About Us
INDEX
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP)
HNET Mission Statement - "A commitment to a high quality training program, early identification of potential trainees, retaining high quality medical staff and matching training needs to service needs and vice versa."
The Hunter New England Mental Health Psychiatry Training Program (HNET) is the only regional based psychiatry training program in Australia and New Zealand. It has a number of advantages over many other programs. Because it is a mid-sized program there are sufficient trainees at each level to make progressing through the training requirements sustainable, which is often difficult with small programs, but still retains its collegiate and "personal-touch" nature, which is often lacking in large training programs.
HNET operates under the auspices of both the RANZCP and NSW CETI (Clinical Education & Training Institute) which funds its operation.
Advantages of the program include:
- A comprehensive service within Hunter New England Health with all areas of training being covered.
- Living in a regional city with relatively low cost of living and ideal climate.
- Large trainee and CMO numbers meaning that overtime for full timers is not overly burdensome and around one shift every seven days.
- Alliance with the University of Newcastle's Centre for Brain & Mental Health Research with a large number of nationally recognised researchers aligned with the program.
- A number of senior staff hold prominent positions within the College training and examination committees.
Further information can be obtained by contacting the program on (02) 4033-5155.
Registrar Training occurs every Wednesday afternoon at the Mater Hospital at 2.45pm, after Grand Rounds. This time is allocated to all trainees from the service and trainees are free from work commitments for this time.
Separate training occurs for first year trainees, intermediate trainees, pre-examination trainees, international medical graduates and advanced trainees. Junior Medical Officers (JMOs) also have a separate training program.
Rates of passing examinations in recent years have been very high.
HNET has offices in Level 7 of the MHA Building at the Mater Hospital in Edith St, Waratah.
Organisational Charts
Why Psychiatry as a career?
There is some truth that certain types of doctors are more inclined towards psychiatry as a career and that psychiatry is not for everyone.
A variety of studies matched with our local experience indicate that doctors with the following characteristics have both an aptitude and interest in psychiatry:
- Have a holistic outlook on patient care
- Enjoyed social sciences at school and university
- Rate communication skills highly
- Are interested in being members of a team of health workers
- Are comfortable in situations where the right course of action is not always obvious
- Understand and can empathize with the stigma attached to mental illness
Many psychiatry trainees also considered careers in general practice and medicine.
However, not all is lost if the above does not sound like you. Psychiatry offers a diversity of experiences, patient types and modes of working from psychotherapy to neuropsychiatry, from child to old age, from leading a public mental health service to developing a private practice.
Psychiatry is never boring!
Network Hospitals
- Calvary Mater Newcastle (HNE Mental Health Centre)
- Morisset Hospital
- Maitland Mental Health Unit
- Manning Mental Health Service
- Tamworth Mental Health Unit (Banksia)
- Armidale Clark Centre
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
- The RANZCP is the College that overviews Psychiatry Training in Australia and New Zealand. Its main headquarters is in Melbourne but there are branches in each State including NSW at Rozell in Sydney.
- The RANZCP training program is a minimum five year program. To enter you must have completed a medical degree or your AMC in Australia and at least one year internship (CETI however requires that you do two general years prior to entering training in NSW).
- The first 3 years are called Basic Training. It is during this time that you undergo the bulk of your Adult psychiatry experiences, as well as mandatory 6-month rotations in Consultation Liaison and Child & Adolescent psychiatry.
- During this 3 years, you are required to log a number of experiences, including observed interterview and case reports and attenda lecture program (this is organised on Wednesday afternoons and is protected teaching time). After passing a written and clinical examination, you may commence your two years of Advanced Training, which can be in any of the following areas: General, Adult, Child, Old Age, Forensics, Consultation Liaison, Psychotherapy, Addiction, Neuropsychiatry.
Research
Hunter New England Mental Health provides some fantastic opportunities for research through the Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health (CTNMH). Visit their website here.