PGY1 Requirements

Internship marks the transition from medical student to medical practitioner. In order to make this transition, interns must meet the postgraduate year one (PGY1) requirements. These requirements were introduced in January 2024 as part of the Australian Medical Council’s (AMC) National Framework for Prevocational Medical Training (the Framework). The requirements are detailed in the following 2 documents:

PMCWA assesses WA health sites that employ PGY1s to ensure the programs and terms provided meet these requirements. PGY1’s must only be employed by health sites that are accredited by PMCWA. Below is a summary of these requirements:

  • Program length: PGY1s must complete a minimum of 47 weeks full-time equivalent service (including professional development leave) over a maximum of 3 years.
  • Program structure: A PGY1’s clinical year must be made up of a minimum of 4 terms of at least 10 weeks, with a maximum of 50% in any one specialty (eg medicine including its subspecialties, or surgery including its subspecialties), and a maximum of 25% in any one subspecialty.
  • Program content – clinical experience: Across the clinical year, a PGY1 must be exposed to clinical care of patients in each of the following:
    • Undifferentiated illness care
    • Chronic illness care
    • Acute and critical illness care
    • Peri-operative/procedural care
  • Clinical teams: PGY1s must be embedded in a clinical team for at least half of the clinical year.
  • Service terms – relief and nights: PGY1s are only allowed to undertake service terms for 20% or less of the year (refer to PMCWA Service Guidelines for further information about how these requirements work in WA).
  • Satisfactory completion: PGY1s must achieve the prevocational outcomes at the end of their internship (refer to AMC’s Training and Assessment Requirements for further information). 
  • Emergency medicine for PGY1s in WA: Undifferentiated illness care requires the intern has clinical involvement at the point of first presentation for a patient. Given the supervision requirement for PGY1, PMCWA has deemed that an accredited hospital program year shall include an emergency medicine term to ensure that all interns meet the program requirement. 

 

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  1. What is the minimum number of weeks a PGY1 is required to complete for each clinical experience?*

There is no specified minimum time limit a PGY1 is required to complete for each clinical experience, however, the following must occur (with further details available in the AMC Framework FAQs, Question 45 and the AMC Requirements for prevocational training programs and terms):

  • Employers of PGY1s are required to provide all PGY1s with a clinical year structured to include at least 4 terms being at least 10 weeks in length. In this period, they must provide PGY1s with clinical experience across Undifferentiated (A), Chronic (B), Acute and Critical (C) and Peri-operative/procedural (D) patient care.
  • PGY1s are required to undertake adequate time in each clinical experience to allow the health service’s Assessment Review Panel (ARP) to determine whether they have met the required training standards and can be recommended to the MBA for general registration.

PMCWA recommends that PGY1s should not take any more than 2 weeks leave (including professional development, personal and annual leave) in any term to provide them with the best opportunities to allow their supervisor to adequately assess their performance, allowing the PGY1 to meet the required training standards and be recommended to the MBA for General Registration.

*This question does not take in to account the other requirements, including performance, which can be found here.

  1. What is the minimum number of weeks a PGY1 is required to complete across a clinical year? *

The MBA is the body that determines the minimum number of weeks a PGY1 is required to complete to be recommended for general registration. In its simplest form, PGY1s must complete 47 weeks of clinical work which can include 2 weeks of professional development leave. If required, PGY1s can have an additional 2 weeks leave due to genuine personal or carer’s leave. If you have not met the above requirements, the Medical Board will review your situation and consider the number of weeks of clinical experience undertaken on a case-by-case basis. PGY1s must review the detailed information on AMC Requirements for prevocational training programs and terms and Medical Board Registration Standard, as the Board have indicated these requirements may be amended at any time.

*This question does not take in to account the other requirements, including performance, which can be found here.