Dr Peter Steed
Dr Hannah Smith
Academic F2 Doctors
Bristol Royal Infirmary/UoB

• A bit about us and how we ended up doing an
Academic Foundation Programme
• What we did for our research projects
• A week in the life of an AF2
• The best and worst things about being an AF2
• Top tips + Questions

• Intercalated BSc Physiological Sciences (2005)
• Graduated 2008 University of Bristol MBChB
(Hons)
• F1 Year BRI
Surgery/Respiratory Medicine/Palliative Care
• AF2 Year BRI:
Laboratory science/ITU/Paeds (renal)

• Applying for ACCS (Acute Care Common Stem)
• Physiology tutor to the 1 st year medical students
• Keen to be involved in medical education – hope to undertake certificate in medical education (MSc) in the future

• Working in physiology department with Julian
Paton
• Looking at the pathogenesis of essential hypertension
“A Comparative Histological Study of Basilar
Artery Morphology in Spontaneously
Hypertensive Rats and Normotensive Controls”

• Still in process of collecting data
• Will be submitting an abstract in march for
Physiology 2010 in Manchester (annual meeting of the Physiological Society)
• Starting to write draft paper for publication

• Didn’t fancy intercalating
• BSc not essential for AF2 – but be prepared to justify!
• Graduated 2008 University of Bristol
MBChB(Hons)
• Doing “Clinical Epidemiology/Public Health”
AF2
• F1: Respiratory Med/Palliative Care/Surgery
• F2: Research/GUM/Paeds A+E

• Knew I wanted to do Orthopaedics since medical school
• Strategically applied for Epidemiology AF2 Post as knew it was relevant to all specialties
• Very flexible – supervisor agreed I could do a project relevant to Orthopaedics

• Given dataset from previous cohort study
(“Kinemax Outcomes Study”)
• Brilliant because:
 Ethics approval already obtained
 Data already collected
 All I had to do was analyse the data and write up the paper

• “The impact of total knee arthroplasty on the natural history of the contralateral knee”
• 772 patients followed up for 2 years, both knees scored at 4 timepoints
• The hypothesis: If a patient has a bad outcome after primary arthroplasty then their contralateral knee with deteriorate more quickly
• Currently:
 Abstract submitted to BOA Conference 2010
 Provisional draft of paper to co-authors
 Submit to journal in Jan

Monday
Research Post
(4 months)
Lab
Clinical Postx2
(4 months)
Hospital
Tuesday Teaching
Wednesday Hospital
Thursday Lab
Friday Lab
Hospital
Lab
Hospital
Hospital

• Great experience in research that other F2’s don’t have
• Dedicated academic teaching programme
• Great for the CV – will get publications/posters/presentations etc
• Can do other qualifications eg.
STATA course, teaching courses etc

• Flexible in what you do your project in (some)
• Prestigious – competitive entry as undergraduate
• Good hours so can revise for membership exams (not officially supposed to!)
• Social
• ? Advantage at CT/ST Training applications

• Got to achieve same clinical competencies as non-academic colleagues in 2/3 of the time
• “Slackademics” – reputation
• Some jobs unbanded
• We nearly ended up on the F1 on call rota – vulnerable minority!

• Research component can be lonely/frustrating
• For the surgeons: placements all quite medically biased, only one surgical AF2 post
• For unfortunate few – projects don’t take off, too big to do in 4 months, ethics approval issues etc

• BSc not vital: can demonstrate academic potential via ranking/distinctions/publications etc
• Think carefully about how it fits in with your career intentions
• Surgeons may want to look at other deaneries
• Prepare for the interview
• Good luck!