MEDICAL CAREERS – 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 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 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 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 , 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 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 • 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 • [email protected] • 020 7866 3600