Medical specialties
Welcome to the specialist training pages.
Changes to Postgraduate Medical Education
The Oxford Deanery information on medical specialty training is evolving as PMETB and the medical Royal Colleges develop new specialist training programmes. Post-foundation training will involve a new integrated and streamlined training programme combining SHO level basic specialist training and SpR level higher specialist training.
The medical colleges are currently designing the method of competitive selection into their specialty training with the aim that the first cohort is due to enter specialty training in August 2007. Current trainees are advised to keep looking at the college website of any specialty they are interested in to check for details of the curriculum and entry requirements for their chosen spe cialty. There are links to the specialty college websites under each specialty.
The process of selection will be by open and fair competition. Selection will not be based on the placements you undertook in the Foundation Programme and there will be no ranking system for doctors coming out of the programme.
In 2007, when the new specialty training will begin, there will be measures in place to ensure the doctors in the current training system are not disadvantaged. The period of time from then until the last SpR receives their Certificate of Completion of Training under the old system is called ‘Transition’ and will last several years.
General hospital career advice during Transition
If you are due to complete a F2 post in 2007
The new run through specialist training starts from Aug 2007, with applications invited early 2007. Although there will be a few standalone SHO posts these are likely to be phased out so you are strongly advised to:
• Secure a place on a specialist training programme.
• Keep looking at the college website for more details as they emerge.
• Go to the MMC website for FAQs on specialty training http://www.mmc.nhs.uk/pages/specialties/FAQs
• Develop your portfolio to demonstrate:
o evidence of interest in you specialty
o examples of experience under Good Medical Practice http://www.gmc-uk.org.
• If you have no idea which specialty to choose see Making Medical Career Choices.
If you are already in an SHO post
If you are in a position at apply for a numbered post, do so at the first available opportunity.
Previous experience at SHO level may allow you to enter specialist training at a slightly higher level than doctors just completing F2.
Develop an educational portfolio, get competencies and appraisals signed off, particularly in areas likely to be relevant to the specialty you are interested in. You can download a Foundation Portfolio from the MMC website or ask the SpR in the specialty you are interested in, what their logbook contains. You will also need a portfolio to comply with revalidation.
If you are a current SpR
You are likely to carry on as before and receive a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT)
If you want to train abroad
It is probably advisable to do this after F2. If you want your time abroad to count towards your training it is essential that you find out whether the post you are going to is recognized for training in the country where you plan to work and if so, whether there is a reciprocal arrangement to recognize the post for training with the relevant college in this country. If it is not recognized, seek the detail of training and experience you will receive and seek the advice of the relevant College before you go. You may not get recognition for that period of training but may decide to go anyway, even though you may gain your CCT a little later. Take advice, however it is unlikely that your time away will create long lasting career difficulties and may give you valuable experience that enhances your skills as a doctor.
If you are doctor not trained in the UK or EU
The new Immigration Rules regarding doctors in training do make it harder for non-UK / non-EU graduates to secure training posts in the UK. More detail is available on the website http://www.mmc.nhs.uk/pages/careers/overseas-doctors
Overseas doctors are strongly urged to access this website and find out what the regulations are. There will be someone within the Human Resource department at your current hospital who will be able to give you further guidance. One option might be to consider applying for the status of Highly Skilled Migrant worker under the HSM Programme. Details of this can be found on the website
http://www.ukimmigration.com/hsmp.
If you are already in a training post and have a work permit or a period of permit-free training, it is important that you check with the HR department what your status will be when either your contract or your permit expires.
If you want to go into General Practice
The Oxford Deanery website has extensive information on GP training, which is also going through a period of change. It is proposed that registrars starting their GP year after 1 August 07 will complete the nMRCGP instead of summative assessment. This new assessment will be an essential requirement for entry to the GMC Generalist Register and Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners (MRCGP). The Royal College of General Practitioners site has information sheets on the new assessment.
You should also look at www.gprecruitment.org.uk through which applications for VTS training are made nationally.
Resources
- BMJ Careers is a national source of UK medical jobs and careers advice. The site now incorporates all recruitment and course ads from the BMJ, the full archive of current and past material from Career Focus, a contacts and links section and other career related resources.
- BMJ Careers Advice Zone is a service within BMJ Careers. They publish a selection of your career queries together with responses from other readers and their panel of more than 200 experienced advisers, who are mostly career focus authors. There are around 80 topics covering a whole range of issues, so whether it's choosing your career, what training to do, or how to deal with work-related health problems or discrimination, the Advice Zone should be able to help.
- So You Want to be a Brain Surgeon, by Chris Ward & Simon Eccles, Oxford University Press (2005) ISBN 0 19 263096, is a useful guide to all the medical specialties. Each specialty is covered and practical advice offered on the personal qualities needed, level of competition, salaries available, stress levels etc. Job summary tables allow at-a-glance comparisons to be made between different jobs.
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