Building the foundations of your medical career
If you ask doctors practising today what it was like being a final-year medical student, you’d find a lot of similarities with your own experiences. But ask them about applying for their first job and their first years of training and you’ll find a world of difference.
Today all graduates from UK medical schools are required to complete a two-year Foundation Programme before applying for a place in their chosen specialty. When you enter the Foundation Programme in 2007, you can expect a programme focused on your training needs that is structured and assessed against explicit national standards. You will have ongoing support from an educational supervisor and, to help you decide the next steps in your career, access to careers advice through your foundation school.
How is the Foundation Programme structured?
The first year of foundation training (F1) typically consists of three fourmonth placements – medicine, surgery and another specialty. It is designed to give you a good base of practical clinical experience that will enable you to meet the standards required for full registration with the General Medical Council (GMC). Throughout your first year in the Foundation Programme, you will gain competences in core clinical skills as well as other professional skills such as teamwork and communication. Assessment plays a large part in determining whether you’ve gained the competences required to move to the second year of foundation training. You will need to keep a portfolio from the beginning of this year, and throughout your career, to demonstrate your progression (see the page opposite for tips on filling in this portfolio).
In year two (F2) of the Foundation Programme, you will continue to develop your clinical skills and begin exploring your career options. As with your first year in the programme, rotations are usually made up of three four-month placements. Placements are available in a wide variety of specialties and healthcare settings. Over half of trainees will have the opportunity to undertake a general practice placement. Under the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) programme, you will be able to experience many specialties that you would not have had access to this early in your career in the past. To make the most of your experience in your F2 year, you can also apply for one-week ‘tasters’ in additional specialties. These placements will give you the opportunity to try out a number of different specialties before making a decision about the direction of your career.
Finding out more
For the most up-to-date information on MMC and the Foundation Programme, including FAQs on the application process, go to the Modernising Medical Careers website.
