Skills for foundation doctors

On this page you will find advice on how to identify and develop the essential and desirable skills for the specialty you wish to enter after foundation training.

Each specialty has its own person specification, and almost all have a list of essential and desirable skills.

doctor with child

At foundation stage it is important to be aware of the skills required for the specialty areas you may be interested in and ensure you develop these skills. These are updated annually, just before recruitment begins in the autumn, but they usually don’t change too much, so it’s worth looking at the latest ones.

It is equally important to record in your e-portfolio examples of when you have demonstrated these. You will then have a variety of examples to use at interview to demonstrate you have acquired the essential skills.

There are a number of common skills that appear in person specifications. We have produced a guide a providing examples of how you could show you have developed these skills. Remember that an activity such as undertaking an audit or gaining teaching experience can be used to demonstrate a number of different skills.

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