rural preferential recruitment pathway · 2021. 4. 7. · pathway or optimised allocation pathway...

RURAL PREFERENTIAL RECRUITMENT PATHWAY

PROCEDURE FOR 2022 CLINICAL YEAR

Rural Preferential Recruitment Procedure V13 April 2021 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 3

PURPOSE ............................................................................................................... 3

DISTRIBUTION ........................................................................................................ 3

PROCEDURE STATEMENTS ................................................................................. 4

Prevocational Training Positions ........................................................................................... 4

Rural Prevocational Training Positions .................................................................................. 4

Eligibility criteria ...................................................................................................................... 4

Participating rural hospitals .................................................................................................... 4

Workforce flexibility ................................................................................................................ 4

Impairment and conditions on registration ............................................................................. 5

Communication with applicants ............................................................................................. 5

Applications ............................................................................................................................ 5

Advertising Positions ................................................................................................... 5

Application Process ..................................................................................................... 5

Prevocational Training Application Program (PTAP) .................................................. 5

JMO Career Portal ....................................................................................................... 6

Prevocational training in rural hospitals ................................................................................... 6

Prevocational training network preferences ............................................................................. 6

Assessment of applications ...................................................................................................... 6

Interviews .................................................................................................................................. 6

After the Interviews ................................................................................................................... 7

Position Offers .............................................................................................................. 7

Notification of Offers .................................................................................................... 8

Offer Acceptance ......................................................................................................... 8

Expression of Interest (EOI) ..................................................................................................... 8

Offer Acceptance ......................................................................................................... 8

Formal Offer ............................................................................................................................. 9

RESPONSIBILITIES ................................................................................................ 9

GLOSSARY ........................................................................................................... 12

ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTS ................................................................................ 13


INTRODUCTION

The Health Education and Training Institute (HETI) has delegated authority from the NSW

Ministry of Health to allocate medical graduates to prevocational training networks in NSW

on behalf of Local Health Districts (LHDs) or Public Health Organisations or as otherwise

determined by HETI.

HETI coordinates the allocation of medical graduates from Australian Medical Council (AMC)

accredited Australian and New Zealand universities seeking their initial training position as a

doctor.

There are four allocation pathways available to obtain a prevocational training position in

NSW. Within each offer round positions are offered sequentially in the following order and

as per the NSW priority list:

1. Aboriginal Medical Workforce (AMW) pathway

2. Rural Preferential Recruitment (RPR) pathway

3. Direct Regional Allocation (DRA) pathway

4. Optimised Allocation pathway.

The RPR Pathway is a merit-based recruitment process that facilitates recruitment of rural

cadets and other medical graduates to prevocational training positions in rural hospitals. The

following principles underpin the RPR pathway:

• Building a sustainable medical workforce in rural areas.

• Improving access to services to achieve better health outcomes across rural NSW.

• Ensuring a clear pathway from undergraduate training to postgraduate medical

training positions in rural areas.

Applicants must read and understand the procedures for each pathway before submitting

their application.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this procedure is to inform medical graduates about recruitment to intern

positions via the RPR pathway for the 2022 clinical year.

DISTRIBUTION

This procedure will be made available to all relevant groups and individuals via the HETI

website. These groups include:

• Applicants

• Local Health Districts (LHD), Specialist Health Networks and other NSW Health

Organisations

• NSW Ministry of Health

• NSW University Medical Schools

• HETI employees


PROCEDURE STATEMENTS

Prevocational Training Positions The number of prevocational training positions available in NSW for the clinical year is

published on the HETI website. The number of positions displayed represents a count of the

fulltime equivalency.

Rural prevocational training positions Positions are allocated via the RPR pathway after the Aboriginal Medical Workforce pathway. The number of positions available for allocation via the RPR Pathway is determined by the rural providers less any positions filled via the Aboriginal Medical Workforce pathway mentioned above.

Medical graduates who apply via the AMW pathway or RPR pathway can fill these positions.

The rural prevocational training positions will be filled subsequent to the AMW Pathway

allocation.

Eligibility criteria To be eligible for the RPR Pathway applicants must:

• Meet eligibility and NSW priority criteria

• Be expected to complete your medical degree this year or have completed your

degree in the past two years

• Not previously worked as a doctor

Participating rural hospitals The list of participating rural hospitals are as followed.

Albury Wodonga Health Wagga Wagga Base Hospital & Community H.S

Broken Hill Health Service Manning Base Hospital

The Maitland Hospital Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital

Lismore Base Hospital The Tweed Hospital

Coffs Harbour Health Campus Port Macquarie Base Hospital

Orange Health Service Dubbo Health Service

Workforce flexibility To support the needs of applicants, part time positions can be requested. Joint and job share

applications are not available through the RPR pathway due to the pathway being a merit-

based process. Access to reduced hours of work is dependent on the ability of the employer

to accommodate the request.


Impairment and conditions on registration The transition from medical student to medical practitioner must be smooth and well

supported. An applicant who is participating in an impaired registrants (health) program

and/or has conditions on their registration is to inform HETI of their status on their

Prevocational Training Application Program (PTAP) application. It is strongly recommended

that these applicants apply for extenuating circumstances. For more information, applicants

should refer to the Extenuating Circumstances and a Change in Personal Circumstances

Procedure on the HETI website.

Communication with applicants

Communication from HETI about applications is by email and short message service

(SMS). All applicants must have and maintain a valid email address and mobile phone

number prior to starting internship; applicants are responsible for ensuring this information

is current in PTAP.

All applicants should update their contact details in PTAP if these change to ensure that the

most current details are recorded.

It should be noted that applicants will not be able to change their network preferences after

the application period has closed. Applicants can change or withdrawn their RPR

preferences during the interview period. Failure to respond to emails and SMS in the

nominated/required timeframe will result in applications being expired or offers being

rescinded.

Applications

Advertising Positions The RPR hospitals will advertise the positions available through the JMO Career Portal:

https://jobs.health.nsw.gov.au/

The link for each advertisement can also be accessed from the HETI RPR webpage:

https://www.heti.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/courses-and-programs/medical-

graduate-recruitment/rural-preferential-recruitment

Application Process Applicants applying via the RPR pathway need to a minimum of TWO applications by the

close of the application period, key dates are available on the HETI website.

No late applications will be accepted.

1. Prevocational Training Application Program (PTAP) Applicants must ensure they have submitted an application online on PTAP by the

closing date https://www.heti.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/courses-and-

programs/medical-graduate-recruitment

HETI will verify the applications on PTAP. Applicants must indicate on their PTAP

application that they are requesting to be recruited via the RPR pathway.

AND

https://jobs.health.nsw.gov.au/

https://www.heti.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/courses-and-programs/medical-graduate-recruitment/rural-preferential-recruitment

https://www.heti.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/courses-and-programs/medical-graduate-recruitment/rural-preferential-recruitment

https://www.heti.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/courses-and-programs/medical-graduate-recruitment

https://www.heti.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/courses-and-programs/medical-graduate-recruitment


2. JMO Career Portal

Applicants must submit a separate application for each hospital where they wish work via the JMO Career Portal by the closing date of the application period. On the RPR website you will find an applicant user guide to support you applying on the ROB Career

Portal.

Prevocational training in rural hospitals

Recruitment through the RPR pathway aligns with the principles of merit-based recruitment.

Offers will be made according to the outcome of the preference matching process.

For more information on the Matching Algorithm used, please use the link below:

http://www.nrmp.org/matching-algorithm/

Prevocational training network preferences

Applicants must preference the RPR hospitals on their PTAP application ranked in the order

of where they would like to work first, then second and so on. If they do not wish to work in

an RPR hospital they do not need to preference it on their list.

Applicants must also preference the 15 prevocational training networks on their PTAP

application. Applicants do not need to preference the networks in the same order as their

preferred RPR hospitals. The two preference lists are entirely separate and independent of

each other.

The 15 prevocational training network preferences will be used if an applicant is unsuccessful

via the RPR Pathway.

Assessment of applications Applications to rural hospitals through the JMO Career Portal will be reviewed by a selection

panel at each rural hospital. Each rural hospital will send HETI a list of applicants they wish

to interview.

HETI will then check the list of applicants from the hospital to ensure that each applicant has

submitted an application via PTAP.

HETI will advise the hospitals of the outcome of the applicant’s eligibility checks. Applicants

who have not submitted a PTAP application or do not meet the eligibility criteria will not be

interviewed.

Interviews HETI, in consultation with participating hospitals, determine the days each rural hospital will

conduct interviews. All interviews must be completed within the specified interview period.

The interview period provides hospitals with an opportunity to interview applicants as well as

an opportunity for applicants to participate in interviews at multiple rural sites. LHDs with more

than one hospital participating in the RPR pathway can choose to interview applicants for

each hospital separately or conduct a centralised interview. Interviews will be conducted by

face to face or telephone or videoconference.

http://www.nrmp.org/matching-algorithm/


Rural hospitals are responsible for:

• convening selection panels

• determining which eligible applicants will progress to interview

• notifying applicants of interview dates

• interviewing applicants.

After the Interviews Each rural hospital will rank successful applicants in order of preference.

Applicants can change the order of their RPR hospital preferences after attending their

interview; they must do so on PTAP and the JMO Career Portal by 5.00pm Thursday 1 July

2021. Applicants must only preference the hospitals they are willing to work at.

Should an applicant no longer want to continue via the RPR pathway following interview, they

must complete the following steps:

1. Log in to their PTAP application and select ‘no’ to applying via the RPR pathway.

2. Email HETI at [email protected] to inform HETI of their decision to

be removed from the RPR pathway by 5.00pm Thursday 1 July 2021.

3. Log in to their application/s in the JMO Career Portal and go to the My Applications

tile and withdraw their application.

Position Offers Offer periods are specified through a national process. All offers will be made within the

agreed national timeframes. For the 2022 clinical year, there are four national offer periods

followed by the national Late Vacancy Management Process.

On the first day of offer period one all successful matched category 1 and 2 applicants will

be offered a position.

The first round of the RPR pathway, all successfully matched via the preference matching

process will be offered a position.

During any offer period, offers can be made to applicants from different priority categories at

different RPR hospitals. This is dependent upon the outcome of the preference matching

process. To avoid misunderstandings, all offers are made by email from PTAP.

Should vacancies occur at a hospital and there are no remaining eligible applicants on the

preference matched list then these positions are filled via an expression of interest process

(which is explained further down in this document) or, at the request of the hospital, converted

to rotational positions. The rotational positions are then recruited to via the

metropolitan/regional hospital in that network.

It is possible that within the RPR pathway that some applicants will not receive a position

offer. In this situation, applicants are automatically moved to the Direct Regional Allocation

pathway or Optimised Allocation pathway based on their network preference in their PTAP

application.

mailto:[email protected]


Notification of Offers

All offers will be made as per the key dates published on the HETI website. When an

applicant has been offered a position, the status of their application in PTAP is changed to

‘Allocated’ or ‘Allocated pending verification’. All communication regarding offers will be

made by email and SMS.

Note: HETI will not inform applicants of their offered position through any other forms of

communication including by phone.

Offer Acceptance

It is the applicant’s responsibility to respond to their position offer through PTAP by the

specified date and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) outlined in the notification

email.

Applicants have 48 hours to accept or decline a position via PTAP. If an applicant has not

accepted or declined their offer within 24 hours a reminder email is sent from PTAP reminding

the applicant to act on their offer.

PTAP will automatically send an acknowledgment email of your acceptance offer.

Applicants who do not receive an email should contact HETI within 12 hours of the offer

closing.

If an applicant does not accept/decline their offer by the deadline an email will be generated

from PTAP to the applicant confirming that the position has been declined by PTAP on their

behalf.

Once an applicant accepts or declines an offer, they will receive no further offers through the

RPR Pathway or via any other recruitment pathway for the clinical year.

Expression of Interest (EOI) Any RPR vacancies that remain without eligible applicants on the preference matched list are

recruited to via an EOI process. If this occurs this will be communicated by email to unplaced

applicants in order of the NSW Health Priority List. The email will specify the location of the

position and request the applicant to provide their curriculum vitae (CV) by a specified

timeframe. Applicants will be required to attend a phone interview with the RPR facility.

Offer Acceptance It is the applicant’s responsibility to respond to their position offer through PTAP by the

specified date and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) outlined in the notification

email.

Applicants have 48 hours to accept or decline a position via PTAP. If an applicant has not

accepted or declined their offer within 24 hours a reminder email is sent from PTAP reminding

the applicant to act on their offer.

If the applicant does not accept/decline their offer by the deadline then an automatic email will be generated via PTAP to inform the applicant that the position has been declined on

their behalf.

All offers will be made as per the key dates published on the HETI website. When an

applicant has been offered a position, the status of their application in PTAP is changed to


‘Allocated’ or ‘Allocated pending verification’. All communication regarding offers will be

made by email and SMS.

Formal position offer HETI will provide accepted applicant lists to all RPR Hospitals from the middle of

September and as required afterwards.

The Local Health Districts as the employers will directly supply pre-employment paperwork

for completion and commence the pre-employment checks. They will also issue the formal

position offer.

NOTE: All successful applicants will ONLY receive ONE POSITION OFFER from HETI per year. If an applicant declines or does not accept a position offer, they are not eligible to receive

any further offers from HETI for that clinical year. The applicant will have to wait until the

following year to reapply if they still meet the eligibility criteria.


RESPONSIBILITIES

Implementation of the procedure is dependent on three key stakeholders:

• Applicants

• Employers (Local Health Districts, Specialty Health Networks and other NSW Health Organisation and their participating facilities)

• HETI

Applicants will:

• Read and understand the procedures underpinning medical graduate allocation in

NSW and seek clarification from HETI if there is a lack of understanding or clarity within

the procedures.

• Complete an online application via the Prevocational Training Application Program (PTAP) and ensure the application is submitted to HETI by the closing date.

• Submit a separate application for each hospital at which they wish to apply via the JMO

Career Portal by the closing date and time.

• Keep contact details including email address and phone number current in PTAP and regularly check emails and phone on the dates when offers are made.

• Ensure that all necessary pre-employment paperwork is completed prior to

commencing employment.

• Accept or decline their position offer within 48 hours.

• Be required to participate in overtime, on call and shift rosters including evenings, nights and weekends and to undertake rotations at facilities other than their home hospital.

HETI will:

• Lead and coordinate the medical graduate allocation process.

• Communicate the procedures and dates to the NSW Ministry of Health, LHDs, medical schools and potential applicants. This will include presentations on the HETI website and answering enquiries by telephone and email.

• Ensure all providers and networks participating are appropriately accredited facilities.

• Provide all relevant information about medical graduate allocation, procedures and dates on the HETI website.

• Communicate by email and SMS with applicants about the status of their application.

• Verify the credentials of applicants applying via the Aboriginal Medical Workforce

pathway, Rural Preferential Recruitment pathway, are a Category 1 applicant or

have put in an application for extenuating before an offer is made.

• Verify the credentials of all other applicants who have accepted an offered

position.

• Provide the employer with all the applicants’ details.

Employers will:

• Adhere to all procedures supporting medical graduate allocation in NSW.

• Negotiate conditions of employment directly with applicants and provide advice regarding visas and employment conditions.


• Contact applicants to confirm an offer of employment and arrange necessary pre-employment checks and paperwork.

• Make a formal position offer.

• Ensure that applicants are employed in facilities that are accredited for prevocational training. If a post or facility becomes unaccredited the trainees will be moved to another accredited post and/or provider.


GLOSSARY

Applicant An applicant is a medical graduate who formally applies for a prevocational training position through PTAP. General Registration General Registration is a type of registration given by the Medical Board of Australia to medical practitioners who have completed an approved medical degree and internship (PGY1) in Australia and New Zealand or have trained outside Australia and New Zealand and have demonstrated equivalence to Australian standards.

Home Hospital Home hospitals are the hospitals within a prevocational training network where trainees spend the majority of their time. The Home hospital is primarily responsible for managing the prevocational trainees’ employment such as employment contract, leave arrangements and salary. In addition, they ensure that the trainees receive effective orientation, supervision, education and training, and complete the necessary terms for general registration.

Local Health District There are 15 Local Health Districts that are responsible for providing health services in a wide range of settings, from primary care posts in the remote outback to metropolitan tertiary health centres. Eight Local Health Districts cover the greater Sydney metropolitan regions and seven covers rural and regional NSW. Local Health Districts employ prevocational trainees.

Medical Graduate A medical graduate is an individual who has completed the requirements of a medical degree but has not commenced practising as a doctor.

Postgraduate Year 1 (PGY1) Postgraduate Year 1 is the first year of medical practice undertaken by a prevocational trainee following their graduation from medical school. The year is also referred to as an internship.

Prevocational Trainee A prevocational trainee is a medical practitioner completing their first two years of supervised medical practice. Prevocational Training Application Program (PTAP) The online program used by HETI to capture applications for medical graduate recruitment and to allocate eligible applicants to positions.

Prevocational Training Network A group of prevocational training providers that work together to provide a range of clinical rotations. They also ensure effective education and training is provided to prevocational trainees.


Prevocational Training Provider (Provider) Is the institution where the prevocational trainees work and train. The Provider can be a hospital, general practice, community health centre or other accredited health facilities. The Provider governs and/or provides some or all aspects of the Prevocational Education and Training Program.

Public Health Organisation (PHO) A PHO is either:

(a) A Local Health District, or (b) A statutory health corporation (c) An affiliated health organisation in respect to its recognised establishments and

recognised services.

Recruitment Pathway Recruitment pathways are recruitment options an eligible medical graduate can utilise to seek a prevocational training position in NSW.

Term The specific clinical team, service or unit attachment in which prevocational trainees work and in which clinical training takes place. Each of these represents a term for training purposes and each must be accredited for prevocational training

ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTS

Procedures

• Aboriginal Medical Workforce pathway

• Direct Regional Allocation pathway

• Optimised Allocation pathway

• Extenuating Circumstances and Change in Personal Circumstances in NSW

Other documents

• Applicant Guide for Medical Graduate Allocation in NSW

• Key Dates for Medical Intern Allocation for 2022 clinical year

• NSW Health Priority List for 2022 Intern Recruitment

• Prevocational training networks and accredited facilities in NSW

• ROB user guide

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