Internship Reviews

Rural Allowance: No

Doctors Quarters:

• 3 and a half star – really decent. Small bachelors flat that can fit a double/queen bed with space for a small couch/small dining table. Connection for DSTV. Small kitchen – enough for one person. Bar fridge and stove included. Your own bathroom with a bath and shower attachment (no shower). Most incredible views of Johannesburg.
• Single bachelor apartment newly renovated , 7 floor story building with your own kitchen bathroom and room, the only furniture provided is a mini fridge.
• I didn’t stay in DQ but they are quite decent.R900 per month and you get your own “apartment” with a small kitchen and bathroom. The DQ is safe.
• Very good for the very small price to pay.

Academics:

• Obs and Gynae – really great, morning M&M meetings. Guidelines for both Obs and Gynae which are really easy to follow.
  Daily academic rounds with consultants in Medicine and Surgery. Aimed at registrars. Interns are the work horse.
  Ortho – good, daily meetings discussing the evenings cases and interns are expected to participate.
  Anaesthetics – excellent. Weeks of lectures with the Helen and Bara interns before starting your time in Anaesthetics.
  Psych – some teaching on ward rounds.
  Paeds – some teaching on ward rounds.
  Fam Med – no teaching
• Being tertiary and academic the focus on such is on the Registrars and students . You need to take initiative in order to learn.
• Academics via M&Ms and morning meetings were only during rotations like Orthopaedics, Paediatrics , Obs and Gynae and I felt I learnt alot during those times. Internal Med and Surgery there wasn’t much teaching so I don’t feel 100% confident in those departments.
• You join ward rounds with medical students and academic meetings in most rotations. It’s a teaching hospital.
• It’s an academic hospital so loads of teaching.

Supervision:

• You are never alone. There is always a registrar or medical officer that will be on call with you. There are things you’re expected to do on your own, but if you struggle there’s always someone available to ask.
• As much as the supervision is amazing, it also makes you not that independent in terms of decision making. So you’re an admin king/ Queen who can do everything but not know why or when to do it.
• There is always an MO, reg and consultant around. It’s a good working environment in general because in a lot of cases even the nurses can help you a lot in stressful situations. I’ve had a few resuscitations where the MO/reg took their time to come assist but generally always someone to ask if you’re stuck.
• You’re often alone on call, so not always supervised. Surgery are the biggest culprits here.
• Consultants, registrars, MOs, comserves… there’s always someone around.

Clinical Exposure:

• Varies from department to department.
  Obs and Gynae – as the intern you run the admissions for both Obs and Gynae (separately run, either on call for Obs or on call for Gynae). You are able to get your C sections if you’re keen. Good exposure to Obs clinics including high risk pregnancies. No exposure to Gynae clinics, but any elective admissions are done by the intern.
  Ortho – average exposure. Run admissions on call and discuss with the reg regarding a plan placement of POPs and back slabs, reductions too with assistance from reg if you’re keen. No theatre time. No clinic exposure. Lost of ward work.
  Surgery – run the wards, don’t see patients in casualty (you can if you’re keen, but the wards keep you busy). Surgery time if you’re keen and go to theatre. I was able to do appendectomies, anastomoses of bowel, but most interns had no surgical time.
  Anaesthetics – really great exposure but depends on the reg you’re with and how much they let you do and are comfortable with you doing. I was with a senior reg who let me run most lists with her assistance. I wasn’t able to do any loco regional blocks as the registrars needed to get their numbers up. Paeds is limited – consultants were a bit nervous for interns to tube.
  Paeds – either on call for neonates or paeds. Neonates is busy with Caesar bleeps. You run the transitional unit and the neonates wards and sometimes the high care depending on the evening. Can be stressful. But always a senior to assist with any issues. I didn’t get any experience in tubing the neonates or kiddies. Neonates wards are busy. Paeds is more chilled, fewer admissions overnight. If you’re in first year you get a month of casualty where you clerk the patients and decide whether they need admission. If you’re in second year you get to do special clinics which are really nice – I spent time in the HIV clinic which was really valuable.
  Internal medicine – very different to other hospitals. There is no general medicine, only subspecialties: Cardiology, Pulmonology, Oncology, GIT, Infectious Disease, Rheumatology, Endocrine, Neurology, Haematology. You rotate monthly and won’t get exposure to all of the specialities. It is dominated by ward work. You hardly see patients – it does depend on which speciality you rotate through. On call you don’t clerk patients you essentially do a ward call. Good for skills development – lots of opportunity to perform procedures.
  Family medicine – good exposure to primary care. Rotate to Hillbrow clinic, Alex Clinic and HIV clinic.less supervision than at hospital, but there still is supervision and you should technically not be left alone – this does sometimes happen. But help is always a call away. On call done at the clinics casualty.
  Psych – rotate for a month. On call done in casualty to clerk the patients referred to psych. Always with a reg on call and patient will be reviewed by the reg on call as well. Spend time in casualty, the “transition ward” and the long stay ward.
• Very specialized for example internal medicine you rotated through different departments ie I got cardio onco, rheum and Neuro. You do ward calls mostly for surgery and internal Med, as admissions are done by the MO and Reg on call, and going to theatre is rare for interns unless you’re in ONG.
• Not much clinical exposure. Especially in Surgery and Orthopaedics, I only went to the theatres once or twice. Definitely more of a paper pusher but it’s important to also take initiative if you’re interested in certain specialties.
• You need to push if you want to get opportunities to do anything more than ward work.
• Rotation dependant. In some departments you get to do a lot, while in others you’ll push paper.

Social Scene:

• A lot of people from Joburg stay here and have their close circles. As someone coming from another university there isn’t much happening in terms of social scene to meet people so does require a bit of effort on your part.
• Well not in terms of interns at the hospital but you’re in central Jhb it’s the best.
• It’s in Johannesburg so there’s Rosebank and Sandton literally 20 minutes away. A lot to do.
• Intern groups have little to no interaction, and unless you make friendships in your small group you’re basically going to only have a professional relationship with people.
• It’s Jozi.

Additional Comments:

• The Gen gets a reputation of being very chilled, it’s really not the case, you work hard and long hours. Your patient load is a lot and the expectation and requirement of interns is ALOT in terms of you doing everything. I know people say Bara is hectic which is it! But you’re always on call with 2/3 other people (interns) there – at the Gen you’re most of the time alone with either an MO or Reg- so in terms of work load it’s also very intense.
  It really doesn’t leave you very confident in managing cases alone but I’m 2 weeks into my comm serve and managing just fine. Those trainer wheels are off.
  All in all it’s not bad, I guess we have to take as much as we can from where ever we are placed and focus on achieving being safe competent Doctor. You have the opportunity to learn and grow no matter what resources you have or where you’re placed.