Blogs

A Day in the Life: Urology Registrar

7th January 2019

I’m a Urology registrar halfway through a five-year training programme. Find out what an average day is like here! Wondering what the pathway is to working in urology? See our Urology page…  Commute Its 07:25 on a cold, crisp Winter morning. I’ve just pulled into the hospital car park (£25 per month for the privilege,…

A Day in the Life: General Surgery Registrar

I notice as I walk across the hospital car park that my initial anxieties about becoming a registrar are slowly easing away. I’m week three into being a registrar and it’s already a far better job than being a house officer. Wondering what the pathway is to working in surgery? Find out on our General…

Women in Orthopaedics: A Trainee’s Perspective

21st November 2018

Starting out there weren’t many female orthopaedic trainees (let alone consultants) to ask if this was a good decision to make. Fortunately times are changing – and so is the face of orthopaedics! I’ve summarised a few of my experiences along the way to give a bit more information for those considering a career in…

5 Tips for Preparing for the Situational Judgement Test

6th November 2018

One of the more difficult parts of the Foundation Programme application process comes in the Situational Judgement Test. Here you’ll be asked to put yourself into the kind of situations you may face as a FY1 doctor and come up with a solution. As such, it won’t rely on your academic training or theoretical knowledge,…

A Day in the Life of a Junior Doctor

1st November 2018

Congratulations – you’ve made it to FY1 as junior doctor, but what has your day got in store? Starting out as a junior doctor can be intimidating. The media doesn’t do anybody any favours with lurid stories of under staffing and overcrowding, so if you’re starting out it pays to know what your typical day…

5 Tips for an Academic Foundation Programme Interview

29th October 2018

Getting onto the Academic Foundation Programme can be tough, which means you’ll have to be at your very best when it comes to the Academic Foundation Programme interview. It’s one of the most prestigious training programmes any doctor can undertake. Unsurprisingly, therefore, hundreds and thousands of people set out to take part in the Academic…

How to Survive Your First Night Shift as a Doctor

19th October 2018

Starting work as a doctor is probably one of the most exciting yet nerve-racking things any new medical graduate would experience. You are being let loose on wards across the country to look after patients you have never met and be responsible for their care. Many of us anxiously await our first rota to see…

3 Things I Learned In My First Month As An FY1

18th October 2018

It’s now a little over a month since I started my FY1 post in a large teaching hospital in Wales. I began my rotation on Urology, where I’m one of five ‘juniors’ (ranging from F1 to CT). We work in the old-fashioned system of ‘firms’, with two consultants whose patients I principally care for, although…

Improving Surgical Training

7th August 2018

This week, the first of a new generation of surgical trainees have begun their posts in the IST, or Improving Surgical Training, scheme. They are the first cohort, and we are looking ahead to see if the scheme does indeed do what it says on the tin. The pilot training programme which began this week…

The Pain Masquerade

14th June 2018

Newly acquired knowledge is usually empowering and in theory improves patient care. However, on one occasion I learnt the hard way that no amount of theory can trump experience – when dealing with a patient I believed to be exaggerating his pain. No Malingerers Here! I refer a time when I was working in my…