FY1 Specialties in a particular Hospital. Where to start?

I'll be applying for the FY1 in October, hence I want to start looking for specialties in the hospital I'm interested in (Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow. But I can't find info specific to this hospital and how the specialties are (eg busy, chilled, c r a p etc.)

Ideally I want to rotate around Psych, GP, Urology in FY1 as they sound less intense to start with. I want to touch Surgery in FY2.

Any info would be great please. Thanks.

Reply 1

Becca-Sarah

19

Original post by ahha

I'll be applying for the FY1 in October, hence I want to start looking for specialties in the hospital I'm interested in (Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow. But I can't find info specific to this hospital and how the specialties are (eg busy, chilled, c r a p etc.)

Ideally I want to rotate around Psych, GP, Urology in FY1 as they sound less intense to start with. I want to touch Surgery in FY2.

Any info would be great please. Thanks.

You can't do GP as an F1.

Reply 2

Etomidate

15

Jobs differ greatly depending on the hospital. Urology might be a doss job in one trust but notoriously busy in another. You're better off speaking to the current FY1s in that hospital.

Also, starting on a doss job isn't always the best as you'll potentially be trying to find your feet on a difficult job when everyone else has already settled in.

Reply 3

Sarky

18

It's not always that easy to do surgery twice either unless you swap. I think you're going to need to be a bit more flexible. I don't know anyone who got all the jobs they wanted.

Doss jobs are nice but they put you on a back foot when you move on.

Reply 4

TheRabbit

17

Original post by ahha

I'll be applying for the FY1 in October, hence I want to start looking for specialties in the hospital I'm interested in (Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow. But I can't find info specific to this hospital and how the specialties are (eg busy, chilled, c r a p etc.)

Ideally I want to rotate around Psych, GP, Urology in FY1 as they sound less intense to start with. I want to touch Surgery in FY2.

Any info would be great please. Thanks.

Every hospital will be different. The set up of how each placement works is likely to be different each place too. In some places a surgical job means rotating through all the surgical departments for example. In some places acute medicine is a separate job, in others doing a medical speciality will also mean covering receiving for a time too.

The Scottish Foundation School website has job descriptions for some of the jobs, might be worth looking at it.

Orthopaedics seems to be universally a bit **** as an FY1, unless its the 3rd job. Acute medicine seems like hard work everywhere, but doesn't mean its not a good to job to do. In all surgical specialities you are going to be less supervised than medical jobs. I know a few people working in the death star but not sure how they find it.

(Also I'm not sure that doing surgery twice is that hard, I do 3 surgical specialities over 2 years, 2 medical and 1 community - most of the jobs around here involve doing surgery at least once in FY1 and once in FY2.)

Reply 5

nexttime

22

You're going to need to be more flexible than you're sounding. Sadly, FPAS is run by mindless drones and the way they run it means everyone has to do jobs that are totally useless to them and frequently do not get the jobs they really need.

Not to mention you've picked a very popular hospital. Plus I assume Scotland is like the rest of the country is that very few jobs stay in the same hospital for two years. Your second year could be in Aberdeen. Or the Shetlands.

Reply 6

TheRabbit

17

Original post by nexttime

You're going to need to be more flexible than you're sounding. Sadly, FPAS is run by mindless drones and the way they run it means everyone has to do jobs that are totally useless to them and frequently do not get the jobs they really need.

Not to mention you've picked a very popular hospital. Plus I assume Scotland is like the rest of the country is that very few jobs stay in the same hospital for two years. Your second year could be in Aberdeen. Or the Shetlands.

1st and 2nd year will be in the same deanery - Scotland is a Foundation school not a deanery so is sub-divided into West, South East, East, North.

West = Glasgow/Forth Valley/Dumfries and Galloway. It varies but still likely need to move hospital in FY2, not necessarily city, and generally its commutable (though I guess D&G less so). In West and South East you choose your FY1 year, then during FY1 choose your FY2 year, but you can get an idea of what jobs will be available when you apply on FY1.

North would be Aberdeen, Inverness or Elgin for 1 year then either switch city or a shorter placement in one of the more remote/rural locations. North and East you choose FY1 and FY2 at the start, though (as has happened this year) the FY2 jobs can change completely when you get there.

Reply 7

Zakadoh

12

FPAS doesnt really give you the chance to pick and choose all your jobs specifically. You will need to choose jobs you definitely do want and jobs you definitely dont and then find the best fit with the tracks on offer!

Reply 8

Helenia

20

GP, Psych and Urology would leave you wildly unprepared for FY2, IMO. Urology is variable, as some people have already said - in one hospital you might have a handful of post-TURP patients who stay for a couple of days max, in another you might have lots of really sick patients post-nephrectomy/radical prostatectomy with multiple comorbidities (urology patients tend to be old) and be run off your feet. The other two would be very super-numerary as an FY1 and wouldn't really help you in learning to be a doctor.

At some point you've got to bite the bullet and do some gen med - might as well get into the swing of it as an FY1 as the expectations of you a year later will be considerably higher.

Reply 9

*Liana*

1

Original post by Becca-Sarah

You can't do GP as an F1.

...apparently this is no longer true, have a friend starting as GP F1 in August!

OP - I agree with Helenia, it's not a good strategy to deliberately start in 'quieter' jobs. There is far more tolerance of you being unsure of yourself as an F1 than there would be as an F2, so it is better to do harder jobs first.

Reply 10

Mushi_master

17

Original post by *Liana*

...apparently this is no longer true, have a friend starting as GP F1 in August!

OP - I agree with Helenia, it's not a good strategy to deliberately start in 'quieter' jobs. There is far more tolerance of you being unsure of yourself as an F1 than there would be as an F2, so it is better to do harder jobs first.

Can't see that being a great job as you won't be able to sign community scripts!

Reply 11

girl_in_black

16

Original post by ahha

I'll be applying for the FY1 in October, hence I want to start looking for specialties in the hospital I'm interested in (Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow. But I can't find info specific to this hospital and how the specialties are (eg busy, chilled, c r a p etc.)

Ideally I want to rotate around Psych, GP, Urology in FY1 as they sound less intense to start with. I want to touch Surgery in FY2.

Any info would be great please. Thanks.

If you haven't already done so, have a look on the Scottish Medical Training website to see which jobs are available in each program group for west of Scotland (http://www.scotmt.scot.nhs.uk/foundation/foundation-programmes/west.aspx). As far as I remember, the vast majority (if not all) programs in Glasgow consist of 1 job in general surgery, 1 job in general medicine and 1 other job, so your preferred combination of jobs will probably not be an option.

FY1 Specialties in a particular Hospital. Where to start?

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