Portland District Health’s innovative intern program is introducing two new interns to the challenges and benefits of working in a regional health setting.
Drs Greg Howe and Branden Burgess have started their year-long placements and say they were attracted to the program’s unique format.
The medical internship program started in 2021 and is designed to attract and retain doctors in Portland. It differs from traditional programs by introducing a flexible approach and removing distinct block rotations, giving interns access to all medical disciplines and the ability to follow patients on their journey. Traditional internships comprise of five 10-week rotations in different departments.
Each week the interns spend one day in the Urgent Care Centre, one day in the Active Health GP clinic and three days on either medicine or surgery where they swap after six months.
Originally from Sydney, Dr Howe got his first taste of Portland through the Deakin Medical School program and liked it so much that he stayed.
The opportunity to continue into an internship was an integral part of his decision.
“For a town this size, the hospital is well set up for education,” he said. “There’s a strong concentration of medical educators and we get quite a lot of one-on-one time.”
Dr Howe plans to work in rural general practice and hopes to stay in Portland.
Dr Burgess completed his under-graduate study in his home city Vancouver, Canada before coming to Brisbane to do medical training.
During his four years of training in Queensland, Dr Burgess worked in a metropolitan hospital as well as a regional general practice placement.
“I fell in love with regional medicine with its ability to be more one-on-one with patients and to deal with more complexity in care,” he said.
“PDH is the only program that lets you work in a general practice clinic right from your intern year.”
Active Health Portland GP Marg Garde said she was excited to support the interns. “We are confident that the intern program will result in increased numbers of doctors wanting to train and remain in Portland,” she said.
