Education and Training

Am I PreSET?

You are PreSET if you have an interest in a career in surgery and are:

• an undergraduate medical student;
• an intern, or Post Graduate Year 1 (PGY1);
• a resident, or PGY2;
• a member of the PGY3+ cohort who currently is a Royal Australasian College of Surgeons’ (RACS) registered basic surgical trainee, and has not been accepted onto a SET program; or
• a member of the PGY3+ cohort who currently is not a RACS’ registered basic surgical trainee, and has not been accepted onto a SET program

What is SET?

SET is the Surgical Education and Training program managed by the RACS. For more information on SET, please refer to the College’s website http://www.surgeons.org/

What does the NSW Health System offer me?

Once you are PGY2, you can apply to a SET program. As part of your application, you must be able to prove to the RACS that you will satisfy all the selection criteria by the end of PGY2. For details of the SET criteria, see:

http://www.surgeons.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Overview1&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&%20ContentID=22494

In NSW, there are six (6) PreSET Networks, and these Networks are designed to provide you with the experience you require to apply to the SET program(s) of your choice.

What is a PreSET Network?

A PreSET Network is a collection of hospitals, including principal referral hospital(s), major metropolitan hospital(s) and major non-metropolitan/ rural district hospital(s) designed to provide Junior Medical Officers (JMOs) wishing to apply to SET with a diverse range of surgical, critical care, and emergency medicine experiences.  To support surgical education and training, each Network has:

• a Network Director of Training (NDoT);
• an Education Support Officer (ESO) to assist the NDoT in the organisation and administration of the Network Training Program;
• a Site Director of Training (SDoT) at each hospital within the network; and
• infrastructure (including telecommunications infrastructure), office space and teaching resources to enable delivery of network services to all sites.

For information on the PreSET Networks’ hospitals, and key contacts, please click here

How do I apply to a PreSET Network?

Recruitment to the PreSET Networks is managed as part of the JMO and Vocational Trainee recruitment process. All PreSET Network jobs will be listed from late July on the NSW Health “Health Jobs” website http://internal3.health.nsw.gov.au/healthjobs/Default.cfm

History and Governance of the PreSET Networks

Prior to 2008, the PreSET Networks were known as Basic Surgical Training (BST) Networks. For more information on the history of networked surgical training, and the governance structures which carried over to the PreSET Networks please click here.

Rural Scholarship

This IMET scholarship will be awarded to JMO employees of PreSET Networks who have completed at least six (6) months work in rural hospitals in a calendar year. The scholarship is provided to assist with approved educational expenses such as relevant courses and exam fees. This is capped at a maximum of $2,000 per JMO per for every three months spent working full time in a rural hospital after an initial three month period. So, if a JMO were to spend a full year working in rural hospitals, he/she would be entitled to a maximum of $6,000 for the year. This is calculated on the basis of a maximum of $2,000 for each three month period spent working full time in a rural hospital after an initial period of three months full time work. 
Click here to view the full application procedure and form.

Need more information?

Contact:
Jay Jacinto
Ph: (02) 9844 6545
e-mail: jjacinto@imet.health.nsw.gov.au