Getting The Most Out Of The NHS Medical Careers Website
On this website we use the
following career planning model which is
commonly used to help people make informed decisions.
Finding out more about yourself and your
skills, interests and values relates to Stage 1 of our four-stage career-planning
process. On this website we have developed a number of
interactive tools that you can use to help you with this stage.
This website also gives you information on how
you can make the most of your time at medical school, by exploring
different medical careers and broadening your experiences (Stage 2 of our career planning
process).
To help you with stage 2, we have 7 or 8 pages of information on
each specialty. On this website we feature over 60 specialties, go
to our specialty pages to explore
further.
You can access this resource to start this
process and if you work through some of the career planning
activities on this website you are more likely to feel ready to
make those career choices necessary for specialty training when you
get to your second foundation year. You can review and revise your
answers as you progress through your training.
As a general guide, we recommend that medical
students concentrate on Stages 1 and 2. It may be tempting to skip
Stages 1 and 2 and go straight to decision making (Stage 3) or even
to skip the first three stages and only worry about application
forms or interviews (Stage 4 activities) when the time comes that
you have to complete them. Being passive about your career and
specialty choice, thinking that it simply ‘happens’ over time is a
misconception and poor decision making (Stage 3) often rests on
inadequate self-assessment or career exploration. Therefore if at
medical school you have adequately worked through Stages 1 and 2
you will feel much more prepared when it comes to making the
decision about your career path.
If at medical school you feel you have reached
the decision making stage i.e. Stage 3
of our career planning model, then at Foundation School you can try
to get more experience in the specialty you have chosen. It is
still good to be open-minded at this stage, as many foundation
trainees who have begun their training thinking they have decided
what career route they want to take, do change their minds. The
British Medical Association (BMA) has conducted a cohort study of
435 medical graduates from 2006. The second report on this study
was published in June 2008 and it states that ‘half of cohort
doctors (223/439) said that they had changed their career
intentions as a result of their experiences during their foundation
year 1 placements’.