IPEM Trainee Network's Rough Guide to the STP |
1. Rotations: 3
years is ages! No, it’s not.
Embarking on the STP is new and exciting and the OSFAs are a mere twinkle to
worry about in 3 years’ time. Trust me it will come around incredibly fast. Set yourself deadlines and stick to them. The
advised length of the rotation period is 1 year – keep it that way. The longer
it drags on into year 2, the less time you have to complete your specialism and
the harder it is going to be at the end.
2. Stay in touch.
Make the most of your new trainee
colleagues at other centres, especially if you are the only trainee in your
year group at your centre. Bounce ideas off each other. Chat about coursework.
Go to the same conferences. Keep an eye on each other’s progress.
3. Elective placement: Make the most of it.
How many times in your life will you be
told you have 4 to 6 weeks (paid!) to explore a different area of science and
healthcare entirely of your choosing? Answer: not very many!
4. Competencies: You
haven’t been asked to write a text book.
Competency submissions should
be evidence that you have met the requirements of the competency. For the sake
of both you and your assessors, do not write a text book. A word of warning: if
you set the bar exceptionally high at rotation level, how are you going to take
it to the next level in your specialism?
5. Competencies: Mix
and match.
Some competencies were just born to be together, don’t keep
them apart.
6. Project: Make
it useful.
Pick a project that is both useful to the hospital and to you.
If the results of your project can be used for the benefit of the hospital, you
will staff are more keen to help and support you. Can you use your project to
sign off a handful of competencies as well?
7. OSFA preparation: CBDs
are your friend.
A few months before your OSFAs, introduce a weekly
‘CBD day’. Book your supervisors well in advance. Write your own CBDs and pick
the subjects that you are not sure on. Is there a topic which, if it came up in
an OSFA station, you heart would sink and panic would set in? Get that panic
out of the way and plan a CBD based around that topic. My first OSFA station
was identical to one of the CBDs that I wrote – honestly! For double benefit,
discuss both of your CBD scenarios.
8. OSFA survival: Keep
calm.
You are bound to come across something you don’t know. Take a
deep breath and give it your best shot. Remember the assessors are on your
side.
9. You are
good enough, you can do it and you will do it.
As Tony Fisher said on
our first day of the Liverpool MSc – there are thirty people that wanted to be
sat where you are sat today. Of course it’s going to be tough! It’s not
surprising when you think of the level of responsibility involved in the career
you are aiming for. Yes, there will be times when you want to pack it all in
(what’s wrong with working in Tesco’s anyway?) but keep your end goal in mind.
10. ENJOY IT.
Take on challenges, take pride in your work and, as our new IPEM President says
so passionately, be innovative. This is your chance to make a difference and
improve the service our NHS offers to our patients. Just because ‘we’ve always
done it this way’ and ‘you’re just a trainee’ doesn’t mean you can’t make a
difference.