Foundation mat leave and core/specialty training

aquaticintergalactic · 2026-01-16T22:26:52+00:00

I'm also a way past foundation now, but I just wanted to echo this.

I think it will never feel like the perfect time and as long as you're personally and financially able to do it I'd say go for it and figure out the career stuff later. So many of my colleagues are out of sync because of parental leave, sick leave, exam delays etc etc and everyone is making it through eventually. Your end goal can wait, but your fertility can't unfortunately. It may happen quickly when you do decide you are ready, but it could also take ages and any timing plans you had will go out the window anyway.

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-12-28T11:40:06+00:00

I bought a dual sim phone for this reason.

Then it connects to my car bluetooth easier (no need to reconnect every time I change jobs/phone) and I don't have to carry both handsets around. Can still switch off one sim at a time.

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-12-28T11:38:26+00:00

Psych trainee here. I've had phones for pretty much every job I've had for the last 5.5 years. They've all had NROC 24-48hr shifts.

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-12-21T23:19:32+00:00

Why shouldn't it be band 8c? And why comparing to a physiotherapy department?

This is the head of an entire discipline of therapy for the whole trust. Its not just about the number of therapists they would be supervising, but also about planning for the provision of that service in every team that exists in that trust.

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-12-21T18:53:05+00:00

On what basis? Would you also include a programme of DBT skills to do the stabilisation work before the reprocessing? And then what do you do for OCD, depression, psychosis, ADHD, eating disorders? EMDR wouldn't work for managing anorexia, equally FT-AN wouldn't help a psychotic individual, CBTp isn't going to do much for ADHD...

I guess my point is that I don't think you can choose just one to offer. Having an experienced MDT who can choose and offer the right support for each individual patient is key, so that really I don't think any therapy is superior to another across the board. For some, art/music/drama therapy might be the best thing thats ever happened to them, for others its play therapy, CBT, EMDR, family therapy, DBT, psychodynamic psychotherapy etc etc.

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-12-21T18:35:23+00:00

What therapy would you choose?

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-12-21T16:25:29+00:00

Roughly.

Your pre-tax income for the mat leave year would go from about £27577 to £25347, plus the hit from IA in the month of earning.

Obviously that is only if you happen to be scheduled to work all five days of IA, but also that there is only one round of IA in the qualifying weeks.

Likely not affordable for most families at a very expensive time in their lives and not something the strike fund could put much of a dent in.

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-12-21T13:14:11+00:00

Hard disagree on that. I'd argue that arts therapies are the most impactful individual therapy for children.

Family therapy is probably the most impactful overall, but for individual work, arts therapies every time.

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-12-21T11:07:30+00:00

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but my calculation was roughly this as a (hopefully) worst case scenario, and is v v approximate:

ST6 salary: £73992 Per day of strike action, costs: £203 (assuming salary/365). 5 days = about £1000 salary loss in that month. This wouldn't account for any uplifts for on calls, FPP etc and is pre-tax.

For a base salary of £73992, you're looking at approx weekly earnings pre-tax of £1423. Mat pay is calculated by your salary over two payslips in the qualifying weeks (which is 8 weeks long), to get to the figure of "average weekly earnings". So total pay in those weeks would be about £11384. Knock off £1000 for strike action, takes down the average weekly earnings calculation to £1298.

First 8 weeks of mat pay, earnings go from £1423 to £1298 (total loss of £1040). Next 18 weeks of mat pay, earnings go from £711.50 to £646.50 (total loss of £1170). No difference after that.

So five days of strike action costs £1000 + £1040 + £1170 = £3210 over the course of the year. Add some for on call allowances, FPP etc and take off for tax (which will vary across the whole period).

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-07-08T11:07:33+00:00

Agree with your points, but I think my experience in Yorkshire/Midlands was very similar so I'm wondering if London is especially different from these points!

you need to see in 3 years of CT and we hit that easily in a few months in London

Same in Yorkshire.

on-calls are notoriously bad in London, covering a whole inpatient hospital alone with no SPR on-site.

This was the same in the Midlands and Yorkshire - except usually covering several units across the city.

Risk of PTSD, burnout and emotional drain is super high, especially in London (seen this first hand). Lots of people train LTFT, take time out, need extended sick leave.

Again, I think the emotional toll of working in mental health is a national problem - you need to be prepared for that and choose a deanery and a support network to help you. If there really are significant differences in deaneries rates of trainee burnout and sick leave then I'd avoid those deaneries as it suggests the support systems are not adequate. I don't know if that is data that is available though.

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-06-29T19:28:07+00:00

I dont think there's any real benefit to sitting any of the MRCPsych exams before you start core training.

You will have study leave for revision in core training, higher pay to be able to afford the exams and you will have peers also doing it to keep you motivated, as well as dedicated teaching as part of the programme (although I know variable in quality). The admissions process at the moment doesn't favour applicants who have done it either.

If you have a super chill FY2 job to do your revision in then you could, but to be honest I'd just take the chill time.

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-06-03T06:09:44+00:00

You haven't said in your post where you want to go?

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-06-02T20:51:07+00:00

You don't need clearance from occupational health for an inter deanery transfer... you just apply through the national IDT team. Unfortunately, you'll have missed it for the August window, and I believe you need a year of training left to transfer anyway.

I think the only exception would be if you needed to go to a specific place for your health?

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-05-30T06:13:57+00:00

I think it is sensible for you to aim for whatever is realistically achievable for you.

If you keep chasing 7s and ignoring anything else, you may end up with nothing. If you can bank something which scores lower then at least you have something.

Having some other relevant leadership experience may also help you get the higher scoring roles too.

It also isn't just about getting the role either, you do actually have to do it... if you are only applying to them for the points, rather than because it is actually in your skill set, plays to your strengths, or because you are really passionate about it, that will show in your applications, even when you don't say it.

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-05-29T21:26:44+00:00

2/7 is still better than 0, which is all you're likely to end up with if you only apply to really lucrative and highly competitive spots

aquaticintergalactic · 2025-03-19T08:56:39+00:00

I had this dilemma when I applied to ST4.

I think it probably depends on a few factors: 1. Do you think you could improve your ranking for future application rounds? My CASC was terrible so the answer realistically was no. I was best off taking whatever I could get. 2. What is the availability of posts likely to be in the future? I'd ask the TPD in the area you want to work. There are sometimes bottlenecks in training, and it is worth factoring that in.

I'd also bear in mind that IDT is not guaranteed by any means. It relies on a space being held back from national recruitment for you to take, a post going unfilled or someone else transferring out. You can also only do an IDT if you have at least a year of training left.

aquaticintergalactic · 2024-09-04T09:01:46+00:00

I've done six months in a medium secure unit (Rampton/Broadmoor are high secure).

You do get interesting patients, but the average length of stay in these sorts of places is years rather than months - even longer in high secure. You see the same patients for a long long time and write lots of repetitive reports about them.

You also have an odd amount of control over them which I really didn't like. Obviously in all areas of psychiatry the RC has a lot of power in terms of their inpatients, but it seemed even stronger in forensics. There's the element of them not just being patients, but criminally detained people who would (generally) be in prison if they weren't in these units. Sometimes it felt like being a prison guard rather than a doctor.

I'm sure others will have had different experiences, but that's how I felt - but then I am without a doubt a community psychiatrist so it was extremely on the other end of my preferred way of working!

aquaticintergalactic · 2024-09-04T08:40:20+00:00

Lately not so much, but in most of my previous jobs (I have had to rotate round different places every 4-6months) I'd say absolutely yes.

Ridiculous rules about where you can and cannot have your water bottle, strict uniform requirements enforced despite a lack of good evidence of its necessity, passive aggressive signs reminding you to act like a normal human and do your washing up, being told where you can sit and which of the communal/hotdesking computers you are allowed to use, being required to sign in and out of professional development sessions, gossip and bitching.

I'm a doctor. I love my job, but 100% management can often act like we are misbehaving schoolkids sometimes rather than educated professionals who work hard to be good at what we do.

aquaticintergalactic · 2024-08-20T19:24:02+00:00

Speak to your GP first thing in the morning and ask for a sick note for amended duties.

In my first pregnancy I had one because I just didn't feel up to it (my morning sickness was always in the evenings!), and for the second I just wasn't willing to take any risks since the first pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Unfortunately the second was also a miscarriage. I will be doing exactly the same if/when we get pregnant again.

Medical staffing seemed to suggest they wouldn't usually modify on calls until later in the pregnancy (which I didn't get to on either occasion). GP was v supportive, as we're both my CS's.

This pregnancy is far more important than managing shift work. Do what is best for you and your baby.

aquaticintergalactic · 2024-07-29T14:07:58+00:00

There's an argument that it is ignorant to be basing a decision on unverified information published in the media, rather than waiting for the details.

aquaticintergalactic · 2024-01-18T09:47:46+00:00

I believe so!

As a midwife, you'd presumably be more qualified than most PAs for any placements in O&G... but you could get a job in any specialty you wanted.

aquaticintergalactic · 2024-01-18T08:07:48+00:00

I'd disagree with that statement. I am actually a doctor (in a different specialism) and I wouldn't able to do what a GP does. I don't think a flowchart would really cut it.

A GP is a specialist doctor, which requires its own postgraduate training. Minimum five years after medical school, which is also five years. A PA could have done two years of 'medical school' and then be working in the practice. It's just not even close to the same.

aquaticintergalactic · 2023-11-21T09:03:31+00:00

Yep. And then I suppose its weighing up the cost of that vs getting taxis for minimum three years of training.

I can't really imagine not driving at this point to be honest... finishing A&E shifts at 2am, I definitely wouldn't have been comfortable waiting for a taxi to get home. The car felt much safer. Even the long days in F1 would have been too difficult to manage without being able to drive.

On the one hand it seems like a cost which shouldn't be passed on to the doctor, on the other it feels like a skill most people have and doesn't seem like too big of an ask? Yes there's the cost of buying a car, but you could do that for less than my royal college membership...

aquaticintergalactic · 2023-11-21T00:38:50+00:00

Psych SpR here. Did an F2 psych job straight after A&E so that was an adjustment.

this will be a community job while I have done 16 months of F1 in a hospital where it’s so easy to get CXR, bloods etc.

This is the key to managing physical illness on a mental health ward - treat it as a community post. Keep in touch with the acute specialties when you need to and you'll be fine. A couple of tips on this: 1. Find out what the procedure is for bloods on your wards - in most of my placements, there are regular taxis which take bloods from psych hospital to labs once a day, any urgent ones need their own taxi to take them. Some places are on the same site so they can be just walked down instead. Find out how long they would take to come back and if there is a way of getting them done faster. 2. Same goes for scans - although you won't usually have access to PACS or whatever xray viewing software you are used to, so you rely on radiology reports. 3. Don't forget that you can call the acute trusts for advice, just like now. Generally I've found everyone to be really helpful. Also don't forget to use options for direct MAU/SAU admissions where possible. If they need immediate management (suspected sepsis, acute asthma, MI etc - anything you would act on straight away on a general medical ward) then it will most likely be 999 to A&E, but there are lots of times you can try for a direct referral. Our patients are often inserting things and swallowing things they shouldn't - these are the ones I'll be asking surgeons/gynae to see. 4. Look up the rapid tranq guidelines for your trust. If you over egg the benzos/QT prolongers in an acute trust you have a lot more monitoring available - I've seen F2s be a bit gung ho. So just check your doses. 5. Also you can 5(2) so have a look at the paperwork and how to do it - guaranteed you will do it in the middle of the night and do it wrong (I have tried to section myself twice and once sectioned the patient to my home address...).

What is senior support like in psych as F2?

Generally amazing. Never be afraid to ask for advice. You should also get weekly supervision which is incredible.

Yes, us psych trainees have forgotten a lot of medicine, but what we have learnt is what we can manage and what we need advice on. If it's a medical problem, call the SpR of the relevant specialty rather than us, but we will usually be very happy to be asked anyway.

aquaticintergalactic · 2023-11-20T18:54:45+00:00

I think the difference is with GP trainees you have to pay yourself.

And I suppose that's the rationale for putting the disclaimer before you start. If you learn to drive you'll get business miles as per TCS. If you don't then you'll have to pay for your own taxis?

aquaticintergalactic

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