Academic Post Program a ‘fantastic experience’

Witnessing the many ways that general practice can contribute to health policy and education made for a ‘fantastic experience’ for Dr Nimath Malawaraarachchi during his 2024 stint on the RACGP’s Academic Post Program.
 
‘I was able to meet some really interesting and inspiring people and learn a lot about the world of academic general practice,’ Dr Malawaraarachchi told newsGP.  
 
‘It was also great to see just how much of an impact GPs make to health policy, advocacy and education.
 
‘We are definitely more than “just GPs”.’
 
The Academic Post Program is a 12-month, 0.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) training term offered to Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) registrars.
 
The program comprises of 0.5 FTE in an academic institution, including both research and teaching activities, and is usually concurrent with registrars’ clinical training. It is available annually to registrars who have completed GPT1 and have at least three months FTE training remaining at the start of the post.   
 
Applications for the 2026 cohort open on 5 May.
 
The program is designed to provide registrars with the opportunity to build skills in the areas of research and critical thinking, expose them to a research and academic environment and encourage them to incorporate academic work into their long-term career. 
 
Based on the Gold Coast, Dr Malawaraarachchi has recently completed all his training requirements and hopes to continue a portfolio career in the future.
 
‘I found general practice training to be very well structured and I liked that the priority was for us to develop good clinical skills and knowledge,’ he said.
 
For their Academic Post application, registrars are required to develop a research proposal and complete a research project over the year.
 
Program participants must link with a university to help them develop this proposal and research project, with a supervisor appointed to oversee the registrar’s progress throughout the term. 
 
If successful, registrars are funded to complete this term and to attend at least one national primary care research conference and two face-to-face workshops throughout the year.   
 
Undertaken at Bond University, Dr Malawaraarachchi’s project is ‘General practice registrars’ current knowledge, awareness, and utilisation of clinical prediction rules and other antimicrobial stewardship strategies, in the context of respiratory infections: A qualitative study’.
 
He feels grateful to have had the opportunity to pursue the project on his Academic Post and is hoping it will help to fill some existing gaps in general practice.
 
‘I’ve always felt that antimicrobial stewardship was an important duty of us as clinicians, and that support for it is variable,’ he said.
 
‘I was fortunate that Bond University had a number of research staff who were already looking into antimicrobial stewardship within primary care. I am still recruiting but have begun initial analysis.
 
‘Despite this, I have been able to present preliminary findings in poster format at the 2024 AAAPC conference and the 2025 RACGP Queensland Clinical Update.’
 
The RACGP is hosting a registrars showcase webinar on 18 March, 7.00 pm (AEDT) for prospective applicants to find out more about the Academic Post Program.
 
A pre-application webinar for 2026 prospective applicants will be held on 29 April, 7.00 pm (AEST).
 
Projects of past Academic Post Program participants are also available on the RACGP website.
 
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Academic Post Program antimicrobial stewardship general practice registrars general practice research GP training