What Happens when I Graduate Medical School?

“What happens when I graduate?”

You may have thought this to yourself before, but have been too embarrassed to ask the question. After all, isn’t every medical student supposed to know exactly what lies in their future?

But that’s not the case. Especially for students who don’t have any family who are in medicine, the future can be confusing. So whether you’re in first year thinking ahead, or in your clinical years needing a brush up, here’s our guide on what happens when you graduate.

In your last year of medical school, you will apply for foundation training. You will be ranked in score order nationally against other final year medics. how well you score will determine where you are placed for your foundation training.

Once you have been allocated a place, you will undergo two years of foundation training. After your first year of training, you will be a recognised doctor with the GMC.

During your two foundation years, you will be supervised in placements across different specialities.

This will allow you to develop your skills as a doctor. You will have 3, 4 or 6 month placement rotations. This will be alongside 3 hours of formal training a week. there will be opportunities for you to build your portfolio, arrange extra placements and educate medical students.

At the end of each foundation year, you will need to demonstrate you have met the standards of the Foundation Programme Curriculum. Instead of a written exam, you will be assessed by case based discussions, mini clinical examinations, observation of your procedural skills, a logbook of procedural skills and teaching development assessment. This is all recorded in your portfolio.

Once you have finished your foundation training, you can progress to speciality or GP training. The time it will take for your speciality training is dependent on the speciality that you decide to do. However, not everyone chooses to progress to specialty training right away. You can take a year out for research, or do volunteer work.

There are many options after the foundation year, and your career can go down many different paths.

“How do I pick a speciality?”

There are so many specialities out there, that it can seem like you’ll never find the right one.

Throughout medical school, it’s a good idea to attend talks from a range of specialists to get a feel for what you’re interested in.

Once you move onto foundation training, aim for placements in areas that you’re interested in to gain some experience.

“Once I pick a speciality, am I stuck with it?”

No, and that’s one of the great things about medicine. There’s lots of variety and opportunity for change. If you’re willing to put in the time in training, you can go back and train as a different speciality, go on to teaching, or into research.

A career in medicine can seem overwhelming at times. Breaking things down into simpler and more digestible steps will make things easier and give you an opportunity to manage your time effectively. There are more intricacies that you will learn as you go, you don’t need to know everything all at once!

It’s perfectly fine to have no idea what speciality you want to go into, or to change your mind. Your career will be whatever you make it and whatever you want it to be.

There are lots of opportunities to extend your portfolio beyond your role as a doctor, sometimes you just have to seek them out.

There’s a Med School Life blog post here if you want to find out more.

As always, if you want to share any of your experiences at medical school with us, email us at welfarehub.nottsmed@gmail.com. If you’re struggling with any other issues, have a look at our website to find some resources that may help you.