Support
Practising medicine in a tertiary paediatric hospital may be stressful. The nature of some of the work, coupled with the physical demands, can cause significant stress. You may also have personal or work-related issues you would like to address.
Paediatric Trainee Mentor Program
If you are a JRMO or a paediatric trainee, you will have been assigned a mentor and a mentor group. The aim of mentor groups is to provide support for professional and educational issues arising in your work as well as any issues outside these realms. People involved in the groups last year used the mentoring program in a variety of ways including discussing training options, debriefing, and for meeting new people.
You may find your mentor helpful, or you may even find one of the other people in your group helpful, or it may be that you just meet some nice people in your mentor group.
If you're not a paediatric trainee or JRMO and you'd like a mentor; or if you're not sure who your mentor is; or if you want to change mentor groups, contact Philippa Shilson the Chief Resident by pager 4442, office phone extension 7055, or email chief.rmo@rch.org.au
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a counselling service provided to all RCH staff and their immediate families which is free and completely confidential. The service is provided by a company called Davidson Trahaire Corpsych. The counsellor(s) are qualified and experienced professionals who have who have extensive training in counseling and workplace issues. The contact phone number for all services is 1300 360 364.
What other support is available?
The Chief Resident and team are available to all Junior Doctors, to help you access support within the hospital in a confidential manner.
The Junior Medical Staff committee represents all Junior Doctors in an impartial manner. It is chaired by Dr Margot Nash and meets monthly on a Thursday at 8am. You can contact the committee if you have a query about your employment, training or conditions, and you can attend any meeting if you want - just turn up.
For work-related issues, you can contact your Supervisor. If you're a paediatric trainee or JRMO and need advice about your training, you can contact the DPPTs and/or MEO.
For International Doctors
There is a lot of information about moving to Melbourne by clicking here. There is an 'International Medical Graduate Assessment Upskilling & Support' (IMG AUS) project team at RCH, who you can contact for support relating to the IMG mentor program, issues you are experiencing with settling into Melbourne, or if you have any suggestions/ideas to improve support of new IMGs.
Other options are suggested below.
