The Royal Melbourne Hospital
Website: The Royal Melbourne Hospital (thermh.org.au)
The Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) is one of the largest health providers in Australia. We provide a comprehensive range of specialist medical, surgical and mental health services, as well as rehabilitation, aged care, specialist clinics and community programs. We are a designated state-wide provider for services such as trauma, and we lead centres of excellence for tertiary services in several key specialties including neurosciences, nephrology, cardiology and virtual health.
We are surrounded by a Parkville Precinct of brilliant thinkers, and we are constantly collaborating to set new benchmarks in health excellence - benchmarks that impact across the globe. While the work we do takes us in inspiring new directions, we lead with kindness that defines a better standard of care.
Our 11,000 people embody who we are and what we stand for. Our reputation for caring for all Melburnians is as essential to who we are as any scientific breakthrough we make. We’re here when it matters most, and we’ll continue to be the first to speak out for our diverse community’s wellbeing.
Our purpose
Advancing health for everyone, everyday.
Our community promise
Always there when it matters most.
Our values
People First. Lead with Kindness. Excellence Together.
The Melbourne Way
At The RMH we’re inspired by our vision of Advancing health for everyone, every day. While we’re each going about our different roles, we’re united by a shared understanding of the way we do things around here. We call it The Melbourne Way. We put people first — and by leading with kindness and working together, we excel as one Royal Melbourne Hospital.
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People are at the heart of everything we do. We take the time to understand how we can make the most positive difference for them. |
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Our care and compassion sets us apart. We lead the way with a respectful, inclusive spirit — embracing the things that make us all unique. |
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True excellence is only possible when we work as one Royal Melbourne Hospital community. Through collaboration, we set the highest of standards and achieve our goals. |
Pharmacy Department
Head of Service
Kerryn Griffett, Interim Director of Pharmacy
RMH Pharmacy Department Campuses
City Campus: 300 Grattan Street, Parkville 3050
Royal Park Campus: 34 -54 Poplar Road, Parkville 3052
Parkville Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Service (PYMHWS): Footscray Hospital, Corner of Geelong and Ballarat Roads, Footscray 3011
What we do
Pharmacy provides medication management services to all areas of the hospital. These are delivered by teams of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who are here to make sure patients are provided with the correct medication and information.
Our clinical pharmacists work in wards and departments to review and discuss patient’s medications, doses, side effects and any allergies that patients might have. They also provide advice and support to doctors, nurses and other members of the interdisciplinary heath care team about medication to optimise your care. Our pharmacists also counsel patients on their medications and answer any questions or concerns that might arise.
Team Pharmacy Vision
We are a future-focused pharmacy service providing innovative, patient-centred care.
Every team member is empowered to deliver top-of-scope practice in a positive, inclusive culture.
Our Services
Clinical Pharmacy Services
The clinical pharmacy service is led by the Deputy Director of Pharmacy (Clinical). Each of the six clinical teams are led by Team Leaders who are specialist pharmacists in their field.
- CHIPS: Cancer Services, RMH@Home, Infectious Diseases, Palliative Care, Virtual Hospital
- Critical Care: Intensive Care Unit, Emergency Department
- Medicine: General Medicine, Respiratory, Gastroenterology, Mental Health
- Medical Specialties: Cardiology, Endocrinology, Rheumatology, Neurosciences, Nephrology
- Surgical: Cardiothoracics, Colorectal & Hepatobiliary, Vascular, Urology, Orthopaedics, Trauma, General Surgery, Plastics, Peri-operative, Theatres
- Royal Park: Aged Care, Rehabilitation, RMH@Home-subacute
Clinical pharmacist rotations are 6 to 12 months depending on their experience, and longer and permanent roles are also offered. The clinical service operates as a unit-based service, where each pharmacist is aligned with one or more specialty units, and they are responsible for all their unit patients irrespective of their location. This is a rewarding model for our staff, which promotes continuity of care, interdisciplinary collaboration and ultimately results in better patient outcomes.
Operations and Ambulatory Services
Pharmacy operations are led by the Deputy Director of Pharmacy (Operations). Operations services are comprised of several services that are essential to core pharmacy business.
- Aseptic Suite: prepares and compounds a large number of specialised products including parenteral nutrition, complex IV mixtures and certain hazardous medicines.
- Day Infusion Medical Services: provides care and ongoing management to support patients living with chronic conditions that require regular infusions or blood transfusion.
- Dispensary & Outpatient Services: service the supply needs for RMH inpatients and outpatients.
- Clinical Trials Services: administration and dispensing of investigational drugs across RMH.
- Procurement Services: ordering and distribution of medicines, fluids and consumables to meet the needs of the organisation.
Quality Team
The Quality Team is led by the Deputy Director of Pharmacy (Quality) and its purpose is to improve the safety and quality of medication use and services.
- Medication Safety: leads work to enhance the safe and quality use of medicines by improving systems that reduce the risk of medication-related incidents and patient harm.
- Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS): leads work to promote safe, appropriate and cost-effective antimicrobial therapy through monitoring/evaluation, clinician education and guidance, and system interventions.
- Anticoagulation Stewardship: leads work to promote the safe and appropriate use of anticoagulants and prevent venous thromboembolism (VTE).
- Medicines Information: delivers clinician support through answering complex medication-related queries and provision of evidence-based recommendations, and oversees infusion device medication library programming for some pumps.
- Research: oversees and supports pharmacy-led research by providing expertise on all aspects including design, methodology and publications occurring within the pharmacy department.
- Workforce Development: oversees education and development for all staff across the pharmacy department, including technicians, students, interns and pharmacists. Intern Pharmacists report into the Workforce Development Team, and a Senior Pharmacist member of the Workforce Development will be appointed the AHPRA approved preceptor.
Digital Health Team
The Digital Health Team is led by the Deputy Director of Pharmacy (Digital Health) and oversees the digital systems within the Pharmacy Department including the dispensing software, automatic dispensing cabinets (ADCs) and the application of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR). The team is currently focused on the implementation of ADCs throughout the organisation as part of RMH’s strategic goal to advance as a digital health service.
Business and Strategy Team
The Business and Strategy Team manages relationships with a range of key internal and external stakeholders to promote the quality and rational use of medicines throughout RMH. The team maintains the Medication Formulary, manages Individual Patient Usage requests, monitors and forecasts medication expenditure and provides strategies to address stock shortages.
Intern Training Program
Intern Pharmacists are integrated members of Team Pharmacy and they work alongside supervisors and the multidisciplinary teams for 12 months to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to become a registered clinical pharmacist. In 2027, the Royal Melbourne Hospital will offer 8 Department of Health funded intern positions.
The Royal Melbourne Hospital supports the Monash University Intern Foundation Program (IFP) to recognise workplace learning for those wishing to complete this.
The RMH Intern Training Program
Supervised practice & hours
The RMH intern program typically commences in early January. The regular weekday hours are 8:30am – 5:15pm, Monday to Friday. Some rotations may require that you start earlier or later to align with that of your supervisor (e.g. 8am or 9:15am). Interns are rostered to the extended hours dispensary service (12:30pm – 9pm) for 1 week each during the program.
As per award wages, interns are entitled to an Accrued Day Off (ADO) approximately one day in every 4 weeks. These are accounted for in your rostering to ensure an even distribution across the year. Interns are also strongly encouraged to apply for one week of annual leave to ensure they can decompress before the exam period.
Interns will also be allocated to the weekend & public holiday roster at an approximate frequency of 1 x 8 hour shift every four weeks, and some public holidays. On weekend shifts, Intern Pharmacists primarily assist with handing out discharges and providing discharge counselling. The weekend hours are in addition to normal working hours and are paid as overtime. These overtime hours contribute to the total number of supervised practice hours, thereby potentially achieving the minimum supervised practice hours sooner than you otherwise would.
Orientation
Onboarding and orientation to the Pharmacy Department and the Royal Melbourne Hospital takes place in the first week of your internship. The orientation checklist is incorporated into your rotations to ensure development of essential skills in the basic clinical pharmacy processes, whilst also becoming familiar with the workplace environment. Orientation is led by the Workforce Development team members and uses an adult learning approach, including a blend of self-directed learning, online modules, case-based learning and practical sessions in pairs on the ward.
Rotation checklists
Each rotation is guided by a checklist that outlines the goals for each rotation and interns are encouraged to contribute to their learning plans and goals as part of the checklist. The checklist also ensures you receive regular verbal and documented feedback and assists with staying on top of Intern Training Program (ITP) assessments. In addition, intern progress is guided by ongoing and regular in-the-moment feedback conversations. Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are used to provide a practical indicator of the interns’ progress to independent practice and registration.
Milestone meetings
At a minimum, the AHPRA preceptor will meet each intern for a formal progress discussion at 13 weeks, 26 weeks and at the conclusion of the intern year or earlier whenever the intern is ready for registration.
Clinical Rotations
Most intern rotations are based at City Campus, however interns may be allocated to a rotation at our Royal Park Campus and may be provided the opportunity for a short (1-5 day) exposure at our youth mental health (PYMHWS) site as part of a mental health rotation.
Core clinical rotations are 4-6 weeks each (increasing in duration throughout the year) and focus on developing interns’ processes and clinical knowledge, whilst integrating with the multidisciplinary team and building and maintaining a patient load.
Exposure clinical rotations are 1-2 weeks each and focus on broadening clinical knowledge and providing exposure to specialty practice. Interns are also provided with the opportunity to complete an exposure rotation in an elective area, based on a preference system.
Approximately 70% of the intern year is allocated to clinical rotations.
Core clinical rotations include:
- General Medicine
- General Surgery, including exposure to theatres/peri-operative medicine
- Aged Care
- Cardiology OR Neurology
Exposure rotations include:
- Emergency Medicine
- Nephrology
- Mental Health
- Cardiology OR Neurology
- Elective rotation (see below)
Possible elective rotations include:
- Gastroenterology and inflammatory bowel diseases outpatient clinic
- Intensive Care Unit
- Endocrinology and Diabetic Foot Unit
- Infectious Diseases
- Palliative Care
- RMH@Home (Hospital in the Home)
We also collaborate with our Parkville Precinct partners to offer intern exchange opportunities:
- Peter MacCallum Exchange (haematology and medical oncology)
- Royal Women’s Hospital Exchange (antenatal care unit and neonatal intensive care exposure)
Dispensary & Aseptic Suite rotations
Dispensing is considered a core pharmacist skill. Thus, dispensary rotations (8 weeks) are distributed across the training program. A 1-week Aseptic Suite rotation is rostered to meet the Pharmacy Board’s compounding requirements and includes the opportunity to learn about the pharmacists’ role in this area.
Quality Team rotations
Interns are allocated to a 4-week research project rotation, and a 2-week medicines information rotation. A medication safety activity is integrated into the research rotation as a separate activity from the research project.
Supporting our Interns
Mentors
Interns are paired with their own mentor who is an early career pharmacist. Mentors provide invaluable support and insight throughout the year, drawing on their knowledge and own recent experiences. They help navigate the intern year, provide advice, guidance and help to develop & test interns’ knowledge and skills. Mentors will also assist with providing Exam Practice in the lead up to the Pharmacy Board Oral Exam.
Tutorial Programs
Our tailored Intern Education program consists of clinical tutorials and primary healthcare tutorials.
Clinical tutorials are scheduled once each week and are presented by our expert clinical pharmacists. Throughout the year, there are six selected topics where the interns across the Parkville Precinct combine, to tap into experts in their field (cancer treatments and women’s health).
Primary healthcare / over-the counter (OTC) tutorials are facilitated by interns once a week with each intern presenting on approximately three topics throughout the year. The timetable is coordinated around the intern training programs (ITP/IFP) to ensure you have adequate knowledge to comfortably meet the necessary assessment requirements. A senior pharmacist is allocated to supervise those tutorials and share insights as needed.
Ward visits
Workforce Development team members will be allocated to conduct regular ward visits to provide interns with dedicated education time during clinical rotations. This ensures that interns receive specific feedback and are progressing as anticipated throughout the year, in addition to the usual supports from the day-to-day supervisor. More time can be arranged for interns on an individual basis as needed or desired.
Exam preparation & revision
Our department hosts Law Study Afternoons to support interns’ exam preparations. Mentors will drop in to facilitate some teaching to ensure interns have a good overview on this vast area of study. Learning together in a team environment helps to achieve a sense of accountability to each other and incorporates a social element into the study.
We also integrate exam revision sessions into the weekly tutorial program. Revision topics are a balance of legal/ethical practice and primary health care.
In preparation for the Pharmacy Board Oral Examination, we support up to 5 full practice exams during working hours, of which at least 2 will be conducted with senior Workforce Development pharmacists. We encourage interns to engage with their mentors, peers and colleagues to support further exam practice.
Site Visits
The RMH will hold site visits for prospective interns. During the visit, you will have the opportunity to meet and talk to our current interns, the team and see the workplace for yourself.
Site visits will be held at the Royal Melbourne Hospital City Campus on the following dates in 2026:
- Tuesday 30th June 11:00am – 11:45am
- Wednesday 1st July 9:00am – 9:45am
- Monday 6th July 4:00pm – 4:45pm
To register your interest, please complete the following survey: https://redcap.link/8zadgcb9
More information will be provided closer to the date.
Hospital tour with Pharmadog Bernie, the 12 year old chocolate lab and Pharmacy Wellbeing Pawject Officer.
The Royal Melbourne Hospital Mission, Values and Purpose video
Contact us
Please don’t hesitate to direct any general enquiries about the RMH Pharmacy Intern Training Program to:
Workforce Development Pharmacists – Rhiannon Froude, Jenny Lau & Jenny Chen
Intern positions
8 total (DH funded)