Rural Allowance: No
Doctors Quarters:
- No DQ. Only on call rooms which are satisfactory.
- No doctors quarters.
- There are no doctors quarters provided beyond the on call rooms.
- No DQs available but lots of apartment complexes in the area.
Academics:
- Friendly staff, mostly motivated to teach and guide.
- Both working and academic rounds. Good evidence based teaching and clinical learning opportunities.
- Consultants/registrars and MOs are always willing to teach and give advise. Medical students also rotate through most disciplines.
- All the consultants are friendly and approachable. Most learning is done on the post-intake ward round, but depending on the department, formal tuts may also be offered.
- Lots of teaching on ward rounds + dedicated intern teaching time and the hospital strives to practice evidence based medicine.
Supervision:
- Good support either on site or off site
- All departments have wonderful consultants that do teaching as well as rotating clinicians from GSH that are willing to teach.
- Your senior will call from home, but they are readily available. And EC is always willing to help.
- Your senior will call offsite but will always be available telephonically for advice and they are generally always willing to come in if you feel overwhelmed or out of your depth. The EC seniors are amazing and always willing to help/give advice.
Clinical Exposure:
- A nice combination of common cases that are still “intern level” allowing you to get more hands on experience but also more complex cases to make the work interesting and engaging.
- Good exposure to all types of medical, surgical and trauma.
- As the only intern on call in your first year, it is a huge challenge but rewarding responsibility to practice your clinic skills.
- Especially in the EC, if you’re willing and keen, you are able to do as many clinical procedures as you want to.
- You will get a wide variety of clinical exposure (secondary-level hospital things) and will get to do a lot of practical procedures with guidance/supervision. Vic has a very “medical” EC and doesn’t see that much trauma so if that is your main interest might not be the best choice.
Social Scene:
- Not really my scene so I can’t comment too much but overall a friendly team
- Victoria Hospital treat each other like family. If you work hard and teach others well, they do the same for you.
- Everyone is very friendly and gets along well, not a lot of social activities outside work though.
- Most interns have families nearby and prefer to spend their time with them.
- Everyone at Vic is lovely and pretty soon during your time at Vic they will all start to feel like family. The seniors are very supportive and care about your well-being. There is always a good vibe between the interns and you get to know everyone quite well as there are only 20 interns in each year.
Additional Comments:
- One of the best internship opportunities in Western Cape. Difficult to get in but if you do, you won’t regret it.
- Excellent hospital for internship; very well run and efficient. All staff very keen to help and teach. Good clinical exposure, but always support available if needed.
- One of the best places to do internship – good balance of teaching and support vs independence and learning to find your own groove! Would choose Victoria again in a heartbeat.
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