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)

In 2024, Year 4 students who completed their O&G and Paediatrics placements in Year 3 will undertake the Primary Care Plus 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).

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 2024 here (noting that these are indicative only and subject to change):

The 2024 Year 3 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.

Preferencing Tracker (Women & Children's Health) 2024 - Final Numbers

Clinical Unit	Available *	First Pref ^#
Northside	65	30
PA/Southside	52	62
RBWH	25	57
Mater	6	30
Greenslopes	17	16
Ipswich	33	35
Bundaberg	11	0
Hervey Bay	1	0
Toowoomba	2	0
Rockhampton	16	3

Preferencing Tracker (Primary Care Plus) 2024 - Final Numbers

Clinical Unit	Available *	First Pref ^#
Northside	0	NA
PA/Southside	5	13
RBWH	23	25
Mater	17	16
Greenslopes	6	2
Ipswich	0	NA

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

Primary Care Plus Semester

Students who undertook the Women’s, Children and Mental Health Semester in Year 3 in 2023 will undertake Advanced Hospital Practice (Medical Specialties/Surgical Specialties/Critical Care) and Primary Care Plus (RRM/GP/Elective) in Year 4 in 2024.

To find information on the Rural and Remote Medicine (RRM) and General Practice (GP) courses (including the Extended Placement Program), please refer to the Year 3 Preferencing and Allocations website, under their respective tabs.

Ochsner Clinical School Placements

The Medical School recognises that various circumstances can give rise to students requesting a reallocation of their existing placements so they can spend more time in New Orleans. There are 2 opportunites for UQ-Onshore students to undertake placements at the Ochsner Clincial School in Year 4.

AHP Semester Swap

Further details about this process are in the 'Guidelines for Reallocation of Year 4 Placements between Australia and Ochsner', which can be found on the Key Guidelines webpage, under 'Allocation Guidelines and Handbooks'.

Pre-Approved Placements

Each year domestic and international onshore students in Year 4 have the opportunity to apply for placements at the Ochsner Clinical School, in New Orleans, Louisiana, through a pre-approved selection process. These placements are subject to availability, cannot be split, and must be taken in their entirety. Students can ONLY apply for blocks that correlate with their allocated placement pathway.

IMPORTANT - Students who are allocated placements at the Ochsner Clincial School will be required to provide further compliance documentation prior to starting placement. Further information can be found here - Clinical Placements at Ochsner

Medical Specialties

Surgical Specialties & Critical Care

Emergency Medicine/ Orthopaedics
Anaesthetics / ICU / Ophthalmology

Elective

UQ Ochsner Clinical School, USA

Open to all Students - priority will be given to students who can demonstrate an intention to practice medicine in North America

Medical Specialties

You can see the available disciplines for 2024 placements here. If you are successful in gaining one of these places, you will be contacted at a later date by the Faculty's Work Integrated Learning (WIL) team with the 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).

Elective

Disciplines available include Cardiology, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, Neurology, Renal Medicine etc. You can see the available disciplines for 2024 placements here. If you are successful in gaining an elective 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.

2024 Availabilities

Specialty	Block 1	Block 2	Block 3	Block 4	Block 5	Block 6
Medical Specialties OR PLC Elective	5	5	7	5	9	3
ED/Ortho	4	4	4	3	3	5
Total placements per block	9	9	11	6	11	7

Note: there are no available Ophthal/ICU/Anaes placements in 2024 at OCS.

Application

Priority will be given to students who are committed to practising medicine in the United States or Canada (e.g. have been approved, have applied, or expect to apply to undertake 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 costs.

Applications Open: Midday Monday 25 September 2023

Applications Close: Midday Tuesday 3 October 2023

Apply here
(link will become active when applications open)

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