Though many of you may be currently still be reeling from
GAMSAT® Exam and knocking down the doors of medical school, it is never too early to start casting an eye towards your future specialty choice. This is not only important to bring some light to the end of an awfully long tunnel, but also for pragmatic considerations as for a vast majority of specialties, you need to plan early. Long gone are the days where a recently post-graduate, junior doctor could stick their hand up and enter a training program – in the current environment, there are hundreds of hopefuls every year vying for the 1-10 training spots nation-wide in each specialty.
This article has been written to give you some background on the specialty of a rehabilitation physician. Rehabilitation specialists are trained by the
Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, a faculty of the
Royal Australian College of Physicians (RACP). The specialty focuses on the management of functional loss, activity limitation or participation restriction that arises through illness and injury. Rehabilitation Medicine is the diagnosis, assessment and management of an individual with a disability, and the specialist physician’s work to help these people achieve an optimal level of performance and improve their quality of life. Entry into rehabilitation medicine is quite similar to that seen in most other medical physician specialties, and the training program lasts for approximately 4 years once an individual is accepted. For a full overview, please refer to the following page (
http://handbooks.racp.edu.au/#/rehabilitation-medicine/2016/introduction/3).
I have had the pleasure of working in a rehabilitation ward during my internship this year, and I have some anecdotes to share with you here regarding this specialty. The skills and knowledge of rehabilitation specialists are vast, and they closely match their colleagues in general physicians training for practical skills and expertise. An advantage of this specialty is the reduced number of hours that one must commit in the hospital during their training program; typically, the working day for a rehab trainee will be less than that of their general physician colleagues in wards such as cardiology, respiratory medicine, or neurology. Another anecdotal benefit of this specialty is that there is a wide scope for private practice, which is remunerated very generously. Rehabilitation is a rapidly expanding field, due to a number of factors, such as health services wanting to ensure patients are at their full functional capacity before returning to the community, the fact that rehabilitation beds are highly profitable for health services (and thus rehabilitation physicians are remunerated very well in private practice), and of course the ageing population.
The role of a rehabilitation specialist is highly rewarding, as they don’t simply focus on the medical management of a patient; these practitioners are required to look at the patient in a holistic manner, and ensure that social supports are properly in place, finances are in order for long-term survival in the community, and their home environment is appropriate for them. This necessitates a very close relationship with allied health and nursing staff in the rehabilitation ward, which is the most invigorating aspect of the work in the rehabilitation field. Every member of the allied health and medical team is equally important to the patient’s care, which is much different to the very physician-centric approach of most other medical areas.
Individuals who appreciate a very close team environment and enjoy addressing patient’s concerns that stretch beyond medical management issues will be particularly well-suited to this specialty. As mentioned above, the specialty can also be financially very rewarding and allows its trainees and consultants to enjoy a more balanced life, with many specialists participating in other activities and successfully raising families outside of work.
Next, while you wait for your GAMSAT exam result, check out our
Definitive Guide to GAMSAT Results.
