Interview – Nicholas Jorgensen

Orthopaedic Registrar, Queensland


Nicholas is in his third year of AOA's orthopaedic surgical education and training program. In October last year he became the president of the Australian Orthopaedic Registrars' Association (AORA). He kindly agreed to answer a few questions about how he came to study medicine, why he chose orthopaedics and how he hopes to contribute to the orthopaedic community in his time as AORA president.

Nick Headshot 2 warmed cropped

Nicholas Jorgensen
AORA president

Becoming an orthopod


When did you realise you wanted to specialise in orthopaedics?

It was a bit of a process. I wasn’t originally going to do medicine – I wanted to be a zoologist and/or a game tracker through Africa. I’d been fortunate enough to undertake a student exchange in South Africa, and fell in love with the veldt. It was during this time that I was taken along for an outreach-style hospital stay in Swaziland, spending the majority of time in orthopaedics, and this is something that I used as a reference all through university and medical school.  I had an opportunity to go to medical school and took a chance, and haven’t really looked back.

"I had an opportunity to go to medical school and took a chance, and haven’t really looked back."

I found as an intern that I enjoyed the team-based approach, the people that orthopaedics attracted, the mixture of technical skills and common-sense decision making. Orthopaedics, a lot of the time, is conceptually very direct – the skill and challenge of delivering a result was something that appealed to me.

You’re now in your second year of AOA’s training program. How does this experience compare to your time as a med student and an unaccredited registrar?

The responsibility level has changed, as well as my involvement in more facets of patients care. Where my experience once only showed me a snapshot, and then became clinic-based or admission-based, being a trainee confers the added responsibility of first contact and decision making to surgery and follow-up. That is something I take great pride in.

In direct comparison to my student days - the loss of sleep-ins, half days, long weekends, overseas electives and months-long holidays has been dearly missed.

"...being a trainee confers the added responsibility of first contact and decision making to surgery and follow-up. That is something I take great pride in."