Overseas-Trained Doctors in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services: Many Unanswered Questions

Culture, Knowledge and Education
●Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services are heavily dependent on overseas-trained doctors (OTDs). • These OTDs are increasingly from countries with variable English language and educational equivalency compared with locally trained doctors. • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services create particular demands for all doctors, such as negotiating “cultural domains” and acknowledging the contribution of Aboriginal health workers. • Little is known about the roles and experience of OTDs in health service provision in Indigenous communities. • Barriers to effective research into the experience of OTDs include privacy legislation and a lack of standardised data. • Researching the narratives of OTDs in Indigenous health services offers an opportunity to explore the diversity and complexity of the cultural interfaces in health service provision.