medical careers an overview...what i wish i’d known on my first day at medical school…. •...
TRANSCRIPT
MEDICAL CAREERS –
AN OVERVIEW
ELAINE DENNISS
MEDICAL CAREERS
CONSULTANT
Key Messages
• Careers support is available to you throughout
your course
• Where and when you can use careers support
• Totally confidential – don’t have to be referred
Why do Medical Students need Careers Advice?
• Seems ironic that medial students would use
Careers Advice
• Medicine is a vocational course
• Surely med students ‘know what they want to do –
they want to be a doctors’
• Yes….but can be still be very useful
How we can help
• One-to-one careers guidance
• Career events and talks
• Personality and aptitude testing
• CV advice and checking
• Practice interviews
• Skills workshops
Which Medical Students seek Careers Advice?
• Those who discover they hate Medicine
• Those who find Medicine too difficult
• Those who have ‘personal problems’
• Those who parents are doctors but who never really wanted to be a Medic themselves
• Those who fail their exams
• Those who aren’t coping
• Those who want to drop out for other reasons
• Those who want to earn more money as an Investment Banker
Common Questions• Other students on my course seem to be doing lots of extra things (research,
leading societies, student reps etc). Should I be doing the same?
• How can I gain research experience?
• I’m interested in working in global health when I qualify. How can I get
experience?
• I’m not sure medicine is for me. Can I take a year out to gain experience in other
fields/work overseas etc.
• I’m not sure medicine is for me. What else can I do with a medical degree?
• I’m interested in doing my training in the US. What do I need to do?
• What can I be doing to improve my chances of getting my top choice of
Foundation School?
• Can I take a year out before starting my Foundation Training?
• What can I be doing to improve my chances of securing an Academic Foundation
Programme (ACP)
• I’m not sure which course to choose for my intercalated BSc – can you help?
• I don’t know which speciality I want to go into. Should I be worried about this?
• How will I select my jobs (rotations) on the Foundation Programme?
• Which elective should I choose?
UCL CAREERS SERVICE
Senior medical posts
Specialty training – uncoupled, run-through
Core specialty training
Higher specialty training
GP Training
Academic Fellowship Programme
Foundation Programme (2 years)
Academic Foundation Programme (2 years)
GMC registration after F1
MBBS Degree
Basic Medical Career Structure
Le
ss th
an
FT
train
ing
,
time o
ut, n
on
-train
ing c
are
ers
Other
Options:
Academic
Medicine
Medical
Education
Work
Overseas
Research
CCT
Specialty Training Pathway
Consultant
Specialty Registrar (SpR)
ST4-7/8
Senior House Officer or GPST
ST1-3 (CT1-3)
FY2
FY1
Provisional GMC Registration
Full GMC Registration
Completion of MBBS
Completion of College Membership Exams Parts 1 (and 2)
Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT)
Entry onto Specialty Register
Completion of College Membership Exams (usually by ST4)
Core Specialty Training
• Core Medical Training (2 years)
• Core Surgical Training (2 years)
• Psychiatry (CT1 – CT3)
(Acute Care Common Stem – ACCS)
(3 years)
• Acute Medicine (from ACCS and CMT)
• Anaesthesia
• Emergency Medicine
• Intensive Care Medicine (from ACCS, CMT, Anaesthesia
core training)
Run Through Specialities
• Chemical pathology
• Clinical radiology
• Emergency Medicine (new initiative)
• General Practice
• Histopathology
• Medical microbiology/virology – microbiology
• Medical microbiology/virology – virology
• Neurosurgery
• Obstetrics & Gynaecology
• Paediatrics
• Public Health
Shape of Training (Greenaway Report) Patients and the public need more doctors who are capable of providing general care in broad
specialties across a range of different settings. This is being driven by a growing number of people
with multiple co-morbidities, an ageing population, health inequalities and increasing patient
expectations.
We will continue to need doctors who are trained in more specialised areas to meet local patient and
workforce needs.
Postgraduate training needs to adapt to prepare medical graduates to deliver safe and effective
general care in broad specialties.
Medicine has to be a sustainable career with opportunities for doctors to change roles and specialties
throughout their careers.
Local workforce and patient needs should drive opportunities to train in new specialties or to
credential in specific areas.
Doctors in academic training pathways need a training structure that is flexible enough to allow them
to move in and out of clinical training while meeting the competencies and standards of that training.
Full registration should move to the point of graduation from medical school, provided there are
measures in place to demonstrate graduates are fit to practise at the end of medical school. Patients’
interests must be considered first and foremost as part of this change
What I wish I’d known on my first day at Med
School….
What I wish I’d known on my first day at Medical
School….
• ‘The most important thing I can think of is the need to start thinking aboutcareers and what you want to do after you qualify. It is quite easy to driftthrough the 5 years of medical school without thinking about it, and then suddenly realise at the end of it that you are being rushed into making a crucial decision that will affect the rest of your life. F2 Doctor
• ‘The era of floating around as a junior doctor in different specialities for a few years before taking a final decision has long gone. Important decisions have to made very soon after qualifying.’ F1 Doctor
•‘Talk to doctors in different specialties about what they do and try togain as much experience as you can in various different fields as astudent. Think about what you want to do- both in medicine and in life ingeneral, as your medical career will have a huge impact on how you live.’Year 5 Medical Student
How we can help
• One-to-one careers guidance
• Career events and talks
• Personality and aptitude testing
• CV advice and checking
• Practice interviews
• Skills workshops
Where we are• 4th Floor, ULU
Building, Malet Street
• Mon – Thu 9:30 – 5
pm; Fri – 11 am – 5
pm
• 020 7866 3600