Due to Covid-19 concerns, Top End Health Services (TEHS) and the Flinders NT Regional Training Hub (Flinders NT RTH) chose to postpone their annual face to face Medical Careers Expo for 2020.

Flinders NT RTH was keen to continue to provide opportunities for Northern Territorian (NT) medical students and pre-vocational doctors to meet with the specialist colleges and progress their training and career planning. In response to this, the 2020 Medical Career Pathway Webinar Series has been held regularly since the 26th May 2020. The webinars are hosted by Dr Olivia O’Donoghue, Medical Director of the Flinders NT RTH (Top End). Each hour-long webinar features one specialist College (except for the General Practitioner webinar which was a panel of colleges and a training organisation). The advantage of a webinar format is that it allows the time to have an in-depth discussion with each College including the opportunity to identify key College contacts and local networks.

Each webinar was attended by a College representative, a local Fellow, and a Trainee. The College panellists shared pertinent information regarding training pathways, application processes, recommended rotations, recognition of prior learning, what training can be completed within the NT and other interesting topics. The Fellows and Trainees, spoke to their experiences within the NT and beyond, their challenges and opportunities, how to optimise training prospects, and ways to connect with relevant health departments and support systems.

Ten speciality Colleges and organisations have generously given their time to join the productions, with the remaining Colleges presenting over the next couple of months. Webinars that address other aspects of working as a clinician within the NT are also in the pipeline. The feedback from the Colleges and attendees has been very positive. The content was deemed to be very relevant and engaging. An attendee of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists webinar wrote, ‘Last night’s webinar was truly wonderful – thank you all so much; such extraordinary knowledge and experience shared with tremendous positivity and engagement’.

All webinars are recorded and uploaded onto the Flinders NT RTH webpage, which contains a number of career pathway resources. There are plenty of opportunities to train in the NT from Intern to Registrar and the Flinders NT RTH can help you get on a pathway that meets your needs.

Please see the Flinders NT RTH calendar of events or the Flinders NT Facebook events page for upcoming presentations.