Clinical specialty training in UK undergraduate medical schools: a retrospective observational study

Abstract

ObjectivesTo determine if increased exposure to clinical specialties at medical school is associated with increased interest in pursuing that specialty as a career after foundation training.DesignA retrospective observational study.Setting31 UK medical schools were asked how much time students spend in each of the clinical specialties. We excluded two schools that were solely Graduate Entry, and two schools were excluded for insufficient information.Main outcome measuresTime spent on clinical placement from UK undergraduate medical schools, and the training destinations of graduates from each school. A general linear model was used to analyse the relationship between the number of weeks spent in a specialty at medical school and the percentage of graduates from that medical school entering each of the Core Training (CT1)/Specialty Training (ST1) specialties directly after Foundation Year 2 (FY2).ResultsStudents spend a median of 85 weeks in clinical training. This includes a median of 28 weeks on medical firms, 15 weeks in surgical firms, and 8 weeks in general practice (GP). In general, the number of training posts available in a specialty was proportionate to the number of weeks spent in medical school, with some notable exceptions including GP. Importantly, we found that the number of weeks spent in a specialty at medical school did not predict the percentage of graduates of that school training in that specialty at CT1/ST1 level (ß coefficient=0.061, p=0.228).ConclusionsThis study found that there was no correlation between the percentage of FY2 doctors appointed directly to a CT1/ST1 specialty and the length of time that they would have spent in those specialties at medical school. This suggests that curriculum adjustments focusing solely on length of time spent in a specialty in medical school would be unlikely to solve recruitment gaps in individual specialties.

Pilot study: undergraduate sports & exercise medicine conferences: what role do they play?

“…Promoting exposure in any medical specialty helps candidates to make informed career choices and permits early stage preparation for entry to competitive training programmes. 10 Connecting students with senior clinicians provides opportunities for insight into the requirements needed for training entry and the lifestyle involved in the chosen specialty, this was demonstrated by our results showing that students understanding of what a career in SEM involved increased following the conference. Our conference allowed for students to discuss and question SEM clinicians at both a 'Question and Answer session' and between lectures.…”

“…9 Conferences allow for networking with professionals involved within the field, as well as providing opportunities to meet other like-minded students which may increase the likelihood of pursuing it in the future. 10 Therefore, we felt our study would help gauge and understand the impact of undergraduate conferences on students' perceptions of the SEM field, based on the student feedback from the conference. 11 The conference ran as an extracurricular event which consisted of six lecture talks lasting 40 min each.…”

Challenges to Medical Education on Surgical Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Medical Student’s Perspective

“…More advanced systems, like the VR experiences mentioned in this paper, remain prohibitively expensive. However, with surgical rotations making up on average just 29% of clinical training and the ever-falling price of VR headsets, institutions could employ the use of a small number of these devices [2]. VR sessions would compensate for the deleterious effect of COVID on students' exposure to surgery.…”

A UK perspective on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical student career perceptions

“…The current structure of the UK medical school curriculum provides students with a selection of placements to prepare for clinical practice. However, given the breadth of knowledge required, specialty-specific clinical experiences beyond the scope of the curriculum are deprioritised [2]. This contributes to the reliance on electives as an opportunity for students to spend an extended period of time experiencing a specialty of their own interest.…”