MEDICAL CAREERS – NOW AND INTO THE FUTURE: AN OVERVIEW

ELAINE DENNISS MEDICAL CAREERS 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 medical 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 Basic Medical Career Structure

MBBS Degree time out, non

Less Less than FTtraining, Foundation Programme (2 years) Other Academic Foundation Programme (2 years) Options:

GMC registration after F1 - training training careers Academic Specialty training – uncoupled, run-through Medicine Core specialty training Higher specialty training Medical GP Training Education Academic Fellowship Programme Work CCT Overseas Research Senior medical posts Specialty Training Pathway

Consultant

Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) Entry onto Specialty Register Specialty Registrar (SpR) Completion of College Membership Exams ST4-7/8 (usually by ST4) or GPST Completion of College Membership Exams ST1-3 (CT1-3) Parts 1 (and 2)

FY2

Full GMC Registration FY1 Provisional GMC Registration Completion of MBBS 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 Adapting for the future: a plan for improving the flexibility of UK postgraduate medical training (GMC) www.gmc-uk.org The Problems

The plan identifies five key barriers to improving training flexibility: • Transferring between specialties is difficult without doctors going back to the start – often referred to as the ‘snakes and ladders’ effect. This is caused by the complex legal framework controlling UK postgraduate training • Training in other ways is not recognised – work overseas and experience gained in non-training grade posts are not counted; • More career support is needed to help doctors who want to refocus their training without starting from square one; • Postgraduate training is slow to adapt to changes in patient demand • Rigid training structures can make rota gaps worse. The Solutions

• Training will be organised by outcomes rather than time spent in training • Related specialties curricula will share common outcomes and elements • The GMC will reduce the burden of its approval system so that medical colleges and faculties can make changes to postgraduate curricula more quickly • The GMC will work with others to promote mechanisms which already exist to help trainees change training programmes – such as the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges’ Accreditation of Transferable Competences Framework • The GMC will ask the UK government to make the law less restrictive so that we can be more agile in approving training • The GMC will support doctors with specific capabilities or needs • The GMC will encourage national education bodies to continue to improve the work-life balance of trainees

What I wish I’d known on my first day at Med School…. What I wish I’d known on my first day at ….

• ‘The most important thing I can think of is the need to start thinking about careers and what you want to do after you qualify. It is quite easy to drift through 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 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 to gain as much experience as you can in various different fields as a student. Think about what you want to do- both in medicine and in life in general, 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 (centrally and in medical school – Bloomsbury and Royal Free campuses) • Career events and talks • Internship/work experience opportunities • CV advice and checking • Practice interviews • Skills workshops Where we are • 4th Floor, Student Central Building, Malet Street • Mon – Thu 9:30 – 5 pm; Fri – 11 am – 5 pm • [email protected] • 020 3549 5900