Year 4 Preferencing and Allocations

The below information relates to students who commenced the MD Program (5578) prior to 2023.

Preferencing

In Year 4, students will undertake a range of clinical placements across two semesters.

Women’s and Children’s Health (WCH) Semester

Obstetrics and Gynaecology (6 weeks)

Paediatrics (6 weeks)

PLC Elective (6 weeks)

Advanced Hospital Practice (AHP) Semester

Medical Specialties (6 weeks)
Surgical Specialties (5 weeks)
- Ophthalmology (2 weeks)
- Orthopaedics (3 weeks)
Critical Care (7 weeks)
- Anaesthetics (2 weeks)
- ICU (2 weeks)
- Emergency (3 weeks)

For those Year 4 students who completed their O&G and Paediatrics placements in Year 3, they will undertake the Primary Care Plus Semester in lieu of the WCH semester.

Primary Care Plus (PCP) Semester

Rural & Remote Medicine (6 weeks)
General Practice (6 weeks)
PLC Elective (6 weeks)

NOTE: Surgical Specialties (Orthopaedics & Ophthalmology) and Critical Care (Emergency Medicine, Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Unit) are not placements in themselves, but a series of two and three week placements within the Advanced Hospital Practice Semester (depicted below).

Students will be allocated to a Clinical Unit for the duration of the academic year, and will undertake most of their clinical placements in the teaching sites associated with that Clinical Unit. Depending on the course, students will be required to complete some of their clinical placements at other clinical locations (e.g. Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedics).

Students should read this information in conjunction with the Allocation Guidelines and Preferencing Dates. Students can find an example of the Year 4 Pathways offered in 2025 here (noting that these are indicative only and subject to change):

The 2025 Year 4 Allocation Presentation is available on the MD Community Site.

Students will have the opportunity to nominate their preference (rank order) for allocation to a Clinical Unit, as well as a preferred placement block for their Personalised Learning Course (PLC) Elective placement. Students who do not have a preferred block for their PLC Elective placement do not need to submit preferences for their placement block order.

Please click here for access to the Placements System

Medical Specialties

Availability

After the release of finalised allocations, students will have the opportunity to preference for Medical Speciality sub-disciplines that are available within their allocated Clinical Unit. A summary of the available Medical Specialties at each Clinical Unit in can be found here. Please note this is a guide, with some placements not offered all blocks, and is subject to change due to operational requirements.

Preferencing

Medical Specialties preferencing is semester based (specific preferencing dates can be found here). Students will preference from offers provided by their Clinical Units. Medical Specialties placements must be taken in their entirety and cannot be split.

Students in the Rural Clinical School do not need to preference their Medical Specialties placement.

RCS Return to Metro Medical Specialties

Eligible Rural Clinical School students (i.e. students who completed Year 3 and continued into Year 4 at the RCS) wishing to undertake their Medical Specialties placement at a metropolitan site will be contacted by their RCS Clinical Unit to confirm their preferred GBCS Clinical Unit (from RBWH, Northside - TPCH and Southside - PAH). Once students have been allocated to a Clinical Unit, they will preference with the rest of the cohort, from the options available at their allocated Clinical Unit.

Ochsner Clinical School

Domestic and International Onshore Students may also apply to undertake their Medical Specialties at the UQ-Ochsner Clinical School in New Orleans. Further details can be found below under 'Ochsner Clincial School Placements'.

Elective (Personalised Learning Course)

Students are required to undertake the elective course during Year 4 of their program. The elective course includes a placement period that is six (6) weeks in duration. The elective placement can be undertaken at any approved location worldwide, including but not limited to Clinical Units of the Medical School. Applications for the elective placement activity must be made in accordance with the published guidelines and timeline.

> Find out more

General Practice

Rural Clinical School

Students in the Rural Clinical School do not need to preference their GP placement, as this is will be arranged directly by their Clinical Unit.

Greater Brisbane Clinical School

Students will have the opportunity to nominate their preference for a specific GP practice (preferencing dates can be found here). All placements are subject to change at any time at the discretion of the Medcial School.

Students are not permitted to preference for placements at practices where their family are patients or staff.

For more information GBCS GP placements, email med.gpstudents@uq.edu.au

Rural and Remote Medicine

In 2025, all Students (Domestic and International) are required to undertake MEDI7315 Rural and Remote Medicine (RRM), unless they have been granted an RRM Exemption via the Special Consideration Process.

Rural and Remote Medicine is focused on clinical practice in the rural context. After the release of finalised allocations, students will have the opportunity to preference by site - this is irrespective of their clinical unit allocation. While every attempt will be made to minimise changes to rural & remote placements, this may not always be possible due to operational requirements.

Prior to preferencing you will be able to view the location and profiles of possible domestic placement sites. You will be provided with a list of placements that will be available in your course and in your allocated placement block through the Placements system (InPlace). If you are undertaking the Comprehensive Clinical Practice (CCP) semester in the first half of 2025, you will be required to submit your preferences for RRM in September 2024. Alternatively, if you are undertaking CCP in Semester 2 you will required to submit your preferences in March 2025. As was the case with preferencing for your clinical unit, you will need to log into Placements to rank the available placements in your preferred order. This will occur on a semester basis and specific preferencing dates can be found here.

There are no restrictions on the placements you can choose in the preferencing process, as these placements are not tied to your clinical unit allocation for other courses. For RRM enquiries please contact med.rrmstudents@uq.edu.au.

RRM application for Priority Placement

Students have an opportunity to submit an application for Priority Placement prior to preferencing placement sites. Compelling reasons only will be considered, such as:

students with a rural background or connection (i.e. completed TREES Observership) and may wish to complete a rural placement at a specific site

Further details can be found here, under the Placements tab.

Extended Placement Program

The Extended Placement Program provides an opportunity for all Onshore students (Domestic and International) to spend more time in a rural location by undertaking back to back placements in General Practice and Rural & Remote Medicine. The program focuses on continuity of practice in a rural community, thus for students enhancing patient and learner-centeredness.

It is known that rural primary care is an excellent setting for high quality clinical and educational experiences (Worley, Stasser & Prideaux, 2009). The chosen rural sites would provide an integrated learning environment with extensive clinical exposure. The Extended Placement Program will be enriched by having a Medical Educator take a role in supporting and assisting medical students to meet all the curriculum requirements. Students who are approved for the EPP will be allocated to undertake their General Practice (GP) placement prior to their Rural and Remote Medicine (RRM) placement.

In 2025, EPP is open to students taking their RRM and GP placements in either the Year 3 Comprenhensive Clinical Practice (CCP) semester, or the Year 4 Primary Care Plus semester.

Students wishing to undertake an EPP will be provided with accommodation for the duration of their EPP placements and are entitled to financial assistance through the Rural Placement Student Support Program.

Please see the EPP information flyer and EPP Information booklet for further details or contact Rural & Remote Medicine Team via email: med.rrmstudents@uq.edu.au or by phone (07) 4633 9705.

For a first hand insight into the Extended Placement Program, check out Travis' story here.

How to Apply

2025 EPP Applications open: 12:00 noon Monday 27 May, 2024

2025 EPP Applications close: 12:00 noon Monday 3 June, 2024

To apply, complete the Application form.

Ochsner Clinical School Placements

Onshore domestic and international students have the opportunity to apply for Year 4 placements at the Ochsner Clinical School. Placements are subject to availability and are subject to an application process as outlined below.

For detailed information on placements at Ochsner, please visit their helpful website: Clinical Placements at Ochsner.

Available Disciplines

Elective & Medical Specialties

The Elective and Medical Specialties must be undertaken for the full six weeks. Splitting of your Elective placement is not permitted.
Disciplines available include Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Hepatology/Oncology, Neurology, Renal Medicine etc. You can see the available disciplines for 2025 placements here.

If you are successful in gaining an Elective or Medical Specialties place, you will be contacted at a later date by the Faculty's Work Integrated Learning (WIL) team with a list of available specialties for preferencing.

Surgical Specialties & Critical Care

Surgical Specialties (Orthopaedics & Ophthalmology) and Critical Care (Emergency Medicine, Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Unit) are not placements in themselves, but a series of two and three week placements within the Advanced Hospital Practice Semester (depicted below).

Students will be provided the opportunity to undertake these placements at the UQ Ochsner Clinical School in New Orleans, Louisiana (subject to availability).

2025 Availabilities

Specialty	Block 1	Block 2	Block 3	Block 4	Block 5	Block 6
Medical Specialties OR PLC Elective	11	12	11	12	11	8
ED/Ortho	6	2	5	0	2	0
A/I/O	0	5	8	0	2	5

Application

Applications are not assessed on a first-come, first-served basis. Priority will be given to students who demonstrate a commitment to practising medicine in the United States or Canada, such as those who have been approved for, applied for, or intend to apply for medical licensing examinations.
Students applying due to their desire and commitment to practise medicine in North America are required to supply supporting documentation.
Students can ONLY apply for blocks that correlate with their allocated placement pathway.
Students undertaking a placement at the OCS are responsible for all associated and incidental costs (travel, accommodation and transport etc).

Applications Open: Midday Monday 30 September 2024

(Please note the opening date was delayed a week. We thank you for your understanding)

Applications Close: Midday Tuesday 8 October 2024

Apply here
(link will become active when applications open)

If you have any questions please contact med.placements@uq.edu.au