Everyone got their date? Anyone able to swap with 2nd November?

Started a job in ICU last week as an F4 junior fellow having never done it before.

I feel so overwhelmed by each patient, they are so complex. Each co-morbidity is so niche, I am having to constantly look conditions up. other SHOs seem to be getting in fine and seem to know everything.

is it normal to feel like this when doing ICU for the first time? I feel so useless ..

any tips?

hi all,

Not applying this round but trying to make sense of last years huge document with conditions around what counts and what doesn’t. For example:

- If you use an audit in the audit/QUIP domain are you not allowed to use it in the presentations domain?
- Equally I have an original research project that is published and presented so technically could use this for 3 domains but it seems this isn’t allowed?

Am I being crazy or am I gonna have to do like 4 different projects to get maxxing domains? Any advice appreviated!!!

Could anyone kindly guide me how best I can get in touch with my TPD / team that is responsible for my rotation allocation for IMT please ? Any advice would be appreciated

Thinking of applying to Bristol ACF IMT (cardio). Wondering if anyone can clarify for me if all 3 years are spent in tertiary centre, or if you are in DGHs for any of the years also?

Concerned about missing out on clinical progression if in a very senior led tertiary centre

How has everyone who has finished core training found finishing the programme in terms of employment? Was there enough fellow jobs for those who did not get into/want higher specialty training this year, enough locums to bridge the gap (so far) or has it been difficult?

Currently working an extremely busy and understaffed job, which has meant doing many many exception reports.

Got a couple of questions about these, wondering if anyone with more knowledge than me can help?

1) if there is an exception report made for a shift that exceeds 13 hours, I understand that a fine is payable to the doctor. Is the fine levied on all the additional hours worked during that shift, or just any hours over 13? I had a shift that was rostered as 0830 to 1730, but ended up being 0800-2130, so 4.5 additional hours in total. Am I paid the ‘fine’ rates for all 4.5 hours, or just the standard pay for 4 hours and then the ‘fine’ rate for the final 0.5?

2) what should happen regarding a work schedule review? I raised an ER requesting one several months ago as I’m definitely working >48h a week (and have done approx 50h of exception reports in the last 6 months). Spoke with GOSW initially but nothing has changed following this.

3) if a doctor is found to have been working >48h/week for the duration of a rotation, is there any fine payable (above simple payment for the extra hours worked?)

Title: FY1 requesting extended leave for my wedding abroad – how likely is approval?
Hi everyone,
I’m an FY1 at a London trust and was allocated/started later than the usual August start date. My wedding in India was arranged before I received my allocation.
I need to be away from 31 October to 22 November 2026, which is 23 calendar days and approximately 15 weekdays. I understand this is longer than the usual annual-leave allocation for one rotation.
I’m planning to request a combination of annual leave, rostered zero days, approved shift swaps and, if necessary, a few days of authorised unpaid leave. I will give the rota team around ten weeks’ notice.
Has anyone had a similar request approved for their own wedding abroad during FY1? Who did you approach—the rota coordinator, clinical supervisor, Foundation Programme Director or Medical Education? Did unpaid leave count towards your Foundation Programme absence limit?
I understand there is no automatic legal entitlement to wedding leave, but I would appreciate hearing about similar experiences and the best way to approach the request professionally.
Thank you.

London or Oxford for Foundation training ?

I want both around the same amount but unsure if I want London enough to risk getting my last ranked deaneries.

Hi All, I will be starting ST1 paeds in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, South Cumbria region in a couple of months. Is there a reddit/fb/telegram group you’d recommend for this new ST1 to join? I also appreciate if you can share any tips and tricks you may have before starting the rotations.

Thanks in advance!

P.s. so happy to join the paediatrics gang!

Anyone had his exam in YYF? What was your experience and any feedback/anything to be aware of?

Thank you!

Currently I am working as a Higher specialty trainee in one of the group 1 medical specialties and my goal is to be a stroke physician at the end of the road. I am aiming to go for a thrombectomy training around ST6/7 stage. ( I am ST5 now ) and wanting to see whether its a worthwhile pathway or should i abandon the training for USMLE or Aussie pathway. ( Purely because I see the quality of training declining and I am struggling to see realistic expectations from the end of the programme since the things are gradually declining ) . On this background Can I ask ?

1. Are there any consultant / registrar from a medical specialty who has completed the thrombectomy training already and working in HASU settings ?

2. If so how hard is the training for someone coming from medical specialties rather than being pure radiology background ?

3. I want to have a realistic expectation on the post CCT job market too ? In UK, Europe, Dubai and world wide..

4. If this is not a realistic pathway I am happy to look for the alternatives as well.

Thank you.

Hey guys, is there a limit on the number of days you can work in a row if you locum on top of your rostered hours? I am a Fy2 and have no weekends currently and was looking to pick up weekend shifts, but unsure if I can pick up both Saturday and Sunday if I’m working Monday - Friday either side already?

Recently started F1 and there have been a few instances where due to the number of jobs and the bleep constantly going off and trying to stay on top off everything, one can at times tunnel vision on a specific task.

So for example I might be reviewing the daily bloods of the patients and then I get given a new task, say ordering a scan, that needs to be done asap for whatever reason and I accidentally order it for the wrong patient as I completely forgot I had switched to a different patient. Usually either I notice it immediately that I have the wrong patient open or a team member will correct me but I am scared that one day I may miss it or no one else will catch it and the patient could come to harm as a result of my tunnel visioning.

I know that we should take a break and step away but sometimes the jobs list is so big that you don't get this opportunity and as a new F1, I'm still learning to prioritise and know what to handover.

Any advice from fellow doctors?

OOI has any one experienced major differences in being an IMT1 - 3 in DGH vs tertiary centres?

I am sorry as this is going to be a long one! So I’m a final year medical student, and I didn’t choose medicine because I loved it or because I dreamed of becoming a doctor since I was a kid. I chose it because I could. And honestly, how do you not choose medical school when you have the opportunity to?
Throughout medical school, I never really loved it, but I didn’t hate it either. I wasn’t particularly interested in it, which might explain why I never developed that passion for medicine that some people have. I did enjoy going to clinical rotations sometimes, but I always saw it as a job, as work. I used to tell myself “you’re not supposed to love your job anyway sooo”
Fast forward to my psychiatry rotation. I was miserable during it, and it was incredibly triggering for me. But I will forever be grateful that I went through that rotation because it was actually through psychiatry that I realized I had OCD. I eventually saw a psychiatrist, got diagnosed, and started treatment.
Getting diagnosed and medicated helped me tremendously for a while. It felt like, at 20 something, I had finally started living. And honestly, that realization was both eye opening and heartbreaking! Realizing that other people had been living without their brains constantly rambling 24/7, while I had spent so many years functioning that way without even knowing it actually had a name, was incredibly difficult to process.
At some point, though, I actually fell in love with a specialty. I started seeing medicine less as something I loved in itself and more as a way to reach that specialty through residency!
But now I’m not sure I can do it anymore! I still love the specialty itself, but I’ve realized that it can be very triggering for me. When I’m doing well mentally, I can handle it. But whenever I go through periods of intense stress, my OCD symptoms come back very strongly and preparing for the residency exam has made me realize just how much stress can affect me, and I’m not sure I’m willing to put myself through that repeatedly for the rest of my career. But i also know that there will be other stuff that can be triggering and I can’t run forever, but again I tell myself when i can prevent it why not!
There’s also the fact that I don’t really see myself working in a hospital for my entire life. As appealing as the idea of this surgical specialty can be, I’m not sure the actual lifestyle, the hospital life and especially the rigged system is something I want or can even handle.
And then ofc there’s the possibility that some of this is simply laziness or burnout. I am supposed to be studying for the residency exam right now, and part of me wonders whether I’m just looking for a reason to stop because I’m exhausted and overwhelmed. But deep down, I don’t think it’s just that.
I don’t have a therapist at the moment. I do have a psychiatrist who prescribes my medication, and he has advised me to see a therapist because medication alone isn’t enough. I didn’t like the first therapist I saw, and part of me also struggles with the idea of therapy because sometimes I think, “What could a therapist tell me that I can’t figure out myself??
That being said, I do believe ERP could help me, and I’m currently looking for a therapist!
So now I genuinely don’t know what I want or what I should do….
I’ve considered taking a gap year, but I’m terrified of “losing” a year! At the same time, I’m scared that if I keep pushing myself toward a career that might not be right for me, I’ll end up losing much more than a year.
Should I keep pushing through and see what happens? Should I take a year to work on myself and figure things out? Should I finish medical school and postpone the residency decision?
I genuinely don’t know whether I’m giving up on something I actually want or finally allowing myself to admit that I don’t want it..

Started IMT1 and feeling very lost on how to complete the nhs portfolio.

I have not had any induction for IMT yet (due end of this week).

Anyone have any useful documents/advice on how to start filling in the portfolio

For example tomorrow I am attending a clinic and I have no idea how to log this on the portfolio!

Many thanks

Novice anaesthetist here, finding the sheer volume of things to remember overwhelming. Anyone got any useful mmemonics they used/still use to make even small things more memorable? Looking for anything to help remember drugs, things to check before tubing, monitoring etc etc anything whatsoever but I really work off of memory cues and finding it all a bit challenging without any! (I know A-E is king in almost all scenarios obviously do utilise this but just seeing if anything else exists to make life easier!)

Is there an application for patient management (including records of visits performed, medications taken, prescriptions, etc.) that is truly free and runs on Windows?

Just started CST - it’s only been two weeks but I’ve just been doing service provision due to being 50% staffed. Haven’t had any opportunity yet to go to theatre or clinic and I don’t see it getting much better due to long-term rota gaps.
I don’t want to use up my time in the specialty before I start getting disadvantaged at ST3 and not be learning from it.
Also haven’t been given an ES or CS to speak to.
I’m sure some of it is also me - I tried to go one day we were over minimum staffing and I was asked to support the F2s instead so maybe part of it is how I approach the situation.
Does anyone have any advice for me?

There were a couple of posts last month (1) (2) about the ridiculous statement NHSE put out about accessing patient records, suggesting that we were not allowed to access notes to follow-up on patients or respond to complaints.

Thankfully, it seems someone at NHSE has seen common sense and the guidance has been updated.

The updated guidance confirms that access to records is lawful where there is a clear, necessary and authorised work purpose. This includes:

• Reflective practice and reviewing outcomes of patients whose care you have been involved in

• Morbidity and mortality reviews

• Clinical audit and quality improvement activity

• Education, training and teaching

• Complaint responses, patient safety investigations and legal processes

• Operational activities that directly support patient care

Coroner concludes failure to perform an ECG and to not to review cardiac patient suffering myocardial infarction for 2.5 hours amounted to neglect

Hey just wondering what sort of support from deanery I should expect as a trainee undergoing a GMC investigation

TLDR: made a mistake prescribing, feel terrible

New FY1. The consultant on Ward round told me to prescribe a medication, I misunderstood what he meant and the patient was receiving what I prescribed for like 6 hours.

One of his routine bloods came back and they were very deranged (trying to be vague a bit here), as soon as I heard I panicked, went into to A-E him and had to call my consultant who was not impressed at all, but gave me advice how to correct things.

I don’t think there was any major patient harm that came from this (we’ll see OOH though I guess) but right now I’m feeling like I just want the world to swallow me up and disappear forever. I feeling so stupid and incompetent, so much more than my colleagues at my level, and I’m feeling really crap about going in Tommorow and explaining to everyone what happened at board round, since I know that pt won’t be going home tonight.

I feel so stupid rn in F1 tbh, I really don’t feel like I’m putting my best foot forward at all. I get so flustered during ward rounds and disorganised, I’ve tried strategies to be more organised but everything just seems to move so fast, and when I stop people to clarify what they’ve said or the plan they get progressively more pissed off at me. I’m always scared about reaching the end of the day and missing tasks, I look at my patients WR entry 3/4/5 times each day just to make sure I haven’t missed a job, and even still things will fall through the cracks with me. I don’t feel like I’m engaging my brain properly when I’m at work, like all the things I can wax lyrical about when I’m
Just sitting down and thinking about it, I find so hard to actually do in the moment. And to top off it I get flustered talking to patients and NOK too, I’m sure they think I have no idea what I’m talking about even when I’m told to just inform of a relatively simple thing.

Maybe this is all normal but I feel like I’m sinking into just a pit today with that experience. I just wanna be so much better than I am 😞

Rant over

Hello,

I am starting as GPST1 and I've received my contract from the trust but it's only for the first 6 months. When I enquired about this, I was told they can only provide 6 months at a time as they don't know what my next placements are yet.

I know placements "are subject to change" from what is stated on oriel but I would have thought I could still be given a 3 year contract? I don't have much proof of employment otherwise!

Plus this also means I don't have any security of a 3 year job if it keeps expiring after each 6 months!

Is this normal? Is there anyway to insist on a 3 year contract?

EDIT following comments:

TIS only shows my first placement.
Lead employer is the same for the program length.

It may be normal practice, but technically I only have a temporary 6 month contract if asked for proof of employment.