A NEW intake of medical practitioners have taken their first steps towards becoming general practitioners.
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A group of 36 registrars attended a three-day workshop with Beyond Medical Education in Bendigo this week as part of the Australian General Practice Training program.
Topics covered included communication, Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, dermatology and common presentations.
Liz Ellis, a medical educator from Ballarat, presented some of the sessions.
"These are doctors that are entering general practice so a lot of it is about how it all works," she said.
"We also talk about things like how to safely prescribe, how Medicare works, and we talk about some of the general presentations they'll see in general practice.
"General practice is quite different to hospital work.
"They do have a medical knowledge but it needs to be adapted and is a bit different to general practice."
Ms Ellis said general practice was typically a three-year training route.
"The registrars have seven workshops in this 12 months," she said.
"They've only just started this week so some of them haven't even been into their practice yet but most of them have done orientation."
The diverse registrars are from diverse cultural backgrounds and will be living and working in Ararat, Bacchus Marsh, Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Creswick, Daylesford, Deniliquin, Echuca, Gisborne, Kyneton, Merbein, Mildura, Riddells Creek, St Arnaud, Stawell, Swan Hill and Woodend.
Beyond Medical Education director of training Ann-Marie McKinnon said the registrars were qualified doctors who had decided they wanted to become GPs.
"These are doctors who have done their six years or post grads at university and then they've done their year or two years of internship and then house medical officer," Dr McKinnon said.
Dr McKinnnon said it was a very exciting time for the registrars.