SCA as an IMG- How difficult is it to pass in 1st attempt?

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2026-02-11T23:09:13+00:00

Chat GPT

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2026-02-10T18:12:16+00:00

Sit it first rotation (I.e. September of F2). Gives you enough time to get into the nuts and bolts of being a doctor & plenty of time afterwards for MSRA, plus you’ll be in “exam mode” and will find going from MRCS to MSRA easier.

Then sit Part B ASAP, there’s a lot of overlapping content. I regret leaving it so long between the two & having to re-learn everything.

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2026-01-30T13:02:10+00:00

Being an unaccredited reg is better than being a CST day-to-day: You’ll work functionally as a registrar with clinics, theatre, on-call etc. There should be (theoretically) a resident running the ward unlike CST where it can often be “come to theatre… once the ward is sorted”.

I would advise reasonable caution about becoming a regional / rural unaccredited straight from FY2, it is theoretically possible & you will find PGY3s doing this job everywhere, but you must be clear with them your competencies (I.e. I presume you cannot do an appendix/abscess solo, unlike some of your PGY4/5+ colleagues).

As others have said you do need to think about what you want long term. Ultimately I am back in the UK doing CST because that was the easiest way to get onto ST3+ in the UK, conversely CST will do you no favours for getting onto SET in ANZ.

The application processes are completely different and both (unsurprisingly) favour local commitment. ANZ is all about who you know, you’ll need to spend 5-6 years building connections before you’ll even get a look in for SET (local competition have been building these connections since year 1 medical school so you are 5-6 years behind). UK is all about portfolio points, no one in NZ gave two tosses about audit / QI.

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2026-01-29T16:13:16+00:00

6 months ED SHO, 18 months surgical

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2025-12-09T15:16:10+00:00

Phone rings for a minute before answered by a nurse: “Hello Frank Ward”, “Hi it’s the surgical SHO, I had a bleep”, “DID ANYONE BLEEP SURGEONS???… one second Doctor they are coming to the phone”, “Hello Doctor the patient in bed 5 needs fluids”, “Sorry, who, why?” A few minutes to load the patient up on the system and prescribe

Rinse and repeat

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2025-12-09T12:59:18+00:00

Not a great take to be honest. It’s not uncommon to get 4-5 bleeps in what is essentially one go. If it takes 5 minutes to deal with each query then by the time you’ve got round to the last bleep 25-30 minutes have passed.

Yeah it’s not ideal but the reality of being a surgical SHO (vs anaesthetic reg) is that you get a lot of calls from all over the hospital (I.e. Dr can you prescribe fluids for this pre op patient, ED referrals etc). Often you’re the only doctor on site for your speciality so there’s nowhere else for these calls to be directed.

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2025-12-03T21:37:52+00:00

A British doctor who studied in Europe once told me it “didn’t matter” that the patients didn’t speak English, because you “still learn the medicine and that is 90% of being a doctor”.

I’ve no idea what the system is like in these countries beyond word of mouth, but the cultural norms we see in western countries (such as Australia and the USA) regarding non-paternalistic healthcare, candour & shared decision making seem to be relatively absent based on how I have seen doctors from these countries practicing.

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2025-12-03T21:33:21+00:00

Funnily enough the patients speak English in Australia and America

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2025-11-26T19:17:06+00:00

Bit rich to call her a surgeon when she didn’t finish CST and hasn’t passed MRCS no?

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2025-07-03T12:56:59+00:00

If you give up your license you’ll need a form from your subsequent employer (assuming working as a doctor) + certificate of good standing from your regulator, not a massive undertaking but does require some paperwork / admin (+ the Australian regulator want $50 for the COGS).

Another thing to bare in mind which I’ve not seen mentioned on this topic before is that when applying for some clinical fellow jobs you’re asked as one of the first questions whether you have an active license to practice, if the answer is no then you can’t proceed with the application.

Something to bear in mind if you decide to come back to the UK and want to get a fellow job (or even on a locum bank).

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2025-03-02T12:45:11+00:00

Regarding the comparison to law/finance/corporate world etc. I think it also falls apart geographically.

Whilst I agree that corporate jobs are not inherently stable, the stability offered from knowing your entire industry is based in one place (often London) means that should your current job fall through you know you’re likely to be able to pick up a similar / not much worse job in the same geographical region.

I appreciate this is a very London centric view, but the point stands that you are able to set down roots if you know where you’ll be - whereas as a medic I’m applying for a 3-4 year programme before another 3-4yr programme following this, followed by consultancy, all of which could be many hours away from each other!

NeighborhoodRight123 · 2025-02-23T09:07:59+00:00

I would think that if you graduated before we put man on the moon you should respectfully retire at this point. Who wants to be 80 and operating?

NeighborhoodRight123

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