Prof Kate Thomas – Medical School
Jenny Mullins-White – Careers Consultant
Prof Lorraine Harper – Academic Applications
Dr Helen Goodyear - WM Deanery LTFT training
Nelda Cameron – WM Deanery F1

• To give some information on UKFPO for F1
• To let you know of the things that you should be thinking about now
• To give you the opportunity to use your elective period to prepare for application
NOT
• For detailed information about the application process – things may still change, therefore not wise to go into detail now!

• Much/most of what you will have heard will be wrong!
• Listen to authoritative sources, look on the
UKFPO website, take the rest with a pinch of salt
• 95.6% of Birmingham 5 th years were placed in their first choice Foundation School (FS), in
2009/10 (17 people weren’t)
• 70.5% of Birmingham 5 th years were in a West
Midlands FS (Nationally 60% stay local)

• Careers
• Process
• Quartiles
• Special Circumstances
• Referees
• The application form
• Planning
• Academic Applications
• Contacts
• Less than full time training

http://careers.walesdeanery.org/map

Have a view on the road ahead. What do I need to be aware of and do to ensure that I am up to date and ready for the training?
Know what is out there!
Specialties; start to look now; over 60
Expected growth areas GP; increased competition for other areas such as
Surgical
Check out www.medicalcareers.nhs.uk
Free interactive website
Links to local Deaneries http://www.westmidlandsdeanery.nhs.uk/
“So you want to be a brain surgeon?”
Copies in the Barnes Library

Knowing myself ; what kind of Doctor do I want to be?
• General www.profilingforsuccess.com/main
11 page report emailed (not hotmail)
• Specific to Medicine sci59.open.ac.uk
• You will be emailed login details
• 4 attempts

Type Dynamics

www.profilingforsuccess.com/main
Aptitude(numerical, verbal, abstract)
Learning styles
Type Dynamics
Summary of your preferences
Why do you work?
What kind of work do you want?
What is your style of working?
Who do you want to work with?
How might others see you?
Your main assets
Areas to consider developing
Career ideas to explore

“Provides an objective match between the skill, attitudes and aspiration of individuals and those needed for success in each specialty.”

Action Orientation

Minor Specialty
 Working in Teams

Educating Patients
Academic Orientation
Out of Hours Working
Working with Children
Coping with Uncertainty
 Independent Specialty Need for Assertiveness

Routine Working Detail is Crucial

• Top 10 - bottom 10
• Ranked list of all the specialties
• Comparison of best matches and scores for 12 dimensions
• Graph of the 12 dimensions

 Specialty lectures

Websites
 Careers Fairs

Web chats
 www.bmj.org.uk
 Alternatives….expedition Dr through to medical writing……
Impartial careers support from Jenny M-W
Plan ahead…write down reflections and examples

Whole process on-line:
• 3 October - registration open for enrolment
• 10 October - application form and handbook published. Application process open
• 21 October - application process closes
Note: only 2 weeks to write application
• Exams w/b 07.11.11
• 8 December – applicants informed of allocation to FS

• Rank all Foundation Schools. Details of available posts on UKFPO website, other details on FS websites.
• Write answers to Questions:
– Question 1: additional degrees, publications, presentations, national prizes. Max. 10 points
– Questions 2-6 competancy based questions related to the F1 Person Specification. Each maximum 10 points. (Total possible 50 points)
• Identify referees. Ask them (but not yet!).

• Scoring = quartile (Medical School) + question answers (done by first choice FS)
• 25 January 2012 - rank programmes of
3x4m jobs within FS
• 15 February 2012 - notification of programme and breakdown of scores

• Medical School gives UKFPO a list of all eligible students – anyone due to graduate
July 2012
• Ranking into quartiles
• Students apply for special circumstances
• Linked applications

• All marks from year 1 to year 4 (re-sits = first sit %. If excluded 0%). Mitigation is taken into account.
• Weighting
– size of module
– clinical > non-clinical
– later module > earlier modules
• Score: 1st quartile = 40, 2nd = 38, 3rd = 36 4th = 34
• About 7% separated the bottom of the first quartile from the top of the fourth in 2007-08 and about the same in
2008-09
• Can appeal
• GECs, intercalators, repeat years, dentists, change in modules, all adjusted for

• Students can apply to Medical School for placement in a particular FS (exceptionally in a particular Trust).
• Look at the UKFPO website for the 2011 criteria
– not likely to change
• Evidence is very important- read what it asks for
• Educational special circumstances
• Applications in October

– Criterion 1: The applicant is a parent or legal guardian with significant caring responsibilities for a child or children under the age of 18. This would normally mean the child(ren) residing primarily with the applicant.
– Criterion 2: The applicant is the primary carer for someone who is disabled (as defined by the Disability
Discrimination Act 2005) (expected to be a partner, sibling or parent).
– Criterion 3 : The applicant has a medical condition
(physical or psychological) or disability for which local follow up is an absolute requirement, as confirmed by a report from an Occupational Health physician or an appropriate medical specialist.

• VERY stringent criteria
• Medical School approval does not guarantee FS agreement
• Can appeal
• SELF REFERRAL
• See Kate Thomas to discuss

• Nationally 286 applicants: 261 approved
– Carer for a child 167
– Carer for a disabled person 28
– Personal health problem 67
– Educational special circumstances 19
(Data missing for 5)

 You may link your application to another applicant’s in order for you to be placed in the same foundation school
 They must also link to you
 You are both allocated based on the lowest scoring applicant’s score
 You cannot “un-link” once your application is submitted

Some foundation schools will not guarantee that linked applicants are in the same area. Check foundation school websites for more information on their policies

• After programme allocation asked to confirm your application
• Do not get you the job!
• Have to know you
– A clinical referee: practising hospital consultant, GP or associate specialist
– A Medical School referee: Professor, Reader,
Senior Lecturer, Lecturer, Personal Mentor,
SSC supervisor (PHP, Poster)

• Total score - 100 (40 quartile, 60 questions)
• 25% of all UK medical students are in each quartile. 25% of you will be in the fourth.
• 95.6% of fifth years in 2010 got their first choice
FS. (5 th highest after Belfast, Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Leeds)
• Key question scores:
- Birmingham 2010: 48 - 98, median 79.1
(national median 78.3)

Is designed to assess your professional and personal skills:
– Has 8 sections, Personal (name, contact details, etc)
– Preferences (ranking all foundation schools in order of preference, 1=1 st choice)
– Qualifications (educational qualifications)
– Questions (5 questions which will be scored. 200 words each)
– Also Clinical skills (self assessment of your own practical and clinical skills), Equal opps (equal opportunities monitoring information), References ,
Submit

• Maximum points available: 10 points
• PART A – Additional degrees (max. 5 points)
• More than one additional qualification (eg BSc and PhD) choose the one that will give you the highest score.
• If you indicate that you have an additional degree, three additional boxes will appear for you to complete. These are:
Subject of Qualification, Educational Institution and Year. Failure to complete these fields will result in the degree not being recognised, and a score of 0 being allocated .
• Number of points
– 0 Primary Medical Qualification only
– 1 Honours degree 3rd class, unclassified or ordinary degree
– 2 Honours degree 2.2 class
– 3 Honours degree 2.1 class
– 4 Masters degree, Honours degree 1st class, Bachelor of Dental
Science (BDS), B Vet Med
– 5 Doctoral degree (PhD, DPhil, etc)

PART B: Other educational achievements (5 points)
• Must relate to your activities in higher education . Please do not enter any achievements in college or related to musical or sports achievements. They will not gain any points.
• List your nationally recognised prizes
• Name of prize The full formal title of the prize
• Year The year the prize was awarded
• Awarding Body The name of the organisation/institution awarding the prize
• Details of prize Details of what the prize was for, the level of competition, the number applying and how the prize was awarded.
• Contact for verification. This can be a web address or a contact name/address/telephone number for a person who can officially verify details of the award.
• Details of only two prizes can be submitted. If you have been awarded more than two prizes, list the most prestigious and competitive prize received.
• This must be a FIRST PRIZE. Second or third prize, or honourable mention does not qualify for points in this section.
• A prize is awarded for achievement, rather than being an activity that is to be carried out. Therefore, the following are NOT considered prizes:
Bursaries, Elective awards, Grants, Scholarships, Funding for research projects,
Anything relating to funding, University prizes

• List your peer reviewed publications
• Authors Please list all authors in the order they appear in the publication. Your name must be in capitals
• Publication title State the title as it has been published
• Year Year of publication
• Journal/Book Title State the full title of the journal or book
• Volume/page State both the volume and page numbers
• PMID Please insert the PubMed ID (PMID). If you do not have a PMID, the publication will not gain any points.
• There is space on the application form for two publications only. If you have more than two, you must decide which two publications you wish to use.
List your national presentations
• Date of meetingDates including year of meeting
• Meeting
• Organiser
Title of meeting and location of meeting
Name of organisation responsible for meeting
• Presentation Title Title of presentation
• Authors Please list all authors in the order they appear in the presentation. Your name must be in capitals.
• Oral or poster presentations must be given at a national or international level and must present your academic work. Presentations you give during the course of your degree, or extra curricular activities i.e. BMA conference presentations, do not count. You do not need to have been present at the conference to have poster presentations count . There is only space on the application form for two presentations. If you have more than two, you must decide which presentations you wish to include.
• National presentations mean all of the following: England, Scotland, Wales,
Northern Ireland, UK or any other nation.

Question 2
• Maximum points available: 10 points Limit: 200 words
• Effective team working can have a significant impact on the quality of the patient experience.
• Describe a clinical case you have observed where there has been a multi-disciplinary approach to discharge planning .
– Describe how the interactions between the multidisciplinary team impacted on the quality of the patient’s care .
– What have you learned from this experience about effective multi-disciplinary team working and
– how will you put this into practice as a foundation doctor ?

Question 3
• Maximum points available: 10 points Limit: 200 words
• Learning happens in a variety of contexts, some of which are opportunistic and some of which are planned.
– Describe a clinical situation which provided you with an opportunistic learning experience .
– What approach did you take to consolidate and extend this learning ?
– Compare this approach to how you may follow up a planned learning experience.
– How will you use these experiences of learning to improve the quality of teaching others ?

Question 4
• Maximum points available: 10 points Limit: 200 words
• Being able to prioritise tasks is an integral competence of a practising doctor and may be challenged by many factors.
• You are the only foundation doctor on a busy surgical ward, and you feel under pressure to complete the tasks expected of you. A foundation doctor from another surgical team asks if you will hold their bleep for the second time this week as they want to go to theatre to observe an operation.
– What would your initial response be to your colleague ?
– What factors would influence this response?
– If you had to hold the bleep, how would you prioritise the tasks?
– What additional learning needs does this situation highlight for you ?

• Maximum points available: 10 points Limit: 200 words
• Communicating information to patients can be a complex undertaking.
– Describe a clinical consultation that you have observed where the specific cultural, social or family circumstances of the patient posed additional challenges.
– Identify the techniques used within this consultation that contributed to this patient’s experience .
– What other approaches could have been used in this situation ?
– What did you learn from this which you can apply to your future clinical practice ?

Question 6
• Maximum points available: 10 points Limit: 200 words
• Describe two different personal achievements to demonstrate that you possess both of these qualities , relating each achievement to a single attribute .
– For each attribute, give one specific example of how your achievement can contribute towards improving your performance as a foundation doctor .

• Scored in your first choice FS
• 2 scorers work independently, at least one is clinical
• Horizontal not vertical
• Only see your answer – none of your demographics or quartile

Allocation to foundation school
(8 Dec 2011)
• Applicants are allocated based on their preferences first, then application score
Matching to programme
(15 Feb 2012)
• Foundation schools each have their own process for matching to programme. Check the foundation school websites for more information.
(Most match to programme based on their score first , then preferences (highest scoring applicants get first pick)

•Medical school staff, clinical tutors and former scorers have been told that they cannot give you direct coaching and advice as it is unfair to students at those schools who do not provide it
•Applicants must confirm that the answers to the application questions are their own before they submit the application
•The situations you use in your answers must have been experienced by you personally – not something you heard about through colleagues or lecturers

• If you are unable to verify your answers, the foundation school director may require you to attend an interview to discuss your answers
• Applicants unable to verify the veracity of their answers to the satisfaction of their foundation school will be removed from the recruitment round and referred to the GMC

• Read the person specification for Foundation Dr
• Sign up for UKFPO email updates -do not miss vital information while on Elective
• Collect dates and titles of relevant qualifications, publications, presentations, posters and prizes.
• Think about who you might ask to act as referees

• Team working – can work effectively with others
• Communication
• Dealing with pressure, overcoming setbacks or challenges
• Organising and prioritising
• Clinical Skills - putting patients at centre of care

Course work/ Placements/ Elective
• researching and planning dissertation or SSC work, working on group projects, designing and delivering presentations, working with patients …
Work Experience (paid or unpaid)
• providing high level of customer service, taking on additional responsibilities, dealing with data accurately…
Clubs/Societies
• organising events, raising funds, persuading others to get involved …
Personal life/interests
• captaining a local sports team, arranging your gap year, choosing to study in a different country…

• Think about how you’ll rank the Foundation schools – competition ratios
• Check the number of posts available in each
• Research for programme and Trust-specific information
• Note: if you turn down a FS you withdraw from the whole process
• Useful website www.mmc.nhs.uk
gives web addresses for all 15 Deaneries in England and links to Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland
• http://www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/pages/home info about process and key documents e.g. Foundation
Applicant’s Handbook

F1 Allocation 2011 - Application Scores by Trust

• This year 187 applicants not yet allocated a programme
• 3 Birmingham students
• Between December and August estimated
400 jobs will become available

• Questions have to be based on job specification.
Look it up.
• Practise last year’s questions
• Start thinking of examples, use your elective, your fifth year attachments or Y5 SSA to gather some. Write them down. This may not help!
• Look at the website
• Most people will end up where they want to, doing a job they want to. There are enough F1 jobs. There is no need to panic!

• In 2013 the process is changing
• This will not affect you!
• Situational judgement test (SJT)
• Possibly deciles rather than quartiles?
BUT...
• You will be asked to be involved in an SJT pilot

Professor Lorraine Harper

• Provide opportunity to develop research teaching and leadership/management skills as well as basic competencies
• Intended to benefit those who plan to follow an academic route as well as those choosing alternative medical careers
• Programmes vary but all will allow completion of clinical competencies as well as providing additional skills
– This means you will have to work harder or smarter
– Be organised and proactive
• To succeed requires ambition, organisation and maturity
• 5% of medical students achieve an academic foundation post

• Are you confident in your clinical skills?
– Learning research and other skills reduces your clinical experience but you will still be expected to achieve all your clinical competencies
• Do you have a proven academic record?
• Can you demonstrate a real interest in academic medicine?

Academic Foundation Programmes
• 12 programmes West Midlands deanery
• 6 x 4 month posts over 2 years
• One academic post in each foundation year
• F1- majority of time must be based in clinical medicine
– Exposure to academic medicine
• F2 - a 4 month full time research placement is feasible
• For other programmes see https://www.application.mmc.nhs.uk/cgibin/list_deaneries.cgi?caid=6.7479.1223890541

• Happens very quickly after your return to 5 th year
• National: 1-10 June. Local part 6 June to 12 September
• Can apply to 3 Units of Application
• Offers in September, 1 week to decide whether to accept an offer
• UKFPO will publish details on its website March 7 th
• Your job to look out for the information!
• Think about it now
• Happens before the national application process in
October 2011, so if unsuccessful you can go into main application process.

• Academic achievements
• Teaching achievements
• Non-academic achievements
• Professional achievements (Good Medical
Practice)
• Teamwork
• Leadership
• Reasons for applying
• Note: applicants are interviewed

• Applicants must show potential to fulfil academic role while still achieving clinical competencies
– Minimum requirements similar to normal foundation programmes
– Desirable qualities
• previous academic experience – intercalation
• Academic achievement –prizes, publications or presentations
• Commitment – participation in research project

• Dedicated research and education time
– Academic time spent as blocks or day release
– Attached to department with recognised academic links
• Project work
– Opportunity to undertake own project under supervision of senior academic
• Success in your hands
– Self directed learning and achievement
– Learn skills that translate across disciplines

• Tuesday 22 nd March 5.30pm room WF42
An opportunity to discuss academic applications in greater depth, including with applicants and academic trainees
• Tuesday 28 th June 5.30pm room WF42
An opportunity to discuss academic interviews with successful applicants from previous years
• http://www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/news/story/ukfp o-academic-rough-guide-published
• http://www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/pages/academi c-programmes
• https://www.application.mmc.nhs.uk/cgibin/list_deaneries.cgi?caid=6.7479.1223890541

• www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk
• General Queries: MDS-STUDENTS-
UKFPO@bham.ac.uk
• Careers and Employability Service careerscentre@bham.ac.uk
or
– Jenny Mullins-White: MullinJY@adf.bham.ac.uk
• Dr Helen Goodyear – flexible training
• ( helen.goodyear@westmidlands.nhs.uk
)
• Dr Lorraine Harper – academic applications
( l.harper@bham.ac.uk
)
• West Midlands Foundation School Manager -
Nelda.Cameron@westmidlands.nhs.uk
]