Dr Shyaman Menon is a great believer in communication as a major influence in training junior doctors.

``You need to sit them down and find out where they're at and where they're going,'' he says. ``The more time you spend developing rapport, the more help and encouragement they will receive. Here we have a good group of senior medical staff who want to teach and want to support junior doctors.

``This is a place where you can come and be supported and supervised right up to your fellowship year without judgement.''

Communication at Western Health is further necessary with its large case mix and contrasting cultures. ``We depend on our junior doctors!'' says Dr Menon. ``It would be very difficult if we didn't talk to each other. Most of my interviews with interns are held informally where I can ensure they're not doing too much overtime, that their teaching program is properly structured to their needs whether it is didactic teaching, case-based or skills-based.''

Dr Menon is an emergency physician and director of emergency training at Western Health. He is also supervisor of intern training.

``I'm enjoying the role, mainly because I can see them developing,'' he says. ``We are very proud of our trainee record; this year all of our emergency trainees and 87 per cent of our basic physician trainees sitting the fellowship exam have been invited to sit the clinical exams. We have had our first in-house surgical trainee pass his fellowship. We've done a great deal here with our one-on-one bedside teaching and the TTR will only increase our achievements. We will become very competitive and attractive.''

The advantage that Western Health junior medical staff have is a combination of this personal teaching, the open communication with seniors, the huge patient mix and the protected time for teaching interns and vocational trainees.

``We ensure there is alternate teaching for pre-vocational HMOs also,'' he says. ``Education of this group is vital; we have career nights and supervision for them until they can decide on a specialty. We have to support them to make the right decision for themselves.''