Interns

Intern and HMO Supervisor: Stacey Cole | staceycole23@gmail.com | 0409 861 223

Director of Training – Orthopaedics – Duy Thai | d.thai@orthowest.com.au | 0409 015 117

Welcome to Orthopaedics

We recognise for some of you this may be your first surgical rotation, or perhaps your first rotation as a doctor, so firstly – CONGRATULATIONS!
We hope you can find this rotation to be a stimulating and fun experience. We welcome any feedback on ways we can improve the rotation and please do not hesitate to approach any of us (HMOs, registrars, consultants) for advice or concerns.
If you’re interested in pursuing orthopaedics, have a chat to us, so we can advise and assist you to progress!

What does the unit do?

• First and foremost – we provide exceptional orthopaedic care to patients of the West
• Research – Check out our research tab to read through our recent publications. If you’re interested in getting involved, please contact Phong Tran or alternatively any of the authors of publications you found interesting/would like to get involved in.
• Friday Unit meetings + audits
• Intern/HMO teaching every Friday morning
• Annual soccer tournament – we’d love to have you involved
• Annual Christmas party

Checklist for New Starter

• This page is for general orientation as an intern to the Orthopaedics unit at Western. These are the links to your specific roles at Footscray and Sunshine
  • Footscray HMO
  • Sunshine HMO
• Read through the relevant part of website and/or ROVER for the week/job you will be doing
• Obtain username and login for
  • EMR/ BOSSnet (provided by the hospital IT network)
  • AUDIT (follow the link for login details and explanation of how to use it)
  • Ortho Google Drive (username: whorthoreg.gmail.com, password: Westernortho)
• Need to be added to Footscray (or Sunshine) Orthopaedics Whatsapp group, Whatsapp PAC group, Orthogeris group (Slack), “I’m Special” Whatsapp group
• NOTE: when messaging in the ortho WhatsApp group – tag the on call reg or another relevant reg to ensure things don’t get lost

Responsibilities

• Ward – see Footscray HMO and Sunshine HMO
• Attendance at Post-op (wound) clinic, Fracture clinic, Consultant clinic
  • Ensure to complete the interactive wound management module prior to your first wound clinic
  • When seeing patients in fracture or consultant clinic – use OrthoFracs/ OrthoAnswer/ Orthobullets and run every patient past a registrar or consultant. If there are no rooms available, sit in with one of our consultants (invaluable teaching opportunity)
• Preadmission Clinic (both sites) and Preadmission clinic Follow up (Footscray only)
• Fracture clinic (Footscray) and Consultant clinic (Sunshine) preparation – see Footscray HMO and Sunshine HMO

Top Tips

Every week you will be in a range of different roles – wards, various clinics and admin duties; instead of reading the whole ROVER through, find out which role you are in that week/that day and read the relevant part of the ROVER

• Induction
  • Induction session – we will host one at the start of your rotation, please make sure to attend.
• Learning objectives for each rotation
  • Basic fracture management
  • Putting on a plaster
  • Basic understanding of orthopaedic elective conditions
  • Orthopaedic red flags – compartment syndrome, infection, open fracture
• Hospital wide education program
  • Tuesday afternoon for all interns
  • Friday morning for surgical education
• Unit specific education activities
  • Friday morning Registrar Presentation
  • Friday morning JMO Education
• Dedicated Theatre time
  • Whenever possible, we would like to you to attend theatre. We have structured the roster so that there is dedicated theatre time, however if your ward/clinic tasks are sorted, you will always be more than welcome to join any of our theatres.
• How to make the most of your orthopaedic rotation
  • WARDS: Some of our patients can be relatively co-morbid and complex, make the most out of your ward experience by learning how to best manage these patients – work collaboratively with the Orthogeris teams, your HMOs and registrars. Develop a system for common surgical ward calls including tachycardia, hypotension, low urine output, post operative fever – discuss these systems with your HMOs and registrars so that you can become comfortable managing unwell patients.
  • THEATRE: Attend theatre, where possible, we recommend reading up on cases prior to attending so you can get the most out of it. OrthoFRACS and Orthobullets are useful resources to begin with.
  • CLINICS: Clinics can be busy but are an invaluable teaching opportunity. Ensure to take a history and perform a sound examination, think about a plan of what you would do – and then present to the consultant in charge of clinic. Seek feedback to ensure you can continue to improve.
• Asking for Help
  • Never be afraid to ask for help – the “silliest” questions are often the most important! Your HMOs, registrars and consultants are always willing to help. If your registrar on call is not responding, they are likely in theatre, head into theatre and ask any questions you may have, or you can call the registrar on call at the other campus.
  • If you’re worried about a patient deteriorating, don’t hesitate to escalate to a MET call
• Finding a mentor
  • Mentors at all stages and from all stages of training are important (often the best mentors are the ones you nurture yourself)
  • Approach a HMO/registrar/consultant (or all 3) you look up to and feel comfortable speaking with
  • If you’re unsure you can always have a chat to Mr Brett Moreira or Prof. Phong Tran who can link you in with a mentor.
• Providing Feedback to make your orthopaedic rotation better
  • Feedback is very important to us so we can provide the best experience. Please call Brett Moreira or Phong Tran directly. We value your feedback.

Which Registrar Do I Contact?

• Default: Registrar on call. Registrar should be contacted and updated with regards to any issues with inpatients
• What if I can’t contact the registrar on call?
  • Urgent: come to theatre
  • Non-urgent: leave a message or in the whatsapp group and another team member can assist
• Situations where I should contact a specific registrar allocated to the patient’s care
  • postop patient – registrar at the operation
  • preop or PAC patient to a booked list
    • Check the google drive registrar allocations to identify the registrar allocated to the specific list
  • If unsure, default is contact registrar on call and they can guide you to the right person

Key Contacts

STAFF – All staff at WH can be contacted on email – firstname.surname@wh.org.au
UNIT STAFF & KEY CONTACTS	CONTACT DETAILS
Head of Unit:	Prof Phong Tran – 0403 828 558 – contactphong@gmail.com
Registrars:
1 W NUM:	Rachel Kropmann
Emergency / MET Call:	2222 (or 9055-2222 for mobiles)
Switchboard:	(834) 56666
IT Help Desk:	(834) 56777
Medical Workforce Unit	(834) 56355 or mwu@wh.org.au
A/Prof. Stephen Lew – Director Medical Education	0466 169 591
Supervisor of Intern Training – Sean Fabri	0417 507 907
Directors of Training -Surgery * Fiona Reid & * Russel Krawitz	FR 0405 170 104/ RK 0447 022 315
Medical Education Officer – Julie O’Connell (HMOs)	0481 916 881
Medical Education Officer –  Juli Toussaint(General HMOs)	0401 062 313
Medical Education Officer – Kristian Mitev (Interns)	0481 476 252

Author contributions:

Francesca Sasanelli – last update 12/2023