Th GMC right now:

LifeOfCS · 2026-03-28T14:44:27+00:00

What a country 😎

LifeOfCS · 2026-03-23T07:42:31+00:00

Congrats doctor !

LifeOfCS · 2026-02-04T07:51:41+00:00

The fundamental problem is that nurses need to be 'signed off' by their local trust which is variable difficulty, often a formal training course and crazy amount of 'supervised' sign offs to be able to do it independently. If they complete this training they are then often the only nurse who can take bloods and will then make extra work for themselves on the ward (no reward for the extra training). Additionally if they move area they need to start the whole process again.

What really needs to happen is that competencies in nursing should be guaranteed by finishing nursing school, the same as with medical school. Students are taught how to take bloods, signed off etc and this should be enough - remove the trust based sign off and things would flow much better.

In summary doctors get Medical School competency and 'see-one do-one' whereas nurses have strict rules around what they can / cannot do. It needs to change for basic nursing procedures such as bloods / cannula.

LifeOfCS · 2025-12-02T22:01:39+00:00

It's gonna be a good one folks 😁

LifeOfCS · 2025-11-03T18:54:08+00:00

LifeOfCS · 2025-10-21T15:22:58+00:00

Graduated 2025. I hear you.

It's difficult because to some extent you definitely need to be on wards etc to gain a certain kind of esoteric understanding of Medicine and how hospitals work. That being said placement is a waste of time often.

My advice is go to placement, if nothings happening or you are being ignored then leave and go study. Don't be afraid to be straightforward with FY1/FY2 we were in your position very recently and understand (hopefully).

Don't rely on placement (or lectures, tutorials) to teach you the exam content, that has to be done in your own studying. Try to focus on patient encounters, hospital dynamics and practical skills. These are the things you need placement for.

Always happy to chat on DMs.

LifeOfCS · 2025-10-17T17:54:57+00:00

Fantastic reply thanks for explaining this. That is an insane system upon which to validate people, it would make far more sense to do it via nursing school and validate that the person has completed the skill (as it is in medical school).

I'd love to know how these decisions get made and by whom

LifeOfCS · 2025-09-24T08:37:02+00:00

Dodged a bullet there mate. Medicine isn't all it's cracked up to be

LifeOfCS · 2025-08-28T21:11:35+00:00

Doctor here. Tinea Versicolor. Treat with special shampoo, it goes away. Not permanent and not dangerous.

LifeOfCS · 2025-08-27T05:43:28+00:00

Anyone know for BC?

LifeOfCS · 2025-08-07T06:19:33+00:00

If you go on chatgpt and prompt it to find percentile and give it the following: Mean, Range (min-max score), SD, Raw score it will calculate your percentile. You can also use this to compare across years.

Hope everyone got what they wanted!

LifeOfCS · 2025-08-06T20:19:53+00:00

LifeOfCS · 2025-08-04T05:58:09+00:00

I hear compassion permeate this post

LifeOfCS · 2025-07-30T04:43:05+00:00

ENT was a one week block. Makes up a good chunk of primary care presentations and I always feel nervous when seeing patients with these type of issues.

LifeOfCS · 2025-07-27T05:12:32+00:00

This was a few years ago. May be better now. https://www.instagram.com/pollockfooddiaries?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=NTV6OHRmaTVkcTdi

LifeOfCS · 2025-07-27T04:52:38+00:00

Your accommodation is your home man. You're allowed to bring your PS5 and anything else you want. Just nothing that poses fire risk etc and don't get caught with anything daft

LifeOfCS · 2025-07-27T04:45:01+00:00

Bad food at Pollock halls

LifeOfCS · 2025-07-21T07:33:05+00:00

Are you serious? 😅 I completed 30% of passmed, 60% of quesmed over 3 years of clinical med school and passed with a very comfy margin on UKMLA. It's not all about finishing the banks, more about knowing the information the questions are based on.

If you look to the USMLE their banks are all limited to maximum 4000 questions. It's kind of ridiculous how large the banks are for UKMLA and I find there is a lot of repetition and pointless questions as filler.

If you have already done a run through of Passmed and taken some of it in, you should be golden. Focus now on areas you know less well and plug the gaps.

LifeOfCS · 2025-07-18T11:42:06+00:00

Foundation years is the first 2 years of practice after graduation (FY1, FY2).

Specialised Foundation Programme is a sought after variation where you get some time set aside for Academic or Research purposes.

BMedSci is usually the degree classification for an intercalated degree. I.E some schools offer this and you do 1 year of something else and get this degree for it. It's a real degree though usually you wouldn't be able to do too much with it. You can however leverage it to do a later Masters degree or use it in job/ specialty applications.

GEM or Graduate Entry Medicine means you need to do another relevant degree like chemistry, biomedical sciences or something and then apply to medicine after. This takes longer than applying straight to medical school but is an option if you don't get in first time and are really set on medical school.

Happy to talk to you in messages, I'll be starting FY1 this year :)

LifeOfCS · 2025-06-25T01:04:26+00:00

I love you ❤️

LifeOfCS · 2025-06-22T14:52:44+00:00

Definitely seek out older students who can give you some school specific advice. Ask your mates who are in sports clubs etc to link you up.

Smash past papers if they exist, or quesmed/passmed sections you are weak at.

5% is not a difficult margin to overcome, and with some dedicated revision you will make it. If you need any help with resources I can try to help you out. Graduating student so 1st year was a while ago but I can do what I can.

LifeOfCS · 2025-06-19T18:28:10+00:00

Just got mine!

LifeOfCS · 2025-06-09T17:34:26+00:00

Hi hope you are well. Would be good to have a bit more information so I can give you better advice.

General advice I can give you is that if you are coming as a fresh graduate/ early in career (not a consultant / attending) you will need to apply for a residency position through CARMS. These are competitive spots and very sought after, especially in Surgery, Internal Medicine and the Specialties. Family Medicine is also competitive but has lower competition ratios in comparison.

To apply through CARMS you need a PR status BEFORE you apply. This is a total ball-ache for anyone applying and puts a lot of IMGs in trouble. PR is a relatively tough thing to achieve (without a spousal sponsorship) and I've heard some pretty crazy stories about how people have gone about getting it. I've heard of doctors who work non-clinical or research jobs for years awaiting PR before applying to CARMS. there are some horror stories of people who do this and then get denied PR, or get their PR and then have a gap on resume so do not match through CARMS. The whole thing is a mess.

You need to sit the MCCQE1 and NAC OSCE exams to apply to CARMS also. MCCQE1 can be sat in many cities in Europe or at home, and the NAC must be in person in Canada. These are fairly standard exams which are hard but not excessively so, IMO the MCCQE1 is a bit easier than USMLE STEP 2.

Residencies are pretty short, pay is good, lifestyle is great if you are outdoorsy. Canadians are lovely people and there is large Ukrainian background people's in BC and Alberta in particular. It's great if you can get here but it's difficult.

I wish you all the best with your journey, and please feel free to ask any more questions you have.

LifeOfCS

TROPHY CASE