Life As A Registrar?

[Old_Mil]

Can anyone who is currently working as a registrar in the New Zealand system give me some information about how life is? My general understanding is that our attending = consultant, our resident = registrar, our intern = a medical officer or some such thing. I'm an ABEM boarded attending in the US, and a recruiting firm brought a position to my attention as an emergency medicine registrar.

Now when I think of a "resident" here, I think of somoene with lousy hours, lousy workload lousy pay, mandatory weekly lectures, and someone whose life generally sucks for a handful of years until they graduate and become an attending. That's how residency was, and I have no desire to do anything like that again...

I apparently can apply for recognition as a FACEM if I jump through some hoops, but apparently this doesn't mean much unless the hospital has a consultant level opening?

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[BubblegumPop]

I'm not sure about how many doctors from New Zealand would read this forum. You might have more luck on an Australian/New Zealand specific forum called Paging Dr http://pagingdr.net/forum/index.php?action=forum

 

[Medstart108]

Well in the UK which is probably somewhat similar to NZ (they also use the term registrar) the hours are more reasonable than a resident's hours generally. The pay is probably around the same as a resident maybe slightly higher but then again pay in NZ won't compare to pay in the US for a consultant level doctor.

 

[Old_Mil]

Well in the UK which is probably somewhat similar to NZ (they also use the term registrar) the hours are more reasonable than a resident's hours generally. The pay is probably around the same as a resident maybe slightly higher but then again pay in NZ won't compare to pay in the US for a consultant level doctor.

What sort of autonomy does a registrar have? Do you just show up, see patients, and go home...or are you staffing patients with a consultant like a resident would with an attending?

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[NewtownD]

I'm a NZ-based anaesthetic registrar, I've never worked in the US but have some insight from colleagues (and SDN).

NZ training (same for UK/Oz/Ireland) for any given specialty takes longer than in the US, people tend to spend several years post-graduation in different fields as house officers or senior house officers, often living in different countries, gaining experience. A typical registrar is >3 years out of medical school. NZ has a very strong junior doctor's union and therefore has very good working conditions, with reasonable hours/pay/teaching and various perks like free food at the hospital, courses/textbooks paid for etc. A consultant is usually >8-10 years out of medical school, and in general a senior registrar in NZ has more experience than a new attending in the US.

Hours for me are 60ish per week, pay for an experienced registrar working on a high pay scale is pretty reasonable (>$NZ100,000). In ED I think it is comparable.

NZ is of course of a lovely place to live - sea, mountains, forest, hobbits.. Taxes are high and so are living costs. The kiwi dollar has inflated hugely against the USD in the last decade. You will be horrified by the cost of food/rent/petrol here coming from the US.

NZ has a no-fault national insurance company for accidents. This is one factor in why there is less hysterical CYA scan/test everything medicine here compared to the US. Which means doctors are happier with their jobs and patients (I suspect) get more rational treatment. Although I am skeptical about the economic sustainability of the insurance scheme ('ACC').

The health care system is single-payer, there are waiting lists, there is not a very robust private health care system (compared to Australia). I don't know anyone my age (30s) who has health insurance.

The hospital environment is pretty laid back, yet outcomes are good, there is opportunity for research/CPD, management is not oppressive in general (unlike the NHS). People are friendly for the most part. There are many immigrant doctors from all over the place, particularly ED consultants from the US for some reason. I haven't heard of American ER attendings coming here to work as registrars.

You should ask the locum agency about locum SMO positions - I would be surprised if you couldn't find some in OZ or NZ. Locum agencies are brilliant and will do a lot of the running around and paperwork for you. I think this would be your best bet. Good luck.