There are numerous different career pathways that can be taken in the Australian medical profession. If you’ve trained to become a qualified doctor (or you are currently in training), then the sky’s the limit as far as potential career progression is concerned.
It really just depends on how high you want to reach and how far you want your career to progress.
If the ultimate goal is to seek senior medical director jobs, then you’ll need to understand exactly what steps are required to achieve this goal, along with having determination and commitment. Let’s discover what it takes to reach the level of a medical director in 2022.
What Is the Role Of a Medical Director?
Becoming a medical director means you have advanced your career, knowledge, skills, and training to a senior level of expertise. It’s like the pinnacle role in the medical profession. It’s also a job description that can offer not only a lot of responsibility but a lot of diversity as well.
While many medical directors tend to work within a hospital environment, choosing this career path doesn’t mean you’re confined to a hospital. Medical directors also find work in pharmaceutical and tech companies or take up roles in education.
Some qualified medical directors run a private practice, where their role is to offer medical administration and oversee a team of doctors.
In every place of employment, leadership is required. Essentially, the medical director is the individual who provides that leadership within a hospital or a clinic. Doctors, nurses, and specialists come under the medical director’s leadership and it’s also the role of the director to formulate protocols and guidelines for everyone to follow.
As a chief administrator and the person in charge, your role as a medical director will be demanding at times, but also extremely rewarding on a personal, professional, and financial level. The salary for a medical director can exceed $300k per annum, so it’s a lucrative career choice.
Becoming a Medical Director – What’s Involved?
Let’s now take a closer look at the pathway an individual is required to follow in order to achieve the status of a medical director in Australia.
Step one is successfully obtaining your medical degree, during which you will be a student doctor in a hospital environment. Throughout this phase, you’ll also undergo some classroom education in conjunction with practical work experience. All the while you’ll be trained and guided by qualified medical professionals.
The next step following the successful completion of a medical degree is to become a hospital intern. This requires a minimum one-year commitment, after which you can officially register as a qualified doctor.
Following registration, if you choose to remain working within a hospital, you’ll be known as a resident doctor. It’s during the residency phase that many doctors decide to specialize in order to advance their careers.
The next step on the rung is to become a registrar doctor. As you fulfill your duties in the role of a registrar, you can study to become a medical director through specialized training.
Becoming a medical director isn’t merely about receiving a promotion for a job well done. You need certain qualifications and training to assume this role. Core subjects you need to cover include training in research, health system science, medical management, and leadership skills.
Finding Senior Medical Director Jobs In Australia
Once you’ve become a qualified medical director, if you’re seeking a position or want a change of environment, you won’t want to be spending valuable time trolling through job vacancies on an online job board.
The better approach is to make use of a recruitment agency, preferably a firm that specializes in recruitment for the medical profession.
Recruitment agencies that focus on a particular profession have a greater understanding of the industry and this will help to shortcut the recruitment process and find you a suitable role sooner. These agencies have already established solid and reliable industry contacts, which will ultimately work to your advantage.
In Conclusion
While the pathway to becoming a medical director can be long and somewhat intense when it comes to work and study, it’s an achievable goal for anyone determined to reach the pinnacle in their medical career.