Some Background:
-International undergraduate from Italy
-Fourth Decile class rank (This doesnt tell you anything about the level of clinical skill just how awesome your class is, :P)
-Previous degree
-A single publication (nothing groundbreaking, but many a late night spent writing and researching)
Eligibility (August 2016):
In order to start the whole process the FP office had to make sure I was eligible. This eligibility process required identity documentation and a deans statement from my university (basically a statement saying I have enough clinical experience from my degree for the programme). I also had to sit the IELTS english exam in June in order to be eligible for the programme. This was all done in the summer 2016 (before foundation programme allocation applications began).
My IELTS academic score average was 8.
October 2016:
In October the applications began properly and I submitted evidence of my degree and all my personal data. I also had to find two references, a clinical one (my mentor) and academic one (dean of the school who knew me well).
My final EPM score was 44 (not bad)
Within that application in October I had to rank the UoAs (the different regions of England). I ranked the UoAs in the following order:
December 2016: I then sat the SJT (situational judgement test) on the first sitting in December. I flew in from Italy and stayed in Brighton the night before. Unfortunately, I ate the dodgiest salad at the LEON restaurant in Brighton centre (sorry to call them out, but there was no doubt that that salad was dodgy). After explosive vomiting all night, and no sleeping a wink, I got the train to London the next morning for the exam, dehydrated and pale as milk. Sat the exam and staggered home.
My final SJT score 36.66 (awful score considering the studying I did, brilliant score considering the physical state I was in ha).
Finished the entire exam without leaving any questions, reviewed about half my answers before time was up.
Beginning of March 2017: Got into South Thames Foundation school!! Fantastic!
Due to the fact that South Thames foundation school is so large (over 800 placements in total), they decided to split the area into six STHAM groups. I had to do an additional ranking of the six STHAM groups. Due to the lack of crossover between the two cities I had the hard choice of choosing between London or Brighton. I really wanted to go to Kings College for the liver transplant unit and London for other reasons so I ranked the groups like this:
End of March 2017: Got into London Links 2 area, woohoo!
Then I had to rank my programme preferences. There were 152 in total to rank. In the end I ranked about 110 of them. I realised at this point I had probably made a big mistake, having got my second choice of STHAM group I would probably have a low decile compared to the other applicants for entering the programme I wanted. (In fact I checked the STFS website and the decile averages for each STHAM were released, I was in the last deciles, sad face).
Ranking all the programmes is difficult and you have to decide what you want to priotize, the location or the rotations (London or surgery, which is more important?). You also want a good variety in your programme without any lets say 'wasted' or repeated rotations.
I spoke to a bunch of friends who had gone through the programme and this was their advice:
- Don't do emergency medicine in the first year, do it in the second year
- Avoid highly specialised rotations for example like opthalmology (sorry eye guys, no offense)
- GP rotations are nicer in the summer
- Get as much ward time as possible
- Rotations are more important than location but try and get at least one year in a big teaching hospital
Spending about two days on excel with the list of placements, I ordered everything based on the advice above and with two main priorities:
Had to contain Surgery
Had to have Emergency Medicine in F2
After finding all these rotations, I then ranked them in order of location, prioritising placements at Kings College or Guys hospitals (which I'm sure everyone did).
(There were about 40/50 of these, the rest I literally ranked based on the awesomeness of rotations).
The excel file I created kind of looked like this after colour coding and moving around everything a million times.
 |
| (looks like a mess right, but I had a system) |
Last Thursday (April 2017): I found out my placement! F1 Maidstone F2 Croyden! Cannot wait!
Pretty damn chuffed, the placementwas my 17th ranked placement.
So from today there is still lots to do, mainly issues now regarding provisional licensing and transfer from Italy to England. I'll keep y'all posted.
 |
| (Pretty sweet ey, look forward to many blog posts relating to these topics) |
(Disclosures: All the information is regarding my own application and I do not believe I am revealing any information without consent).
No comments:
Post a Comment