The Australian National University (ANU) Academic Unit of General Practice, in conjunction with Capital Health Network (CHN), are excited to announce a new General Practice (GP) scholarship program for ANU medical students.

The scholarship is designed to support students to stay connected to general practitioner mentors throughout their final year at medical school and subsequent years in junior doctor training.

Associate Professor Katrina Anderson, Director of GP Education, ANU Academic Unit of General Practice advised, "Medical students lose touch with general practice during their hospital training years because there are few connections to primary care and no exposure to GP role models. The aim of this program is to help students stay connected to GP mentors during their junior doctor training years and find support and inspiration from GPs while in the hospital environment. The program not only supports students but also the GP supervisors taking on a mentoring role."

Successful students and their GP mentors are connected during two formal mentoring events in the students fourth year of the Doctor of Medicine and Surgery program and are offered conference attendance and expenses to a maximum of $2000 to attend a GP conference during their first two years as a junior doctor. 

"The program will support the local emerging workforce and bolster general practitioners in the ACT to create a more sustainable workforce into the future," noted Associate Professor Anderson.  

In 2022, the fourth-year students awarded the GP Scholarship are Tornike Janjgava, Sally Laughton, Sheraz Majoka, Claudia Reed and Alexandra Roberts. The awardees recently gathered with their mentors, Katrina Anderson, Kerrie Aust, David Brown, Merson Mathews and Pam Whalan over dinner to discuss the complexities of life for their patients and themselves. The evening involved rich wide-ranging conversations around living ethically and meaningfully as well as exploring concepts around emotions, sleep, neurodiversity, loneliness, and compassion. This was the second gathering of the group for 2022.