Overseas Fellowships
Recent comments from trainees who have completed overseas fellowships
Melbourne, Australia
“The overseas year at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne is a fantastic experience for trainees, especially in the build up to the FRCS exam. It had given me an opportunity to experience a different healthcare system during this time of turmoil in the NHS. There is a 1 in 6 rota. The case load is heavy and your logbook will be between 600 and 800 cases with a good mix of daycase and index cases (expect around 35 – 40 neonatal index cases per annum)
RCH is both a tertiary and quaternary centre; it has a large neonatal unit, PICU and cardiac centre. It is the designated trauma centre in Melbourne and offers the full range of surgical services including surgical oncology, thoracics, HPB and complex urology.
There is a daily teaching programme, which includes amongst others a dedicated weekly neonatal grilling session and an hour of spot diagnoses from clinical photographs given by Professor John Hutson. The children’s hospital is very close to the centre of Melbourne and during the year there will be opportunities to see the Australian Open Tennis, F1 racing, head to the inner city beaches, become a coffee connoisseur, embrace your inner hipster and explore Australasia.
Above all the team has been great and is used to welcoming foreign trainees on a regular basis. I have hopefully formed some life long friends and mentors which I will get the chance to catch up with at various meetings and conferences during my career.”
Toronto, Canada
Sick Kids Hospital offers two fellowship programmes for International Candidates:
- Neonatal Surgical Fellowship
- Trauma Fellowship
Neonatal Surgical Fellowship
The Neonatal Surgical Fellowship is one year in duration. Candidates must have completed their adult General Surgery training, or an equivalent amount of training, in their home country.
The Neonatal Surgical Fellow is responsible for managing the surgical patients in the NICU in collaboration with the General and Thoracic Surgical Team and the Neonatology Team.
The Neonatal Surgical Fellow has to round on the neonatal surgical patients each day, identifying problems and developing a daily plan, performing whatever procedures are required, participating in family and multidisciplinary meetings and acting as a liaison between the surgical staff and the neonatal team.
The Neonatal Surgical Fellow takes on average 1 in 5 call in rotation with the General and Thoracic Surgery Fellows. During these calls, the fellow will cover the inpatients on the General Surgery service and consults in the emergency department and the wards, and will also serve as the Trauma Team Leader. The Fellow will do any emergency cases that are performed during these calls. The elective cases will be performed mainly by the General and Thoracic Surgery Fellows.
Trauma Fellowship
The Trauma Fellowship is one year in length. The Trauma Fellow is the Trauma Team Leader (TTL) during weekdays and when on call for the General and Thoracic Service.
The Trauma Fellow must respond to Code 50 activations within five minutes. He/she must provides comprehensive TTL care to traumatized patients from trauma room through final disposition and handover to admitting service. In addition the TTL must handle phone calls regarding transfer of traumatized patients and facilitate their transfer to Sick Kids Hospital.
During the Fellowship, the Trauma Fellow takes on average 1 in 5 call in rotation with the General and Thoracic Surgery Fellows. During the call, he/she will cover the inpatients on the General Surgery service and consults in the emergency department and the wards, and, of course, will also serve as the TTL. Operative experience is primarily based on “on-call” exposure. The elective cases will be performed mainly by the General and Thoracic Surgery Fellows.
Further information regarding the Toronto Fellowship can be found here:
https://www.sickkids.ca/en/care-services/clinical-departments/general-thoracic-surgery/