Careers as a Medical Officer at NALHN

Medical officers at the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) are employed across a broad range of clinical settings, caring for diverse communities and managing complex health needs.
From emergency and inpatient care to specialist outpatient clinics and community based services, a medical career at NALHN offers depth, variety and the opportunity to make a real impact.
If you are passionate about medicine, learning and leadership, NALHN provides a supportive environment to develop your skills and build a long term career in public healthcare.

Why work with us?

As part of SA Health, NALHN offers clearly defined medical career pathways, strong supervision and training support, and the chance to build your career within a large, complex metropolitan health network.

You will work alongside a team of health professionals with different skills and experiences. Our teams work closely, sharing knowledge, ideas and responsibility, to provide the best possible care for our patients.

No day is the same. In medicine at NALHN, you are exposed to a wide range of environments, and plenty of opportunities to grow and expand your knowledge.

Where you could work

NALHN’s medical officers are employed across a variety of settings, including:

• emergency departments
• inpatient wards
• outpatient specialist clinics
• community and outreach services.

These environments offer broad clinical exposure and opportunities to tailor your career pathway to your interests and goals.

Your pathway

A career in medicine requires commitment, formal training and ongoing professional development. You will need to complete undergraduate and postgraduate medical qualifications which typically take up to six years of full time university study.

To gain entry into a medical degree, you usually need to complete an admission test, followed by a university interview, but this is subject to each university’s requirements.

Following graduation, you will undertake two years of prevocational training under the Australian Medical Council (AMC) Prevocational Training Framework:

• a one year, paid internship (Postgraduate Year 1 – PGY1), gaining supervised clinical experience across a range of rotations and
• rotations across a variety of hospital roles to continue gaining broad experience and real-world skills (Postgraduate Year 2 - PGY2).

By the end of PGY1 (internship, first postgraduate year), you will gain full registration. PGY2 (second postgraduate year) help you prepare to choose and enter a specialty or GP training pathway.

Following completion of the AMC Prevocational Framework, you can enter speciality training, i.e. medicine, surgery, emergency, intensive care, anaesthetics, psychiatry, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, general practice, etc.

These pathways involve structured postgraduate training programs and qualifications. They usually take 4 to 8 years and afterwards, you are eligible to gain specialist registration.

Some doctors choose to continue in registrar roles to build experience before entering specialist training.

Ongoing growth and development

Medicine at NALHN is dynamic and challenging. You will encounter a wide variety of clinical situations and work across multiple settings. You will also have continual opportunities to learn and refine your skills and grow throughout your career.

Salary and employment conditions

Salaries and conditions are determined by the Salaried Medical Officers Enterprise Agreement.