scholarly journals From specialist registrar to consultant: permission to land?

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 348-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asim Naeem ◽  
Joan Rutherford ◽  
Chris Kenn

After many years of hard work and training, the transition from trainee to consultant is potentially challenging. Having successfully negotiated the hurdles of preregistration training, the MRCPsych examination and the specialist registrar (SpR) interview, trainees have to pass one final signpost to mark the end of their formal training – securing their first substantive consultant psychiatrist post. Despite overall vacancy rates of about 12% for consultant psychiatrists in the UK (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2002), competition can be intense for some posts.

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 270-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Brown

Despite the frequency with which psychiatric emergencies are encountered in medical and other services, the literature, at least in the UK, is relatively sparse, with little systematic research on either service provision or areas of clinical interest. Services have often evolved in an ad hoc way and psychiatric emergencies are often seen by very junior trainees early in their psychiatric careers, with little relevant training. Although the vigilance of the Royal College of Psychiatrists on its approval visits has ensured that most trainees are given advice on the recognition and management of violence (at induction courses at the start of their training), it is not uncommon to find that wider areas of training in emergency psychiatry are neglected. It is still the case, for example, that some postgraduate programmes in psychiatry provide little or no formal training on emergency psychiatry.


2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 398-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Ingram ◽  
Mary Jane Tacchi

Over the past few years, numerous articles have highlighted the strain on (and drain of staff from) our specialty. Many general adult psychiatrists are developing bleak views of themselves, the world and the future. Encouragingly, consultants such as Hampson (2003) are structuring their roles with some success. However, we are going through a major overhaul of the model of delivery of care and need to adapt our roles accordingly. Although tuning a Triumph Spitfire might make it run more smoothly for a while, it is still an inferior beast compared with a modern car and might be better on the scrap heap. A more radical approach is needed, which we outline in this article. One of the authors (G.I.) has experience of working as a consultant psychiatrist in Australia, where the state of Victoria changed the model of delivery of general adult psychiatric services to adopt a superior American model, leading to improved patient and carer satisfaction (Joyet al, 2001). The same model has been adopted by the UK government (Department of Health, 2001) through the creation of crisis assessment and treatment services (CATS), assertive outreach teams, and specialist community and in-patient services. Consultant psychiatrists are challenged to adapt their practice accordingly. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has recently set up a Working Group to address this issue (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2004).


Author(s):  
Richard D.W. Hain ◽  
Satbir Singh Jassal

Paediatric palliative medicine was recognized in the UK as a subspecialty of paediatrics in 2009. Unusually amongst paediatric subspecialties, paediatric palliative medicine is defined by the needs of individual patients, rather than by their diagnosis or diseased organ system (which may indeed not be known), and competencies in paediatric palliative medicine often overlap with those in other paediatric specialties, as well as with adult palliative medicine and palliative care. This chapter describes the four levels of competence currently recognized in palliative medicine, as well as provides information on the small, but growing, number of curriculums in paediatric palliative medicine. This includes the competencies required by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Association for Paediatric Palliative Medicine.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. iii17-iii65
Author(s):  
Lisa Kelly ◽  
Niamh Murtagh ◽  
Rachel Leonard ◽  
Tom O'Malley

Abstract Background The National Stroke Audit 2015 showed that Ireland had made great advances in stroke care but one notable area of deficiency was in access to early swallow screening (within 4 hours). An early swallow screen is recommended by the Royal College of Physicians Stroke Guidelines (2016) to minimise the risk of aspiration pneumonia. The National Guideline for Swallow Screening in Stroke was released in May 2017 and outlines the need to have staff who are trained in swallow screening available 24/7. This audit aimed to evaluate the percentage of stroke patients in our hospital who received a documented swallow screen within 4 hours of admission. Methods Data relating to swallow screens/assessments and the time in which they were performed was extracted from our hospital’s HIPE database. The sample size included all confirmed strokes seen by the stroke service in our hospital in the first 6 months of 2018 (1/1/2018- 30/06/2018 inclusive). This amounted to 78 patients. Results In our hospital >90% of patients diagnosed with stroke get admitted to our stroke unit. Of the 78 patients, 38 (48.1%) had a documented swallow screen/assessment during admission, 27 did not have a documented swallow screen/assessment (34.2%) and for 14 patients (17.7%) it was unclear whether they had one during admission. Of the 38 patients who had documented swallow screens/assessments during admission 5 (13.2%) of these occurred within 4 hours of admission. Conclusion In summary while our hospital is succeeding in getting the vast majority of diagnosed strokes into our stroke unit we are not currently meeting the UK target for early swallow screening. We aim to roll out an education and training programme targeting nurses and doctors in our stroke unit regarding early swallow screening and re-audit this in 6-12 month’s time.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sneha Barai

UNSTRUCTURED The UK General Medical Council (GMC) explicitly states doctors have a duty to ‘contribute to teaching and training…by acting as a positive role model’. However, recent studies suggest some are not fulfilling this, which is impacting medical students' experiences and attitudes during their training. As such, doctors have a duty to act as role models and teachers, as specified by the GMC, which it seems are not currently being fulfilled. This would improve the medical students’ learning experiences and demonstrate good professional values for them to emulate. Therefore, these duties should be as important as patient care, since this will influence future generations.


2021 ◽  
pp. bmjmilitary-2020-001690
Author(s):  
Giles Nordmann ◽  
J Ralph ◽  
J E Smith

This paper examines the development and evolution of the deployed medical director (DMD) role and argues for the re-establishment of a formal selection process and training pathway. Recent deployments into new areas of operations, deployment of smaller medical treatment facilities (MTFs), the reduced numbers of deployments for clinicians, working with various multinational partners and both military and civilian organisations all pose specific problems for DMDs. The initial and then continued deployment of a secondary care role 2 MTF as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan illustrated some of these challenges. Although a novel operation, the broad categories of these new challenges were similar to the historical challenges facing the first DMDs in Afghanistan. Corporate memory loss may be unavoidable to some degree due to rapid turnover in appointments, particularly in single service and joint headquarters. However, individual memory and experience remains extant within the military medical deployable workforce. After the cessation of UK military deployed hospital care involvement in Afghanistan, the UK DMD formal training pathway ended. This paper argues for the re-establishment of a more formal DMD selection process and training pathway to ensure that organisational learning is optimised.


2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (7) ◽  
pp. 545-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
V Alexander ◽  
J Rudd ◽  
D Walker ◽  
G Wong ◽  
A Lunt ◽  
...  

Introduction The aim of this study was to ascertain the incidence of thyroid cancer for patients categorised as Thy3, 3a or 3f across four tertiary thyroid multidisciplinary centres in the UK. Material and methods This is a retrospective case series examining patients who presented with a thyroid nodule and diagnosed as Thy3, 3a or 3f according to the Royal College of Pathologists modified British Thyroid Association and Royal College of Physicians Thy system. Results In total, 395 patients were included in this study. Of these, 136 turned out to have benign thyroid disease and 24 had micropapillary thyroid carcinomas. The overall rate of thyroid malignancy was 28.8%. For each subcategory, the rate of malignancy was Thy3 24.7.7%, Thy3a 30.4% and Thy3f 29.2. However, the incidence of thyroid malignancy varied considerably between the four centres (Thy 3f 18-54%). Discussion The diagnosis of thyroid cancer is evolving but detection for malignancy for indeterminate nodules remains below 50% for most centres around the world. In 2014, the British Thyroid Association subdivided the original Thy3 category into Thy3a and Thy3f and recommended a more conservative approach to management for Thy3a nodules. Despite this, only two centres yielded a higher conversion rate of malignancy in the new higher graded Thy3f group compared with Thy3a. Conclusion It is debateable whether the new ‘Thy3’ subcategories are more useful than the original. Local thyroid malignancy rates may also be more useful than national averages to inform treatment decisions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Sawhney ◽  
R Bidaye ◽  
A Khanna

AbstractBackgroundPeritonsillar abscess, or quinsy, is one of the most common emergency presentations to ENT departments, and is the most common deep tissue infection of the head and neck. In the UK, junior members of the ENT team are regularly required to independently assess, diagnose and treat patients with peritonsillar aspiration or incision and drainage.IssueInexperienced practitioners can stumble at several obstacles: poor access due to trismus; poor lighting; difficulty in learning the therapeutic procedure; and difficulty in accurately documenting findings and treatment.SolutionTo counter these and other difficulties, the authors describe the routine use of video endoscopy as a training tool and therapeutic adjunct in the management of quinsy.


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