Foundation School first steps in your medical career

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Foundation School first steps in your medical
career

• Mr Dan Higman MBBS MS FRCS
• Consultant Surgeon
• Associate Dean West Midlands Deanery
• Director Coventry Warwickshire
• Foundation School
• Director Coventry Warwickshire
• Basic Surgical Training

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West Midlands Deanery

• Numerically the largest in the UK
• 6 Foundation Schools
• birmingham north and south, black country,
  hereford worcester, shropshire staffordshire,
  coventry warwickshire
• 3 Medical Schools
• warwick, birmingham, keele
• Net importers of F1 doctors

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MTAS Units of Application

• Unit 1 Bham N S, Shropshire Staffordshire
• Unit 2 Black Country
• Unit 3 Hereford Worcester
• Unit 4 COVENTRY WARWICKSHIRE

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Foundation Programmes Coventry Warwickshire
School

• 2 years, 6 four-month posts
• 3 Trusts UHCW, GEH, SWGH
• rotations generally move between 2 of them
• Year 1 general medicine / general surgery /
  other (anaes, paeds, ortho, rheum, ENT, psych,
  GUM, geriatrics,urol)
• Year 2 acute medicine (med, ITU, AE)
• PLUS TWO of
• GP (50), medical subspecialties, psych (adult
  child), geri, ortho, OG, surgery, oncology,
  histopathology,,microbiology , GUM, public
  health, haematology, neurology .

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Academic Foundation ProgrammesCoventry
Warwickshire School

• F1 3 rotations
• Professorial Unit 4 months
• (either metabolic medicine, orthopaedics or
  psychiatry)
• PLUS medicine and surgery ( 4 months each)
• F2 3 rotations
• Professorial Unit - 4 months
• (either metabolic medicine, orthopaedics or
  public health (Bham))
• PLUS 4 months research (professorial unit) PLUS
  acute medicine
• ACADEMIC F1 AND F2 ROTATIONS IN WEST MIDLANDS ARE
  APPOINTED PRIOR TO MTAS, BY NATIONAL ADVERT IN
  THE BMJ
• ALLOCATION IS TO A SPECIFIC TWO-YEAR PROGRAMME

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Teaching / Learning at Foundation
SchoolFoundation Year 1 Coventry
WarwickshireBased on the Foundation Curriculum

• Clinical teaching programme within posts
• ALS course funded by deanery
• One hour formal teaching programme
  semester-based across school
• Clinical skills training
• Audit programme
• No study leave or funding (national)

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Teaching / Learning at Foundation
SchoolFoundation Year 2 Coventry
WarwickshireBased on the Foundation Curriculum

• Clinical teaching programme within posts
• Generic skills programme Thurs pm
• Post-graduate award in Professional Skills (
  Warwick University) - obligatory
• Taster attachments if required

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Assessment Programme Comprehensive!

• Portfolio-based / named educational supervisor
• Assessment tools
• Mini-CEX (observed clinical encounter)
• team assessment of behaviour and attitudes
  (e-TAB)
• case-based discussion (CbD),
• direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS)
• PLUS
• teaching attendance, audit activity, additional
  academic activity (presentations, publications,
  reviews etc)

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Allocation of F1 Foundation Rotations
Non-Academic

• 2 Stages
• Stage 1 Allocation to Foundation School MTAS
• Stage 2 Allocation to Specific F1 rotation
  within Foundation School MTAS

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Moving Deaneries Between F1 and F2

• Not simply a matter of personal preference!
• Approved inter-deanery transfer
• Criteria include
• carer responsibilities
• medical reasons
• academic F2 appointment
• Special circumstances considered on individual
  basis
• May have diminished choice of F2 rotations

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Allocation of F2 Rotations F2AP West Midlands
Deanery

• 3 Phases (beginning March)
• Phase 1 applications from own Deanery
• NOTE
• All F2 Rotations in the West Midlands are grouped
• together for application. You rank all rotations
• Phase 2 approved inter-deanery transfers
• Phase 3 national advert for leftovers

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Which F1 gets which F2 rotation?

• The West Midlands Deanery F2AP is based on
• your preference of F2 rotation and
• your performance score at F1
• All F1s who GMC register at F1 are guaranteed an
  F2 post in the West Midlands Deanery
• HOWEVER
• The better you do at F1, the more likely you are
  to get your first choice of rotation

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Scoring of F1 portfolios for F2AP

• Portfolios submitted end of February
• 40 points available
• Criteria include
• teaching gt 70 attendance audit project
• Passed ALS TAB gt 10,
• MiniCEX, CbD, DOPS x 3 each reflective diary
• Additional academic F1 activity personal
  statement

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Beyond Foundation Programmes

• Application to specialist rotations
• 10 specialist schools to apply for
• surgery ophthalmology medicine
• general practice anaesthetics emergency
  medicine
• paediatrics pathology
• obstetrics gynaecology radiology
• public health psychiatry

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Who gets a place at specialist school?

• National advert local foundation school
  irrelevant!
• Specialist courses or exams irrelevant!
• Particular subspecialties at F2 irrelevant!
• Competitive application, therefore
• Performance at Foundation School crucial!
• Completion of MTAS application crucial
• Performance at OSCE-based interviews crucial!

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SummaryChoosing your Foundation School

• Choice of F1 and F2 posts, all one Trust?
• Teaching programme
• Additional qualifications (PGA)
• Assessment programme / portfolio
• Research it! Talk to current F1s / F2s
• Think about geography / social life!
• Last year 97 Warwick students got their first
  choice of Foundation School

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Points on MTAS

• Questions who sets and marks them
• Process
• Validation
• Plagiarism
• Good luck!