Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us

Future Healthcare Journal

  • FHJ Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About FHJ
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
RCP Journals
Home
  • Log in
  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us
Advanced

Future Healthcare Journal

futurehosp Logo
  • FHJ Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About FHJ
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

Foundation year-1 transition course: from medical student to first year doctor

Clare Carasco, Han Wang and Orhan Orhan
Download PDF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.9-2-s64
Future Healthc J July 2022
Clare Carasco
AChelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Han Wang
AChelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Orhan Orhan
AChelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
Loading

Introduction

Transitions in medicine are often challenging, none more so than the initial jump from medical student to foundation year-1 doctor (FY1).1 The most recent cohort of doctors have encountered an additional hurdle – reduced exposure to clinical environments during their final years at medical school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Education England advised a longer shadowing period prior to starting work as an FY1 as a means of at least partially offsetting this.2

Materials and methods

Our role as medical education fellows within the postgraduate medical education department was to design and implement a detailed course to ensure that the FY1 transition was as smooth as possible. It aimed to improve confidence and preparedness.

We collected informal feedback from the existing FY1 cohort. The two main themes identified were difficulty accessing IT systems required and feeling isolated from colleagues during the pandemic. Thus, additional objectives were to ensure all new starters had the necessary access to perform their jobs effectively on day one and to ensure they felt supported throughout this period.

A formal questionnaire was sent to the new cohort due to start FY1 to assess how prepared they felt to start their new job, and this included open questions to identify areas of concern. This information was used to create a 2-week course comprised of a variety of talks and interactive sessions (Table 1) to run alongside their extended shadowing. The course was optional and held prior to the official start date. Thirty-three of 37 new starters chose to participate.

View this table:
  • View inline
  • View popup
Table 1.

Talks and interactive sessions

Throughout the course, the new doctors were given our email and WhatsApp contact details and offered drop-in sessions to discuss issues and concerns. The course also provided the opportunity to get to know their peers – another important source of support.

Results and discussion

100% (n=33) of attendees completed post-course feedback. Confidence scores in all subject domains, measured on a Likert, showed a positive improvement (Table 2). There was an increase of 31% in those who felt prepared to start FY1. Furthermore, 88% felt reduced anxiety and 79% felt positive about starting work.

View this table:
  • View inline
  • View popup
Table 2.

Confidence scores pre- and post-course

Over 90% were able to access and use their IT logins, F1 WhatsApp group, ID cards, smart cards, online training and ePortfolio prior to starting. We noted that PACS and NHS email access was more limited, 79% and 45% respectively, and we were able to rectify this swiftly.

All attended at least one drop-in session with the education team or contacted us via WhatsApp, and this was noted by over 95% of participants as a positive feature of the course.

Conclusion

In summary, our course has helped our cohort of FY1 doctors to feel more confident and prepared for their new role, and helped them make the transition from student to doctor.

Due to its success, the course will be embedded permanently in the new FY1 induction at our trust. We feel the course model could be replicated at other hospitals to ensure benefits can be accessed by as many new doctors as possible.

  • © Royal College of Physicians 2022. All rights reserved.

References

  1. ↵
    1. Brennan N
    , Corrigan O, Allard J, et al. The transition from medical student to junior doctor: today's experiences of tomorrow's doctors. Med Educ 2010;44:449–58.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  2. ↵
    1. Health Education England
    . Extra support for new generation of UK doctors. London: HEE, 2021. www.hee.nhs.uk/news-blogs-events/news/extra-support-new-generation-uk-doctors [Accessed 8 February 2022].
Back to top
Previous articleNext article

Article Tools

Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Foundation year-1 transition course: from medical student to first year doctor
Clare Carasco, Han Wang, Orhan Orhan
Future Healthc J Jul 2022, 9 (Suppl 2) 64-65; DOI: 10.7861/fhj.9-2-s64

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Foundation year-1 transition course: from medical student to first year doctor
Clare Carasco, Han Wang, Orhan Orhan
Future Healthc J Jul 2022, 9 (Suppl 2) 64-65; DOI: 10.7861/fhj.9-2-s64
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Introduction
    • Materials and methods
    • Results and discussion
    • Conclusion
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Application support for IMT: a bridge towards a future career
  • Virtual MRCP1 course for internal medicine trainees across West Midlands Deanery
  • Smoking cessation training for foundation year doctors: a positive step towards a smoke-free society
Show more Education, training and professionalism

Similar Articles

FAQs

  • Difficulty logging in.

There is currently no login required to access the journals. Please go to the home page and simply click on the edition that you wish to read. If you are still unable to access the content you require, please let us know through the 'Contact us' page.

  • Can't find the CME questionnaire.

The read-only self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ) can be found after the CME section in each edition of Clinical Medicine. RCP members and fellows (using their login details for the main RCP website) are able to access the full SAQ with answers and are awarded 2 CPD points upon successful (8/10) completion from:  https://cme.rcplondon.ac.uk

Navigate this Journal

  • Journal Home
  • Current Issue
  • Ahead of Print
  • Archive

Related Links

  • ClinMed - Home
  • FHJ - Home

Other Services

  • Advertising
futurehosp Footer Logo
  • Home
  • Journals
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
HighWire Press, Inc.

Follow Us:

  • Follow HighWire Origins on Twitter
  • Visit HighWire Origins on Facebook

Copyright © 2021 by the Royal College of Physicians