer so much in the unacc purgatory.

Also got on this year, PGY2 , as did at least two of my other colleagues at the same level, outer metro hospital. No medical extra curriculars on the cv but did have a seperate career prior to med and lots of hobbies. A few people put good words through to the DoT (including a senior nurse that's been there for…

Didnt get matched either with 3 years of unacc experience in regional vic.

I am PGY8 and just got on a training program. Chin up, look at what you could improve on and apply next year. You’ll get on them almost certainly

Most services in psych HEAVILY favour their own PHOs when it comes to selection for registrar training position, especially because psych is somewhat competitive nowadays.

Several reasons in my opinion: 1) You can still get on to training as PGY2 - I have several colleagues and friends who got on the training program as PGY2 in major metropolitan hospitals. It is one of the few specialities where you can do this (GP and ED you still can get on as PGY2 from memory, but most training…

Didn't match... thought I had a decent chance doing a full psych HMO year, getting decent references and being in the same health service

I was lucky enough to match this year, PGY2 and internal applicant at a metro hosp. I think have research & committee roles really helped with my application. And I’m sure a large element of luck as well.

One of the most notable changes is that now weak applicants just won’t get in, and will end up in the same limbo as exists in other specialties. This means that since the applicant pool is increasing year on year, unless your issue was clearly lack of experience, you need to do something to not be a weak applicant…

Unaccredited for 1st 6/12 of 2023 as PGY2, then on program mid same year at same health service.

This is categorically false and perpetuates an unwarranted view that psychiatry isn’t as serious as other medical specialties. There are plenty of things to criticise RANZCP for, but this is not one of them.

So sick of these posts with people with superpowered CVs, asking if it's enough to get a psych spot. I do not know a single person who had research in psych before getting on. Reminds me of atarnotes days, where ppl with 99.8 altars publicly freaking out whether it was good enough for med, despite obviously good…

To move back to Vic for stage one, you need to either have an agreement with a hospital you left or be a very good candidate Years of experience is a bit of a double edged sword and not much of a metric

I was a PGY 2 when I got into Psych Training. I had no audit, no research, no unaccredited role prior and probably just an OK reference. Got accepted into “not a major metro hospital” training. I also know a few, who has the same credentials as me who got accepted into some metro but probably not the most sought after…

Very sorry to hear that. I could not recommend enough that people in Victoria apply interstate if they can. I like my job but would have seriously reconsidered the path of it took more than one unaccredited year.

I received an offer as a PGY2 applicant to a regional health service. I interviewed for 3 regional hospitals and had previously worked at 2 of them. I only had 1 psych rotation so far during my internship, but had started a FEC this year, was involved in research and attended a few psych conferences through PIF. I knew…

No luck and I am incredibly devastated, don’t even know how to go about becoming more experienced or even competitive. Unaccredited jobs will probably be the same story. Feels it’s all about who you know, and who agrees to acknowledge your communications.

I will second this, I got on PGY2, decent on paper and opted to (stay) regional. There are significantly more opportunities to get back to Melbourne or wherever else in latter stage 2/stage 3/as a consultant - better to get on the program earlier and get through it instead of repeatedly trying year after year for the…

Well don’t feel too bad. I’m PGY4 and have been in the same health service since intern year. I have been an unaccredited psych reg since PGY2. I applied in intern year, last year and now this year, all unsuccessfully. I can answer some of your questions though because I have done this before 1) If you did not…

I received a regional Victoria offer as a PGY2 interstate applicant, after interviewing for 3 regional services. Hoping to get an offer in my home state though but heard it’s ultra competitive.

100%, I think the challenging part for me has been the complete disconnect between current registrars and consultants in understanding what the current job prospects are. I’ve felt quite built up by the others around me, who seem to think that getting an accredited role is a shoe in.

Focus on enjoying and passing med school. I don't think that stuff is necessary. You don't have to pretend you wanted to do a $40k masters of blahblahology to get a chance. Do a rotation as a RMO and work hard during that term. Make it known to your registrars and consultants that you want to do psychiatry.

As a PGY2 that's applied to psych this year (and probably won't get on due to not yet completing an unaccredited year) - be very careful which colleagues you divulge your own lived experience to, it's not helpful a lot of the time - psych rotations early in internship, and then early as a PGY2 so that you have at least…

It really sucks to miss out. There used to be a second round of offers for Victoria (that’s how I got in), but I’m not sure if this is still the case. Due to some unusual circumstances I wasn’t offered an interview in my home state, so I made the decision to contact all the interstate branches to see if there were any…

Verbal agreements definitely does not work because i was given one and the hospital did not even offer me interview

Take my advice with a grain of salt, but based on RANZCP and friends working in college, the biggest barrier is convincing a service to hire you into an accredited position. If you get an accredited position and good references you will get onto the program unless you are a complete psychopath in the interview. Nothing…

Passing the college requirements is a cakewalk - almost everyone passes it. This come as no surprise to anyone that knows about VPTC/Vic psych training. You need to get both college branch approval and an accredited spot at a hospital. The actual challenging part is getting the actual health service job, and you…

Take up a psychiatry term as a RMO, work hard and be reliable. Let your interest in psychiatry be known to the department. If you don't get on 1st try, you will on the 2nd.

It's not been possible for a long time in WA both in rural or metro. There's just too few spots and more than enough people with registrar experience. Often 18 months or more at the time of application. Definitely still possible in rural or undesirable networks in NSW. Your training experience may not be great. I…

I’m not that far out of Brisbane and my clinical director spent a lot of time last week calling around trying to find regs for inpatient spots starting this week, while another hospital was calling our regs a few weeks earlier trying to poach them. I’m not sure how many of those could be training spots given we’re also…

I’m PGY3 - doing a general SRMO year now and about to start an unaccredited psych reg role next year. I didn’t apply for the college this year as I felt I am not ready yet given I haven’t done a psych term since internship… Given the competition is only increasing every year, was it a mistake to not apply for the…

No problems! 1. Past psych experience is highly favoured and would argue this is the most important thing on your CV. In fact if there's one thing I would say to maximise chances of getting on program it's having prior experience in psychiatry (rotational or as a psychiatry HMO or unaccredited registrar). Ideally this…

Tbh last year in metro Melbourne i knew of a couple of applicants who didn’t get on and had superpowered CVs. So OP, yes it’s enough to get on, but a lot will come down to the strength of your referees and the strength of your interview. I suspect those two people with superpowered CVs who didn’t get on probably…

Greetings, I am a Stage 1 Psychiatry Registrar currently working in Adult Inpatient rotations in Queensland. However, due to personal circumstances, I am interested in exploring opportunities in Victoria.

I'm an unaccredited registrar here and I'll likely have to go over east for training. Unless, I get really lucky with WA.

Just anecdata, but the only places I received interview offers were the ones where I proactively reached out to the DoT, and requested a catch up to express my interest and ask some questions.

Doesn’t matter which state. This is across most states now.

I moved to NSW for psychiatry training. I don't regret it as it let me travel for a year and do other things before going into training. With how training is looking at the moment I'm desperately looking at other options

>What would you say are the top 2-3 things that would make one stand out? Okay so the ***best*** things you can do to get onto the program in 5-10 years time will be: 1. Do a year as an unaccredited psych reg. 2. Get glowing references from 2-3 psychiatrists that you worked closely with during that year (this can be…

I’ll go out on an unflaired branch as a stage 3 in NSW who applied for training interestate after an unsuccessful local application. 1. I doubt services you didn’t apply to will reach out to you. I strongly encourage you to reach out to them though. As a supervisor said to me: it doesn’t matter where you train, just…

Depending on the state you are from, realistically would need 12-18 months registrar experience to get a look in for training

You could probably get onto the program without a lot of psych experience or contacts. Breadth of experience is valued, especially as an inpatient registrar has to manage a lot of physical complaints. Your application may be seen more favourably than a PGY1 who has done a 10 week rotation but doesn't have anything…

Do rotations in non psychiatry specialties especially ED, rehab, neurology, paediatrics etc, to make you a well rounded doctor

Hey! 1. I feel like I didn't do anything particularly special or different! As I mentioned above, I think the most important thing you can do to standout as a candidate other than ensuring you have had past psych experience and are applying to the same hospital that you ideally are working at as a psych…

Very fortunately matched year, to one of my top preferences. Am ecstatic to say the least, but I feel for everyone who has missed out - definitely a slough and getting more and more competitive every year, and sounds like unaccredited years isn't enough to cut it now :(

I don’t think there’s a consolidated list, and honestly it can be changing up to the last minute based on what’s happening with boss staffing, which is very volatile and often locum availability dependent. It’s not so much issues with the site being accredited, as there being a boss with capacity to do the intense…

Just received an email with an offer to do Psych PHO (unaccredited Reg) position in Toowomba Hosp. I am an Ireland Graduate, finished internship in Adelaide, currently PGY 2.

There's a document called "getting started in psychiatry a guide for junior registrars." Many of us read it before starting. Incredibly helpful. Also see my response to Distatic below. In terms of your chances, the great thing about psychiatry is they don't care much for fluff. Just work hard and be reliable. The…

You need to ask recent trainees for the interview questions. The majority of the interview questions for RANZCP are recycled every year. There's generally no point applying until you've secured a position with a hospital service, in which case you should have no issue obtaining this. From what I've heard from friends…

My service actively encourages people interested in the program to reach out to the clinical directors of the sites they’re interested in, as well as the local College training branch. A boss I was on with a bit back also strongly recommended contacting the people running the specific allocations you want as well. I…

Hey OP, Don’t beat yourself up. It’s annoying how people bang on about psych being “the least competitive” specialty. It’s completely untrue in VIC and WA at least. It’s complete luck a lot of the time due to the sheer number of applications. There aren’t a huge amount of posts. Interest in psych is increasing for…

It absolutely doesn’t mean you’re good enough. Funnily enough some of my favourite registrars to work with where I did my metro unaccredited job actually didn’t get on there initially either. After I didn’t get on, even some of the consultants told me they never got on first time haha. Imagine how good a psych reg…

The interview process is a 2 part process: there is the RANZCP college interview + the hospital interviews. The RANZCP college interview is a video recorded interview, you can look it up on the college website, and the hospitals will offer your interviews (either telehealth or in person) if they think you are a good…

The scoring system is online. There’s a push to change the questions as pretty much every candidate going in knows them, but the gist of what they’re looking for is likely to remain the same: [https://www.ranzcp.org/getmedia/2c9a8122-2562-448e-95ca-e32d2476d6e6/interview-to-commence-training-template.pdf](https://www.…

This is a hard one. I think you can deskill as a doctor even with years of working as a general hospital medical officer. I think it comes down to the individual, some people learn heaps as an intern, have a decent spread of rotations as an intern and may have already wanted to do psych, and so PGY2 is ok for them.…

I also strongly disagree about doing a unaccredited year (speaking as a current reg). There’s no material benefit, especially when you’re clearly psych keen and will get on comfortably. Training really isn’t that strenuous in first year. You’ll be fine. :)

In ANZJP as a med student? That’s pretty good. It’ll help. But also being clinically sound it’s important. Get LORs and complete a few months of unaccredited and you’ll be fine.

It’s insanely competitive now for some reason, other states aren’t so bad especially Queensland so if you are willing to move for training, I’d probably cast a wide net. I got on in 2024 as a surgical resident with no prior psych experience apart from a 10 week psych intern rotation.

It's your standard registrar interview but psychiatry flavoured. You'll be asked some questions that assess a bare minimum of clinical acumen, your ability to navigate challenging interpersonal situations (either with colleagues or patients), your ability to practically complete the job under pressure, something…

Can only speak for Vic and QLD. Victoria currently 1 year as a psych HMO or unaccredited reg seems sufficient. QLD seems 6 months as a PHO? (There is twice yearly intake)

It's been getting more competitive over the past few years, especially in non-NSW states. Unaccredited time is mandatory for many of the more popular postings, and I know that a lot of the big hospitals (or ?all) in Vic basically exclusively hire from within. That said, Western Sydney LHD was the hardest hit by the…

I’m a bit out of touch with the exact training numbers, but from second hand information PGY3-4 entry is still very realistic. If we model worst case scenario under the NHS curve then I forecast maybe PGY6-7 if you’re a first year medical student.

I am a PGY6 working as an unaccredited psych reg. Turning 40 in a few years with a young kids. After having 2 children, my love for medicine has changed and my family is now my main priority.

NSW- no dramas at all, hell we’ll probably start taking em straight out of med school at this rate. Jokes tho- NSW is a bit of a shit show at the moment, which has made other states just that little bit more competitive

Incredible how much the landscape changed in a decade.

Competition is quite low. Especially in NSW, where several locations are desperate for registrars and unable to even fill 50% of their training spots. I think rural psychiatry is awesome but I would not want to be a rural trainee in NSW right now.

Getting more competitive. People are failing to get on. Some that get on can't get registrar jobs.

Literally the worst doctor I know got onto psych as a new reg for this year. I know other, better, doctors who have also got on. In fact I know of no one who wanted to get on who didn’t manage to do so at the first attempt

Where I work, over 20 unaccredited psych regs/HMO applied for <10 accredited spots. 100+ applicants from other hospitals/interstate. It’s my 2nd year here as a psych HMO/unaccredited reg. Didn’t even get an interview anywhere else.

Everyone I’ve ever met who wanted to do it got on either first attempt or the second attempt and most had zero psych experience, not even a resident term in psych, and suddenly they were working as psych registrars. Some were IMGs who’d barely worked in Australia and were still working out the local health system. I’m…

these days, getting on without 1) being an internal applicant and 2) unaccredited experience is pretty much impossible in any melbourne hospital, including both of those you mentioned

>What are the expectations for your CV? Medical degree, general registration, good references. A JMO psych term is nice to have. >How much research do I need or is expected? Zero >How many years of unaccredited regging do people do on average? 0-1 >What is the average PGY that people get on? PGY3-4 >If possible…

Don’t listen to cookers. The popular psych training schemes are very competitive, about 100+ applicants for 10-15 training positions. Most do a year or 2 or unaccredited registrar positions to build up their resume before getting on but sets you up well to have a smoother training experience. Apply to the main…

Successful for regional/rural spot! PGY2, no unaccredited year, was an intern last year. During my Mercy interview this year, they mentioned that there were 270 applicants and 114 spots across the state. 90+ applicants applied to Mercy alone. Hope this helps! Best of luck next year :)

It’s mostly internal hires these days. Hospital will say they’ve got 5 spots but they would have preselected like 4 people working at the department already so really there are 100 applicants for 1 leftover spot..

Out of ALL specialties except GP and pathology, psych is the least competitive by far.

There're no lack of trainees here in Vic. It's like 4:1 for a spot.

You are going to become a psych reg if you want to be one. At most the competition will mean you will need to do 1-2 unaccredited years. This is not a big deal on the timeline of a life.

Now pretty much all applicants have at least 6 months of unaccredited but median is > 1 year.

It's not quite this bad for anybody looking in metro Vic, although as with every job you'll obviously have an advantage if you're known already. Certainly things have gotten more competitive eg. you can't just apply with a single psych rotation like a decade ago, but the big services aren't locking out external…

Bloody eh. The year before I applied, my service at the time had 6 positions and 4 applicants 😂

It is absolutely not competitive. You’d probably have a decent chance even if you had conditions on your registration. Some (most?) networks will get you to do 6months rural in the first year. Being interstate won’t make a difference to the relative ease of getting a position. Services are stretched so tight that they…

I have noticed a pattern recently where psychiatry is suddenly appealing to those who have previously not had any interest, ie PGY 6 unaccredited surg reg, PGY 4 unaccredited anaesthetics reg, because of the the (relative) ease of getting into specialty training and the financial lucrativeness and lifestyle. How do…

This is great! Many networks struggling to have enough applicants for the number of positions available

I also heard it was very easy from this sub and people on CCIM. But this year Victoria was quite competitive, and I don’t think I’m going to get on. I’m a PGY2 unaccredited reg. I also did a lot of Psych in my intern year (over 10 weeks). PIF member. But no research. I applied for every service in Victoria. I got…

Compared to other specialties psych is much less competitive. I don’t think you need any research on your CV to get in. And yes, while there are clearly problems in psych training we need more keen registrars on the program to help address this. Feel free to PM me if you want more advice.

The best parts of training: * Truly a 9-5 job * Minimal emergencies * Very supportive and friendly culture in psychiatry for most parts * Less competitive entry, although quickly changing Worst parts: * Lots of useless assessments * Public sector dealing with high risk clientele puts our trainees at similar risk to…

Congratulations, this year was even more competitive than last. Apply through college (PGT), do your interview, if you succeed start training. The CD or CTS at your site should be able to point you in the right direction. The main question for PGT is generally if they can provide your mandatory CYMHS/CL rotation.

rural anything is generally not competitive but advice I've gotten from seniors is always to do your learning in metro because you get higher acuity, more complex cases

This year to get an metro accredited job there were 120 applicants for 10 positions. Regional had 40+ for 4 spots. It’s no cake walk anymore.

in metro melb, pretty much only internal applicants will be considered unless you are an outstanding applicant

The problem psych has, is that every year it becomes more and more competitive. There are 1) people who are interested from the start ie OP, 2) others who have tried other specialities and not been successful for several years changing their mind, 3) fully qualified GPs and/or other specialists trying to make the…

Psych is accessible. However, the last 2 years psych has been oversubscribed in NSW (afaik for the first time). That said, everyone I know who were waitlisted (small sample anecdote; byo salt) got a job offer eventually. Also anecdotally, among my jmo and med student acquaintances and the med students/jmos I have…

You need at least 2 years of service registrar experience (after RMO) to get in to psychiatry training in WA. It's possibly the most competitive place on the planet, compared to the NHS where they can barely give away their psychiatry training positions

My hospital had over 150 applicants for 7-10 positions. That being said, it’s not competitive…most applicants are not the competitive types.. they see psych as an easy fellowship with great pay and job security (which it is) and have no real interest in psych It’s very easy to beat out those applicants who just want…

For those asking, yes, believe it or not psych has become somewhat competitive now and part of that means a high number of applicants are now missing out, some for multiple years. A number of psych HMO years, or preferably unaccredited reg year/s is very normal in order to get an accredited spot, at least in VIC.

Keen to hear the stats from this year, last year was about 1/3rd acceptance rate but this year is the first year interns aren’t allowed to apply…interested to see how that might skew results.

Unfortunately budgets are incredibly tight across all HHS' currently, and ongoing stage 2 bottle necks mean it's very difficult to start many stage 1 trainees. From my knowledge a 12 month stint as a PHO is a minimum and for MS and MN 18-24 months is becoming increasingly common. Biggest recommendation is to tell…

It's one thing to think about doing psych as it's an "easy" specialty, but usually these people usually don't last more than a year or two. It can be a hard job and you need to have some passion for it, and bad registrars will often be identified and not be allowed to progress through training. I think that if…

I will add that pretty much every network will be over subscribed in SEA. I know my own had double the number of first preference applicants than total positions.

Seriously tho OP, if you want psych there are always gonna be reg jobs it might just at some point be a matter of doing a little work for them. We have recently gone from a situation where there was no competition for psych to a situation where there is mild competition, but everyone who is reasonably empathetic and…

My understanding is fewer spots (I think 28 this year) relative to the number of applicants, when compared to other states. Quite a well regarded program & work life in WA.

I'm not the best person to ask, but the easiest ways are: 1. Get to know the psych department well in your local hospital 2. Go to a regional hospital There are large variability in difficulty of getting onto training. NSW is easy due to vacancies and WA is hard.

Tried for the match this year, was advised that there were 140+ applicants for Northern so I can only imagine how many applicants for apply for the more popular health services. Thought that I had a decent application as a PGY2 HMO, but was humbled. Usually most metro service usually only hire their internal…

Don’t know where you get that - around 4 applicants for every place.

Not really a walk in anymore unfortunately. It's getting more and more competitive. Your chances after tapp are about 40% (so a bit higher than 1/3 but less than 1/2).

Mmmbopz describing specific hospital sites reciting crazy number of apps. I believe for total jobs vs total applicants the ratio is somewhere between 2:1 and 3:1. No unmatched positions outside 3 rural sites last year and I’m sure there will be none this year. It’s become very competitive very quickly and both…

I'm not sure if the other commenters are aware that WA is probably the most difficult state to gain entry into psych. Theres very limited training positions as in ~20 a year for the state. For the last couple of years I know almost no one as a PGY2 has gotten on. Practical advice is consider training elsewhere for an…

SA training is excellent. Entry into psych training is somewhat competitive (ie 1 in 3 applicants get in). They have a relatively high pass rate as far as exams go. There is a generally good training environment, flexibility with part time (other than child and cl) and there isn’t nights.

Just saw the numbers you posted on the other thread - 120+ applicants for under 10 spots means it's really competitive now. I know in previous years they'd increased training spots by around 20% across the state, but had heard there were uncertainties with funding for positions for 2025 due to state government cuts.

It's under 2:1 if you consider it as an entire state, although obviously some specific services might be getting disproportionately higher applications than others

Not sure exact numbers but they said they were pretty blown away and that people were probs willing to move in light of NSW stuff

I thought psych in QLD is much less competitive than SA? From the rough numbers some people told me, they had like 50 people apply to SA for 25 spots whereas in Qld it looks like there were 96 people selected out of 110 in 2024 as per medi nav Qld health.

An ideal candidate (in metro Melbourne) nowadays typically has: experience as an unaccredited psych reg, presented or published psych research, and some have even started their masters program. You can increase your chances by being willing to relocate out of the city or being known to the health services you're…

OP try to preference a psych term in the first half of your intern year, aim to apply for a psych HMO year at the service you're aiming to train at the year after then apply for training.

Victoria generally doesn’t do mid year entry. The services with places will generally be calling down the list of unmatched applicants now to fill any spaces, but I wouldn’t expect any unfilled in metro or the popular regional services.

Generally you can only start psych pgy3 now

for Metro Melbourne positions - pretty much, only the health service you work at will give you an interview (unless you are a gigachad epic genius) and it will be sometime in late May/Early June i had an option to do mine online

It means you’re somewhere on the eligibility list. Rejection emails are sent out either when deemed not appointable, or once all positions are filled and recruiters are sure they won’t need to go down the eligibility list. Annoyingly NSW Health recruitment software (ROB) doesn’t send out any emails for being in…

Before this year there was a combined interview for the college and the training network but the college requested this be separated into two going forward - who knows why. There is an outdated notion that anyone applying for psych in NSW will get a job, but for the past few years competent candidates have been…

Monash, eastern, Alfred and st vs Don’t know about the rest

If you don’t hear by the end of this month, I’d say so yeah

You apply, you interview, generally unless they have concerns for some reason if you have an accredited training spot lined up they accept you into the College and take your money. In Qld getting the accredited spot is the bottleneck for most people

My understanding is that they’re adding some more positions and still ironing out the details, though not sure which services in particular will have more spots

RMH has sent out interviews earlier today at around midday unfortunately I missed out Good luck !

I believe most applicants to the college are accepted unless you have answered the questions in a highly unethical/inappropriate manner, but the hurdle is getting an interview and then getting accepted into a hospital. You will find out if you passed the college interview on the day you find out if you have been…

The first thing to understand is that getting selected to RANZCP is only useful if you also get an accredited stage 1 job. Otherwise its functionally equivalent to not getting selected at all, as you have to repeat the same process of dual application the following year. Unless it has changed this year, the main…

You'll only receive an interview offer at this stage from your first preference. Health services can't interview any non first preference applicants until they've gone through the first round of offers.

Metro north has interviews today. Invites were sent last week. No ideas about other districts. Got my fingers crossed for you. To hijack your thread slightly, if anyone has any last minute interview tips, feel free to weigh in…

I had 3 interviews but all regional/rural hospitals

>I wasn’t ready to go back now but I guess i might need to consider that You will need to ask and get an idea about whether that service is still undersubscribed, then make a calculated decision about odds. >Also would know which intake I would need to apply for? [It differs in each state, but in QLD you need to get…

Thought I would write up a bit of a response because it was hard to get clear info on this when I applied. To answer your Qs first, I'd imagine most health services accommodate being able to do the interview online, because they do get applicants from NZ/interstate. Most people attend in person and that would be the…

Victoria doesn’t do mid year in 99% of hospitals, maybe Alfred does but they’ve preselected their own HMOs. Advise would be to pick up a long psych locum gig like 3-6 month term and work on getting in with bosses so they not only give you references but remember you when you apply

Was accepted in the match in August 2023, applied to RANZCP for mid year entry.

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/jmo/Pages/dates.aspx ^^ has the dates. To save the clicks though - 26/9/25

Yes did an interview for them! They said there are tons of applicants to get through compared to most years so maybe still processing?

I had an interview with Eastern last week

I received rejection emails today. Did you?

Seems like interviews are super early this year! And from the people receiving offers, it’s not completely internal????

RMH has been releasing interview offers since last \~thurs. I've also know people who got word from Alfred, Monash, and Western.

Adding on to this, but has anyone heard back on interview dates/timings for NSW stage 1 trainee jobs (the application that closed on 4th Aug)? I have very thankfully received an acceptance for the RANZCP fellowship program but have not heard back from NSW stage 1 applications yet!

They have started sending out letters this week. I'm not sure if this is done in batches/stages.

Peninsula, Northern, and Western has opened external applicant interviews. Monash started interviewing their internal applicants back in May

Eastern is interviewing internal applicants, haven't heard anything from St Vs or Austin

I think release date is towards the end of this month

I’ve been shortlisted for both TAPPP and general stream. Received interview requests some time ago.

- Mercy - Monash - Western - RMH - Eastern - Bendigo - Goulburn V - Austin - St V’s - Alfred - Peninsula

A friend got an RMH offer. Unsure about others

Yep, basically you wait. Another quirk is for mental health jobs in the campaign you tend to select the service rather than the hospital. So for example Metro North Addiction and Mental Health Service, Metro South AMHS, and West Moreton is Ipswich way (why? It’s very west of Moreton) etc and then in free text bit say…

Hi! It opened at 10 am today and will close on Thursday 5 pm. All the best! (Lowkey hoping this post is bumped up and someone will share the interview questions)

Hi I went through the process last year for applying, and to answer your question: - Nearly all the interviews were done in the period between short listing and a month prior to the results being released. A few of them were offered even earlier than the shortlisting by RANCZP (e.g. internal candidates). - All the…

I've received an interview for Alfred Health but haven't heard from anywhere else so far! Early days yet, I guess?

Hi everyone 😊 Sorry for the millionth post on Psych training on reddit. I am an IMG from Ireland.I am a PGY2 this year. I did my internship in South Australia, will be getting my General Reg soon. I did Gen Med, Surg, ED and Palliative Care as an intern. I applied for jobs by sending individual emails with my CV…

Is it even possible to finish psych training in NSW any more? Like are there any psychotherapy supervisors with open books left?

A lot of colleagues in my network work part time. I started as 0.5 fte in my first year and made it clear this is what I wanted to do at interview. Psych is probably the most flexible speciality in this respect. Lack of trainees means we have more power when asking for working conditions. The situation may be…

lol no, have heard reg's are now paying to finish psychotherapy training

Haven't sat them. The exams so far have been fine. If you put in the time and do the prep courses it isn't hard to pass. We have a formal education course in the first few years. The hospital will reimburse you for the cost and you get half a day to attend it. Consultant experience will vary widely. Most of mine have…

Heh, the OSCE we had until the recent couple of years was the most anxiety provoking experience of my life. Now that was an exam. 👀 I've only ever known one person to pass all five assessments on first attempt.

33% is great! It was 13% my year! Removal of the osce is probably helping with pacing of assessment. The uncoupling of essay and short answers also helpful as you can target them individually.

My understanding is most people delay their training more so because of the scholarly project and psychotherapy case rather than multiple failures of the exam. The MCQ has like an 80% pass rate and the last one had a 90% pass rate.

I've done mine almost entirely part-time. I hear it's getting more difficult as most services would rather full-time registrars and just have more applicants to pick from these days. It might be easier to work the first year or two full-time to "prove your salt" before seeing if you can drop down to part-time. Also,…

We have a mandatory psychotherapy written case. Not much else during training for most registrars. Most of what we do in public is not representative of outpatient psychiatry unfortunately.

I think the requirement to see a patient 40 times is extremely unfair. One patient can prevent fellowship or make you train for another couple of years. As a trainee you don’t want your patient to get better as soon as possible because you have just as much to gain as they do. It’s a bad assessment which adds undue…

Firstly I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying mental health and wanting to do more. As for your question about training. The below are the rotations that you must complete; Stage 1 - 6 months acute adult inpatient, 6 months adult Stage 2 - 6 months child and adolescent, 6 months consultation liaison. 12 months other…

Can always remember the psychotherapy case being an issue. In the past you couldn’t even progress to advanced training without having passed it which was a cause of a lot of delays. The ideal patients for long term psychotherapy don’t usually present to the public system, so the challenge becomes finding a suitable…

\- highly variable, some good hospitals, some bad hospitals. I'd typically work a weeknight shift every 1-2 weeks, weekend shift every 5-6 weeks, a set of nights once every 3 months, Exams are very tough with high failure rates but can pass first go if you're committed. One of the unique things as a registrar is that…

Yeah, I sat the exam - I thought it was tough. Lots of 50/50 questions. A lot of content that I assume would be tough to answer correctly regardless of how much study you have done. The errors in the CAP abstract didn't help. The upside is, we don't actually need too high a score to pass and most people do past.…

The minimum time RANZCP will accredit is 0.5 FTE. Most terms would be okay to do in this format. The challenging ones are the mandatory stage 2 terms (C&A, CL) which whilst theoretically can be done at 0.5, are usually tricky to secure at reduced FTE. As another commenter said, it will extend your time as expected (10…

Hey, Im a psych reg in sydney So most positions are full-time. There are part-time roles but they are limited depending on the network. Job-share can be common but it also depends on the network and culture. For example I had a jobshare organised for term 2 this year but the Director declined it as the…

I found the Auckland papers fairly reasonable in terms of similarity (in regards to general themes) to the RANZCP MCQ. Aim for about 70% generally. MRCPsych much better though. Just flick through the “textbook” (I think that was what it was called) tab and memorise it all. Do both Part A and B

Most recent ceq was 51% pass rate so still the barrier for most

Could not agree more. Timing is bizarre. I wonder if there is a high number of third attempts or show causers sitting and they have realised that they may be about to exit a large number of people from the program over an exam they are just about to scrap. It’s sort of the only thing that almost makes sense.

I didn’t use the word “immigrant doctor”, I simply quoted the person who did, so why are you taking it out on me? Are you SIMG? And the standards are miles different between the average domestic and international candidate. You even see it reflected in RANZCP exam pass rate, despite the fact that many SIMG candidates…

\- the whole assessment structure is currently being revamped because the college fucked it up during covid. When I went through was 4 exams (1 MCQ, 2 written, 1 OSCE), a psychotherapy long case (40 sessions) and a research project. There's good work/life balance but you still work hard and should be prepared to be…

You have to find your own patient (although sometimes consultants might see a patient and suggest to trainees in the facility that that might be a patient worth considering - although this is rare in my experience). You usually also have to find your own supervisor for the psychotherapy case (supervision is mandatory…

Every year at least one scenario is repeated from a year before. Sometimes they switch it up by asking different questions to a prior year about the same scenario but you can still nab some easy marks by finding any resources you can on past exam questions and having good answers memorized for these questions Also…

CEQ had always been the IMG killer exam, and there was a lot of pressure to remove it for that reason.

In hindsight I'd recommend MEQ soon after CAMHS/CL terms so those are still fresh, so mid to end stage 2. Leaves plenty of time to re-sit if not successful first time.

The exam isn't hugely academically challenging, it's more a test of reasoning and your ability to understand their very particular structure. Towards that end, if you find yourself needing to study content regularly, I would consider deferring another six months. You want to be reading the question and then writing…

It’s difficult for any service to support a large number of part time trainees- this is because of the need for supervisors A supervisor can only supervise max 2 trainees- whether the trainees are full time, part time or a mix. So if you have 2 trainees at 0.5 FTE that’s one supervisor taken up, for 1 FTE. There…

Depends on your personality and other commitments how hard it will be. It used to be very uncommon to finish in 5 years (I think only 13% did finish in 5) back when the osce was still around (college killed it off after the Zoom debacle that was never properly explained). The pass rates for most assessments are…

Hello, I trained in QLD initially and there after moved interstate and enroute to finishing my advanced training presently. Only a few hospitals permitted PGY2 intakes and the majority did not. Majority of other states prefer PGY3 intakes or above. It is worthwhile to have a diversity of experience and be a rounded…

I would suggest doing it in stage 1 if you want to finish in 5 years as stage 2 is quite loaded in terms of work, and it is allowed if youre on top of your assessments and can submit your ITA and EPAs on time. Basically after you apply to sit it they’ll email you in July / August asking you to submit your ITA so they…

Finished in a touch over 5 years under the old curriculum (same written exams, double OCI and OSCE). The current curriculum replaced the first episode case (very easy) with the research project (very hard), but now the clinical exams which at times had pass rates in the single digit percentages have been removed so I…

Don't be an unaccredited trainee unless it is essentially a compulsory part of auditioning for the training program. Such as in surgery. Otherwise you are just a slave who will be hurried off to do unwanted work and be paid terribly (as is all NSW health) for no justifiable reason. People put up with it because the…

Northern does get a lot of applicants but they get basically all their unaccredited registrars onto their program. If you get an unaccredited job there you will get on the year later.

It has a terrible reputation for psych in Vic. I wouldn’t touch it personally! If you’re keen on regional training consider Ballarat, Warrnambool, Bendigo, Albury etc instead.

1. Not essential, but it definitely helps. It indirectly gives you access to a lot of things that will help in terms of your CV and application, like current referees who are Psychiatrists, and it guarantees you some psychiatry rotations and experience. 2. Speaking of my own experience, time in TAPPP was almost…

I’ve worked there as a locum on several occasions. The nursing staff are excellent, experienced, supportive, and consistently willing to help, but unfortunately that’s where the strengths of the service largely end. There are only a small number of permanent consultants, some of whom appear to be practising well…

Hello, Happy to answer these questions. The RPA network typically only needs 3 months of rural secondment. I know many registrars from various networks who manage to avoid getting out of going rural. Some just refuse, others have reasonable excuses. If you can get into South Eastern Sydney, you'll probably avoid…

A lot of registrars are moving to part-time work arrangements, which prolongs their time in training and can clog up smaller services. It also creates issues with doing mandatory terms, as they spend longer in them and this then backflows to prevent other registrars accessing the same terms. As the…

I was a PGY2 RMO in NSW and got straight onto the program at GCUH. It is competitive, but your CV sounds like you have a good chance. In QLD, whichever hospital you put as the number 1 preference will be the only place you have a chance at. As in hospitals basically only hire people who preference them first. I…

That plan is highly unlikely to be successful. There is a huge flux of NSW trainees trying to move to Melbourne already, and most of those have already done their mandatory rural term, CL term, and child and adolescent term. You'll likely have done none. Then there are the local applicants who already have 1-2 years…

I did my first 6 mo in sunshine coast and it was v supportive.

Probably the most dysfunctional hospital in Metro Melbourne.  But if it's the only place that gives you psych...

I feel like Fremantle Hospital is forever recruiting. Worth checking them out. Definitely some Service Regs there back in the day who were PGY3.

Outside NSW, the program is competitive enough that doing 6-12 months unaccredited position to guarantee a training spot probably is worth it over a 50-100k locum pay injection.

From a general/outside perspective, there has been a huge amount of upset, mismanagement and turn over in certain nursing teams in recent times, hopefully this is in the past but re-recruitment to positions is ongoing and fragile. The psychiatrists (consultant) are very good although those kind of external things…

Hey! I switched around between 4 different networks during my psych training. - Hunter New England and Western Sydney definitely have the best program for psychotherapy. They have long waitlists of patients you can choose from and a bunch of supervisors. Other networks such as SESI, you’re very limited in supervisors…

The college can rubber stamp as many people as it likes if they meet CV/Interview criteria. An accredited position requires a five year commitment to providing mandatory rotations that meet accreditation requirements including appropriate supervision. These positions are inherently limited by infrastructure and funding…

I found TAPPP excellent but it mainly boosts you for SA positions. Otherwise the bias towards internal candidates is too great. If QLD is your goal, stay there.

This is partially correct. The College interviews are centrally administered and thus the same regardless of your work location in QLD. Each hospital will have their own recruitment process, likely including interviews, as part of the RMO campaign. The interview will be different in each hospital. My answer to OP is…

Yeah getting jobs at Eastern and northern is quite easy, just email HoD. Note I have not worked at Eastern but a few of my friends have who said the on call roster is dreadful and consultant support is not great (also I’ve been told they don’t really help you get onto training with references ect)

15-20% of registrars in my network left between term 1 and term 2 this year (it's a 2 term year). Mid-year is an inconvenient time to leave, and I know a lot more are planning to leave at the end of the year (unless the IRC works a miracle). I don't have hard data on where they've gone but anecdotally, the most common…

Your best bet would be the NT - They tend to recruit later in the year and should respond if you e-mail. Any state that has closed its state campaign has either already or is in the process of identifying first choice candidates and reserves, the college has nothing to do with this process, so applying to the college…

Historically the Bs - Ballarat Barwon and Bendigo

So the actual outcome of the mass staff specialist resignations was that the vast majority of resigning psychiatrists were rehired as VMOs. This means that they individually got pay increases but the actual point of the resignation - which was to have award rates be competitive with those interstate to encourage longer…

I can answer a few of these, however take with a grain of salt as a lot of the information is second hand \- SESI receives the most applications of the 5 NSW Psychiatry Networks, and has a reputation for good training - From having asked trainees there are, like in any network, better and worse supervisors but it has…

Hi OP, It seems you have reasonable justification for remaining in Sydney to receive an exemption. Exemptions are awarded on a case to case basis. You could email the director of training for each respective network to ask for details. Emails are available on the heti psychiatry page and there is going to be an info…

I'm training in NSW, I think if you can get into SESI it's a good program and relatively well supported. It seems a lot of people apply and don't always get their preference. I have only heard bad things about HNE. But, I don't have any first hand experience.

Northern (network B) has Orange, Dubbo, Broken Hill, and Wyong (counts if you do 12 months). Orange has been increasingly hard to get terms in due to increase in local trainee numbers.

I don’t think many people on this thread have actually experienced migrating to another country to practice medicine. It’s not “easy” and most of us are doing this at great cost, many of us come and do the jobs Aussies don’t want for several years first and delay our training trajectory, and therefore financial…

The rotations lose accreditation. The registrars get pulled from the placements.

One of my close friends who is now an ophthalmologist was once a psychiatry registrar at Nepean. He described his ward rounds as seeing 15+ patients for about 4-5 minutes each (less time than he spent per patient on some surgical terms), in which he was a scribe and his consultant would mumble some nonsensical jargon…

It is widely accepted among psychiatrists that the public system is doomed so there isn't even much drive to fight for it. As it is, the public sector is under-remunerated, unable to treat patients, and largely exists to contain public anxiety around risks.  This is adversely affecting training as well, because how…

I was at a conference a few days ago with some NSW community mental health clinicians (psychologists and OT’s) and when I asked them how the situation was in NSW, both basically laughed it off; “it’s just business as usual. Nothing’s really changed. They just filled in the gaps with locum psychiatrists… and the…

This sub-reddit is definitely not chicken soup for the soul for aspiring NSW psych reg's. Alas I have no plan b specialty or ability to move interstate so will just have to buckle up.

Not in the short term because of moratorium. In the long run it will do the same to our system as what it did to NHS, which is significant erosion of remuneration and quality. It is widely accepted among domestic psychiatrists that international fast track psychiatrists are not as skilled, and is comparable to a stage…

I agree, but if they can pass local exams at least there is an argument that the objective standards are the same. Don't even get me started on SIMG on comparative pathway. From friends in public sector, it appears the new APHRA specialist pathway psychiatrists average clinical knowledge is approximately at stage 2…

I'd also add that passing the same exams doesn't make an IMG psychiatrist a good one... The exams are a part of the journey to competency. That started in medical school, JMO years, the training program etc... I'm convinced many public IMG psychiatrists know less about psychiatry than the locally graduated registrars…

Ye goddes you're a minnow... From a med student in their 50s with psych aspirations. From the Head of inpatient psychiatry here - don't disclose lived experience. Life difficulties people usually cope with, but florid psychosis in a peer makes lots of psychs edgy.

I'm not entirely sure. I think some hospitals are struggling to meet supervision requirements. Not enough consultant cover to safely supervise the registrars. I had a 6 month rotation where the consultant quit within the first month. They then had several locums that came and went. I showed up to ECT once and the locum…

I am concerned about my safety every day. Not because I'm anxious, but it's a reminder to be cautious. Most registrars I know have never been stalked or physically assaulted. Always see the patient with another staff member. With security if they are highly likely to be aggressive. Carry a duress alarm. Be closer to…

Went through something similar. The consultants discuss all the RMOs/Regs at their peer review sessions, so if you’ve upset one you can be sure others in the service including those involved in the selection process are also aware. Unfortunately older and senior voices carry a lot more weight, so even if you do have a…

Don't disclose your history, including to AHPRA. Medicine is hella judgemental, it will not go in your favour.

I’m not a psychiatrist but have been involved with accreditation and training in another college. I’m making some assumptions here but I’m fairly confident that yes, the resignations will affect training. The accreditation status of departments is at least in part dependent on the number of psychiatrist they have…

Working at Nepean Hospital was an experience. There was chronic understaffing, many scheduled patients were left unsupervised, particularly on night shifts. During one shift, an unsupervised patient with an NGT pulled it out and attempted to strangle herself. NSW Special Commission thinks that hospitals are…

Whatever specialty you work in, compare an English speaking consultant to a ESL registrar 3 years into training, that's the difference. Everything from communication, understanding of Australian culture, to psychopharmacology.

You will do a surprisingly large amount of night/evening shifts as a psych registrar.

1. I do not work from home but I have friends who do 100% telehealth. It is one of the few specialties where this is viable. 2. Everyone I know working full time private earns more than 1m/year. Or if they don't it is because they run their practice in a particular way that isn't awfully efficient. 3. Training in…

Great in a different way. You don't do many 80-hour weeks, or weekends where you're on-call from Friday at 5pm to Monday at 7am. You don't have to intubate people in a cramped bathroom kneeling in their faeces. You don't get put in charge of an entire hospital overnight as a PGY3 while admitting 11 patients (I mean…

You only do inpatient work as a stage 1 trainee, in your first year for 6-12 months. After that you can choose to never work inpatient again. Most consultants work completely outpatient in private, unless they’re on the moratorium or specifically enjoy inpatient. I think if mental health is the favourite part of your…

Varies hugely by location and rotation. There are outpatient rotations where you'll see 2-3 patients a day and sit in on some meetings. Easily 4 hours of study / watching cartoons / bugging the case managers a day. There are inpatient rotations where you'll routinely do 10 hour days, 5 days a week, plus weekends or…

Overtime is usually rare. Occasional weekend cover. Usually arrive at 8 am and leave at 4pm. Leave is hospital dependent.

That was my post, although 700k a year isn’t an accurate assessment of the graph in question. It goes without saying psychiatry is not popular for many reasons. As a specialty that is still highly clinical in nature and not heavily reliant on tests and investigations, it also involves lots of grey areas so one has to…

Rosters are completely dependent on where you're working. My hospital (metro Melbourne) has around 50 registrar's current, and most rotations are 8.30-5pm Monday to Friday. Night shift run of 3 or 4 nights ~3 times per year. Weekend cover shift (13hrs) about 4 times per year. Evening shift (5-9.30) after your usual…

My hot take is subspecialty training (except geriatrics and adults) during stage 3 will make you a worse psychiatrist due to not having a rounded experience. Post-fellowship training does not improve earning as there is no limitation in private practice. Some certificates may even handicap your private pay, such as…

1. Quite high. We have gotten used to the shambolic state of NSW Health. We wear our survival badges with honour. 2. Heaps. During my rural rotation there was barely any of either. Absolute disaster. 3. Favourite has been community. Especially when you follow up on people who were severely unwell and see how…

Most of the time you will be in ED seeing patients. If you're not sure, just schedule or admit and talk to the consultant in the morning. The tricky one is when you want to discharge someone at 3am. A lot of the time the patients will be snoozing anyway. Thanks to the droperidol ED gave or because it's 3am. The other…

As others have said, varies widely based on location and service (and state lol). Vacation leave would more commonly referred to as annual leave here - this usually is 2 weeks per term. RANZCP technically allows 4 weeks per term (and up to 6) but very few services I’ve worked in would grant this.

I went from making $180 an hour as a locum psych reg to $55 an hour in NSW lol.

10k per month per 0.1 FTE take home is easy as a full time private psych. Room fees are low in psychiatry, clinics don’t take a cut, or you can strike a deal with private hospitals for free rooms.

Current trainee in NSW here. Your training experience will depend firstly on your training network and then secondly on the term/supervisor allocated to you. If you don't mind where you go in NSW you'll certainly get on to training somewhere but your experience will probably be unpleasant at some of the networks. I'm…

I haven't done any private work, still trapped in NSW unhealth. You can definitely go full private. Your books will likely be full within a few months. Maybe sooner. Complete telework is theoretically possible but I don't know anyone who does it. I only personally know the earnings of one psychiatrist (parent).…

Those numbers for private are not at all realistic. Taking a rough midpoint of your private estimate as around 1M per year, in most clinics that would mean billing around 1.3M as the clinic might take around 25% for rooms and admin. To bill 1.3M in 47 weeks you’d need to bill 28k per week. If you were charging AMA…

Some brief comments to address your points without waffling, in no particular order: Training can be/is terrible at times, but the job after it is great for the most part. Excellent pay, great lifestyle, good job security and usually jobs available public if you want to mix it up Re: setting up private practice,…

This was my billing before I went back to public. People say “6 hours a day 5 days a week” or whatever, but I found 6 hours of private psychiatry patients in a day was pretty exhausting… I’d see two new assessments and 16 follow ups for example if I did 6 clinical hours. Add in the million phone messages, admin…

Very good if you are willing to go a little regional. Rates are often advertised at $3-3.5k/day. If the hospital knows you and sees you are reliable, they will call you before putting up the ad. One place pays my dad over $4k a day and don't care if he leaves at 12pm. As long as the registrar can call if required.

Oh. Franganistan. God bless your soul. To my understanding , remuneration in QLD health is approximately 15-20 % higher than VIC at base pay if you include all the allowance/ super.

Overheads are low in psychiatry. My main expense is room rental which also includes secretarial and billing support, software subscriptions, dictation support, internet access and lunch. Some kind of AI note writing package is also being proposed depending on doctor interest. For this I pay a fixed sessional rate which…

QLD is more as reg 1/2 parity at reg 3. Victoria Significantly more anything above reg 4.

One of my psychiatry registrar friends made these to explain the current NSW Health crisis.

I did my elective in psychiatry at the Alfred and loved it, and then did a RMO rotation in Sydney and completely changed my career direction after.

The memo from SLHD chief executive Deb Wilcox outlines psychiatry registrars are to be called only in two circumstances overnight “following executive en­dorsement”.

Dear all, I am moving to Melbourne Peninsula Health as a Stage 1 Psych Registrar.

I got an offer from GV Health Psychiatry Registrar position for Feb 2025 start.

I'm trying to choose between a psych PHO job at Townsville vs Rockhampton.

A bit of context, I am a 30F doctor from Ireland (but South Asian myself) currently PGY 2 doing Psych SHO year in Toowoomba.

I am looking at psychiatry registrar jobs in Perth at both SJOG Midland & Bentley (EMHS), but have never worked at either.

Do not use the AT. The FACEM is probably your best bet if the third psychiatrist may give you a poor reference. A few metro hospitals have a hidden/soft requirement of 3 psychiatrists to help weed out applicants, but that's not true across the board.

Annual reminder that unless they've changed it, **the QLD online application will email your referees as soon as you click save for that page** (not when you submit the application). So be sure you're happy with it before filling it out Also for any mental health keen types you apply to the area's Addiction and Mental…

Can't really tell you (as in nobody knows what the points are for sure). It's a bit of a black box, although the WA branch do release a publicly available document with important criteria. Good referees (psychiatry consultants) and service reg experience are probably 1 and 2 on most important. If you are keen then…

Consultant references are critical and then the next is experience. Also, it turns out that not all consultant references are counted as equal, HOD counts more and I think some consultants just count more than others. Consultants grade you out of 5 on a number of different scales and if you're not 5/5 for everything…

My understanding is it deletes any responses received and resends the requests. So if someone has already submitted a referee report they have to do it again, which usually makes them grumpy. I'm hoping they've updated it but I haven't even opened that page yet this year as I still need to talk to one of them. Their…

>some services have a hidden rule where all references should be psychiatrists Let me be emphatic. If that is true, you *do not* want to work at those services. Good luck with your application!

Depends where you are applying. I heard the “big 4” psych services - RMH, StVs, Austin, Alfred - want 3 psychiatrist referees. However, they will only pretty much take internal applicants anyway. So if you are working at one of those places and want to guarantee your spot, I think you should put the…

This isn’t a lie, I’m a Queensland psychiatrist and I was told not to discuss my locum pay but fuck ‘em - I’ve just signed a contract for $2900/day for inpatient in a northern nsw hospital for 4 weeks. I was negotiating for $2500 before the system shit itself and suddenly they upped their offer and asked me to start 3…

Make two time sheets every pay cycle. One with overtime, one with out. Submit the normal one without. Add patient hospital numbers to all of your call back/ over time and be diligent with notes in the event they audit your future claim. Join the union tomorrow if you haven't. When you leave the unit and / or get on…

Public Psychiatry consultant y1 Base ~200k Retention: 50% of base PDL, super and other allowances: 50-100k more Does not include OT

As such I think the NSW health offer of a 0% pay increase is much more attractive than what psychiatrists could otherwise get including this one for one million dollars for telehealth in Queensland.

The problem here is that NSW Health has been struggling to hire psychiatrists because any psychiatrist who works for them is plunged into understaffed, poorly-resourced working conditions - and they’re being paid a pittance relative to the vast majority of other psychiatry jobs across Australia.

I have been scheduled for a stage 2 psych registrar interview in Bendigo in 2 days.

The NSW health act is probably the worst Mental Health Act in Australia in terms of human rights as it is very easy to detain someone and the "soon as practical" clause to await for assessment by a psychiatrist lends itself to long periods of time without specialist assessment which is mighty handy for times such as…

I did psych term at alfred as a student and can tell that the drs looked happy and they all were very friendly.

Senior doctors lead psychiatry training in major teaching hospitals, including the Prince of Wales, Royal Prince Alfred, St George, Northern Beaches, Macquarie and Campbelltown hospitals in Sydney, and Lismore Base and Wyong hospitals in regional NSW.

Sorry to hear this. For what it's worth NSW is desperate desperate desperate for psych regs/locums. I know a few people who got onto the program just because they spoke English. And that's the centre of Sydney jobs. So if you're prepared to move you won't be jobless at all.

You don't need to complete CL and Child/youth to transfer over to VIC, although some services may have this requirement. Email the coordinator for Victoria (I'll PM you her details). She's helpful and will tell you exactly how feasible it is. In terms of getting a job, it's doable in regional VIC and have seen people…

If you've done CL and child rotations it will be super easy. There's been heaps of interstate and regional trainees transfer to metro training sites from 3rd year onwards.

And not nsw health that is happy to oversee half our psychiatrists resigning, healthcare workers fleeing to other states, refuse to pay us a fair wage etc

The psychiatrists aren’t seeking pay parity with private any more than I would expect RMH to pay me the same as a list with 20 scopes.

One agency said NSW Health was offering increased “crisis” rates of up to $3050 a day as well as accommodation and travel allowances to locum psychiatrists willing to fill the vacancies from mid-January.

I’m currently a pgy 2 psych RMO interstate looking to relocate to Brisbane, Gold Coast, or potentially Sunshine Coast for the next intake.

RANZCP is probably one of the easier colleges to get into as an IMG. Also one of the colleges that doesn't require you to at least permanent residency. Psych departments around the country in general are also heavily recruiting IMGs for PHO/unaccredited registrar positions just to fill the gaps too.

I would suggest doing locums in QLD or even taking up a permanent position there. I worked for a few months in Cairns as an RMO then got bumped up to a PHO (principal house officer I think) which is basically a reg not in training who gets paid reg rates. I would avoid VIC too because you may end up stuck as an HMO…

Tbh if you don't have unaccredited reg/pho experience you're going to find out difficult to get psychiatry locums. I'd rather run a deficit then pay locum rates for a RMO, and I expect to have a ready to go registrar if I'm paying for one.

Yes, this happens every year and is total bullshit. Applicants are forced to wade through second round offers or even take full-time unaccredited locum positions even though they're approved for accredited training.

I've also heard through the grapevine that Albert Rd Clinic and other private hospitals look for registrars for 6-12 month contracts - consider reaching out to those too! Alternatively, perhaps consider looking into locum work (Zeep is particularly good for psychiatry gigs), or setting up a casual contract with your…

I didn't switch from BPT but can briefly answer some of your questions: - You have no chance of getting on in Victoria without at least one, if not two unaccredited years in Victoria, it is genuinely competitive with internal applicants heavily favored - Its worth a shot applying for accredited training in NSW but…

WSLHD, SWSLHD are notorious for how busy they are, patients come in sick, poor SE status and health awareness, poorly resourced, the job is hard and all of us are run off our feet trying to do our best, so bosses are also in various stages of burnout, departmental health reflects that.

You can get onto training PGY3. PGY4 for most if they didn't get on first try. Training is 5 years. As opposed to some other specialties with several years as an unaccredited trainee.

Reconstructed from what people said about themselves on a public forum. Self-report only; no verification against any register. Survivorship and self-selection are severe (people post when things go wrong and when they get on, rarely in between). Handles are public usernames; nothing here is combined with any off-platform data.