The Royal College of Psychiatrists overlooks Psychiatry Training Programmes in the UK. While you can find most of the official guides on the college’s website, we help by gathering and sharing candidates’ experience.
Dr. Sehrish Shares Her Experience with her Core Psychiatry Training In the UK
I did my core training in psychiatry from August 2016 till July 2019 in North-east deanery. Just an overview about why I chose north east, me and my husband wanted to train at the same time in August 2016 and he wanted to go into medicine and we were told by our colleagues is that if you apply in northeast, there is a better chance of you getting the training together in the same deanery and we just did it. We only worked in NHS for hardly 9-10 months in total.
Long story short little did we knew that north east covers a huge area spreads over hundreds of miles and they have divided this deanery into North and South. So, people who start training in north part of the deanery continue their training in north part and vice versa. If you would like to change from north to south, then there has to a lot of factors that you need to consider before they allow the transfer. My husband got into the south part of the deanery and I got it in North part (our hospitals were nearly 60 miles apart). But living separately wasn’t the only awful thing, I applied my visa through normal route, and it got delayed until I received my visa in first week of September and joined on 05/09/2016.
Read More About Dr. Sehrish and her Experience: Dr Sehrish Shafiq’s Experience of Core Psychiatry Training. – Psychiatry Training UK (psychiatry-training.com)
Experience of Core Psychiatry Training by Dr Jennifer Rankin
Getting in!
I applied for Core Psych Training after completing Core Medical Training. I decided that I wanted a more family friendly and flexible working career and psychiatry appealed to me. The application form was online and was reasonably straightforward. It was useful having completed some audits, Workplace-based Assessments and teaching during Foundation Years and CMT, so I had a well-rounded portfolio.
I was very nervous about going to interview, but it was a fairly relaxed experience. There was one clinical scenario which went reasonably well. My portfolio station was straightforward. An organised portfolio really helped. I took it in a lever arch file and split it into key domains ( CV, WPBA, audits, teaching courses). This gave me plenty to talk about. I also had prepared some examples of using good communication skills and teamwork, just in case they asked.
Core Training Year 1 (CT1)
I was fortunate enough to get a CT1 post in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. My first post was Adult Psychiatry combining both inpatient and community work. Before I started, I was anxious about my level of knowledge about mental health—particularly as I had just returned from maternity leave. However, the Consultants did not expect me to start strongly. I initially shadowed their clinics and then gradually saw my own patients. When I covered the inpatient wards, it was mostly sorting out physical health problems or clerking in new patients. I quickly became used to history taking and Mental State Examination.
Experience of Core Psychiatry Training by Dr Jennifer Rankin – Psychiatry Training UK