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Units of Training and SpR Year 1 and 2Many newly appointed SpRs spend the first 6 months of their SpR training in a District General Hospital. The remaining 18 months, completing SpR Years 1 & 2, will then be in Leeds.
Key UnitsAs you are aware, the trainee has to complete 7 Key Units of Training along with 6 General Units of Training by the end of their first two years of training in order to have their SpR Year 1/2 Certificate of Training signed off. The time in brackets is the minimum time allocated to the block. In practice, when combined with a shift system, one would expect to get less that (say ) six weeks actual training time within a block. As a consequence blocks are often longer. What actually matters is caseload exposure and this is monitored by logbook at the end of year Record of in Training Assessments (RITAS) at the Yorkshire Deanery. Clearly NEURO, CARDIAC and VASCULAR have to be done at the Leeds infirmary. Parts of PAIN, VASC , OBS can be done in a District General and ICU competencies can be gained there too. All trainees must complete an OBS block and a continuous 3 month ICU block in one of the Leeds Teaching Hospital. PAIN and THORACICS is done at St James’s. FOR EACH KEY MODULE THE TRAINEE MUST HAVE A MODULAR ASSESSMENT FROM (downloadable from the Hospital Doctor downloads section of www.yorkshiredeanery.com ) AND a WORKPLACE ASSESSMENT FORM (downloadable ditto) signed by a specialist consultant in that block.
General Units of TrainingThis is an extension of the competency based SHO training, at a higher level. The general units are These “units” represent the bread and butter anaesthesia and are usually not organised into a specific block. These blocks can reasonably be trained by district hospital and teaching hospital alike. In practice the district hospitals may give more exposure to these specialties as a large proportion of the teaching hospital time is necessarily dedicated to getting key modules. For each of these modules, a Workplace Based assessment (WBA) form must be completed and again, these general assessment forms are downloadable from the Yorkshire deanery website.
Getting It All TogetherIn practice, it can be a considerable challenge getting all the key modules into two years, especially if modules are repeated because of service needs, poor communication, or (commonly) because a particular specialty is oversubscribed with trainees wanting their training. Another frequent dilemma is a block promised but delivered poorly in practice, for instance a vascular block can be severely affected by a chronically full ICU or surgical issues. Almost every trainee who reaches the assessment at the end of year 2 has at least one block which is weak or occasionally absent. Provided the balance of training is correct and provided a plan exists to patch up the deficit, it is possible to complete one key unit in year three. It is frequently the case that DGH hospitals can deliver better vascular exposure than the teaching hospitals for the above reasons. Both Trainee and Tutors in the various establishments have a responsibility to ensure the training blocks are achieved. ONLY YOU can foresee problems and only you can take you training agenda with you as and when you change hospitals. The final six months of year two are often spent at St. James’s and clearly it would be a disaster to arrive there with key modules achievable only at the LGI missing. It all comes down to effective communication with the College tutors at the two leeds Hospitals Dr Alistair Fale (Anaes dept at LGI 392 6672) or Amanda Pinder (deputy) Once a year has been spent at the LGI, the final six months is usually delivered at St James’s , again, the tutors there , Dr Niki Snook or Dr John Jones would be very grateful indeed of knowing your training needs in advance. The four tutors have to reconcile the needs of sixty nine trainees and cant keep everyone happy all the time but they will do their best and in fact disastrous training omissions are rare. The Key Unit of Training in Pain Management is also an aspect of training that can be better accessed through DGH pain services, but the final sign off will be by Karen Simpson’s team at SJUH. . GET THE FRCA EXAM BY THE END OF YEAR TWO. (but don’t rush it and take it too soon, before you are ready. Most folk take it after twelve to eighteen months in). The Irish fellowship is fine. Watch out for the closing dates for applications.
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