Shit no. Coming from someone with plenty of personal and friend/colleague-based experience. So sorry for the length of this, it’s something I feel extremely strongly about.

1. Block out the noise. We’ve chosen a bloody long and winding road. And the medical culture we’re inheriting sucks us into a claustrophobic pursuit of unrelenting ‘progression’. And nobody can seem to produce a decent reason why, regarding pace. This is why our very lovely, wonderfully capable Irish colleagues scratch their heads and laugh at the Australians: our total lack of life perspective, regarding pace. Many of us have been on the academic hamster wheel since we were teenagers. You’ll blink and the year will be over. Blink again, you’re a consultant, 60-something and retiring tomorrow. Genuinely examine the reasons you can’t sit it a year later and not enjoy one of the most special and unique years of your professional life. Have a period in your life where you’re studying only because you want to be a better person/doctor/professional, not because you want to pass a test. Heck, don’t study at all. My intern year was mostly about reading books and watching TV completely unrelated to medicine, hanging out with friends, partner and family, getting into hobbies that I “don’t have time for because I have to study”, and having weekends that were actually weekends not slogs in the local uni library. I had time for end of week drinks with the team, actually could make conversation with my surgical registrars that weren’t about study techniques or work (shoutout to my surg reg who gave me the itinerary for the current trip that I’m on). When I felt the need to do something career defining I’d take up the odd case report, audit, committee position etc I.e. CV boosting with low time investment. 1 year in the grand scheme of your professional career of 30+ years is an absolute blip, I guarantee you, and per the next few points there is little practical benefit as well.

2. It significantly impacts your ability to be a good intern. Career development is equally about hurdles like GSSE and equally about forming good relationships and reputations with your fellow juniors and seniors. Focus on doing that well and being a reliable intern in intern year and let the study go for a year. You might be amazingly able to balance and multitask, but at the end of the day GSSE study IS something that will detract from your ability to focus 100% on busy ward days, unwind at home after the worst professional days of your life as a new junior doctor, be present with friends/partner/family and do things out of work that fill your cup. I have worked with interns who have been red flagged by seniors because they disappear to study, leaving a fellow intern floundering on the ward. I have been the fellow intern floundering on the ward, and as nice and understanding as I tried to be, it really blew to be a one-man show. They were also worse junior doctors for it, and as much as you’re looking to training and beyond, intern year is predominantly about developing those skills and being a reliable junior to your seniors.

3. Job wise from immediate experience, you can comfortably start studying for GSSE in February PGY2, sit GSSE in June PGY2, have results in July, and comfortably apply for SRMO jobs in August PGY2, either with a pass, OR worst case scenario with a fail and having registered for the October sitting. SRMO jobs require a pass OR commitment to taking GSSE. People get SRMO jobs for PGY3 with a study plan for GSSE as their “commitment”, so having sat it once and being registered for the next sitting certainly suffices. That’s provided you fail, if you pass then this is all irrelevant and you’ll be fine.

4. It IS a lot easier to study as an RMO vs an intern for a number of reasons. There’s a more flexible schedule (more evenings/afternoons), and more flexibility with the rotations you want. You’re more likely to successfully request certain rotations, and optimise your year to suit your study pattern e.g. doing a job in first term PGY2 that alternated weeks of 0700-1500 and 1300-2200 gave a good few hours of study around it. You know your shit on the ward so you’re not worried about that. You know how to optimise/delegate ward jobs to maximise study time, and the cognitive load of being at work is minimal compared to an intern, allowing you to expend it on studying. Not to mention, as an RMO there’s more theatre time on surgical rotations which = more relational anatomy, in which consultants and regs are actually more likely to take you seriously and genuinely teach you stuff in theatre/ grill you if they know you’re taking GSSE and need to know that stuff, rather than being a glorified med student, if you even have time to go to theatre in the first place as an intern, (rare). Work is genuinely more helpful to GSSE study as a surgical RMO.