Elizabeth Dodd
Coast City Country General Practice Training
Australia is a destination for many Asian doctors emigrating from their homelands, such that in rural Australia, over 40% of doctors are immigrants. These doctors have to adjust to different ways of talking, working and learning. This work views historical and modern education in Asia, the known challenges faced by immigrant doctors, and then explores the experiences of doctors who have left Asia and settled in Australia. A selection of Asian immigrant doctors were interviewed. Their understanding of the challenges they faced was compared with the challenges known from the literature, namely language, communication with patients, understanding the Australian medical system and the differences in teaching methods they had experienced. Respondents also noted that a change in thinking patterns was required for success in Australian medical practice, a theme which has not appeared in the literature to date.
