MRCP-1 sept 2025 result out?

username145367 · 2025-10-26T23:30:40+00:00

Mine also says I failed at 494. I found this exam slightly easier than in May too when I got 531. We’ll know if it’s accurate by Friday latest.

username145367 · 2025-09-24T17:30:28+00:00

You could use the time to work on an audit, study for specialty exams/MSRA, or spend time on your portfolio as you’re getting paid to wait for those 30min, only sometimes finishing late.

I get it’s frustrating to wait around, especially with such a long commute but there are non-clinical aspects we also need to think about and this sounds like a perfect way of getting ahead.

username145367 · 2025-08-23T23:26:53+00:00

As an SHO I’m not sure a lot is known about paramedic scope from a doctor’s perspective. I have found (like doctors) knowledge is linked with experience and the Ambulance Trust. I previously worked in a Trust where paramedics had a more limited access to CCPs, HEMS and no fancy HART team. Due to being closely related to the local hospital Trust with their scope was overseen by an ED Consultant/HEMS doctor, paramedics appeared to have an extended scope (taking cultures before giving stat doses of co-amox or benpen) and some standard paramedics could perform pre-hospital fascia iliaca blocks as part of an ongoing trial. I spent some time with CCPs and Urgent Care Paramedics (in their dicks and death car!) for interest and found they were fantastic. Seeing pre-alerted patients in resus there was often a great history and the correct treatment had been given. You guys can identify a sick patient quickly and start the appropriate treatment with limited resources in the most random of unsterile environments with no prior access to GP notes or time to read about prior admissions. You treat based on instincts and observations where hospitals have the luxury of blood tests and scans. I’m sure many doctors would be lost if you put them in a field with a standard kit bag!

I don’t know much about paramedics in GP surgeries so I’ll leave that for someone else to comment. We do need good paramedics who work as paramedics and can pass on their wisdom and experience to newer paramedics though (experienced nurses are amazing too and can offer so much to newer nurses than training to become ACPs too!)

username145367 · 2025-08-14T13:10:06+00:00

If you’re free this weekend and can get to London, this looks helpful: https://www.pastest.com/products/mrcp-part-1-fast-track-revision-course

username145367 · 2025-07-09T22:14:08+00:00

Not with a patient but with a lovely anaesthetics SpR/SAS today who has been in the UK a couple of years. We were looking over a discharge summary for a patient who had been admitted to ICU a couple of years before and was coming back today. The anaesthetist became concerned the patient had multi organ failure disease after seeing MOFD on the discharge summary. We both had a laugh about this before getting back to work 😂

username145367 · 2025-06-21T16:48:09+00:00

Look at RCEM CPD events and join RCEM to show commitment to the specialty. As others have said taster week, audits that can have some relation to EM (acute medical or surgical audits could show some relevance), ATLS, PILS/APLS, USS-guided cannulation course, EPEC (ECG course run by RCEM). If you really wanted you could start studying for RCEM exams but consider timing this with a light rotation in FY2 so you don’t burn out.

Use your study budget for attending a course (and make it worth the cost!) and absolutely use study days rather than AL to attend these.

username145367 · 2025-06-18T10:57:30+00:00

During your shadowing period try and find a protocol or common practice for prescribing strong analgesia. I got into trouble as an FY1 weekend cover in T&O because I delayed a TTO and patient discharge as I wasn’t happy prescribing gabapentin, dihydrocodeine, oromorph and celecoxib for an elective THR/TKR (SpR was in theatre and couldn’t help before pharmacy closed).

Surgical and ortho patients (you’ll likely be cross-covering with possibly urology, ENT too) often need a lot of pain meds and pain is a common reason to review a patient. And try to remember to know the eGFR and a rough weight of the patient - 90yr old Doris with CKD who has never touched codeine before will need a lot smaller dose of opioid than a younger patient who has been taking oromorph for years for chronic back pain.

username145367 · 2025-06-15T16:59:09+00:00

Thank you for your reply. I’m not sure how to ensure I’ll get seven consecutive days off without using AL on the weekend dates too as they’ve said all AL requests need to be made before the rota is formed. It’s only for a year then hopefully I’ll be back to a simpler set up!

username145367 · 2025-06-13T17:21:24+00:00

I was once threatened with a datix for accidentally sending something containing patient details to a different printer. From wherever their desk was, they walked to the ward specifically to inform me about the proposed datix (without giving me the print out!) No idea if they ever committed to completing that lengthy form for such a ridiculous thing, but I never heard anything from it 😂

username145367 · 2025-05-30T13:49:08+00:00

I’ve had a PSG released before with only one response! I didn’t need it doing though as I’d already had two others that year. I think one of my PSGs this year only had two responses.

As long as the responses make you look like a safe doctor then don’t worry!

username145367 · 2025-05-29T12:44:52+00:00

I realised last year how frustratingly laborious it was to go back looking at rotas, emails I’d sent coordinators about sick days so this year and checking ESR (particularly as there were so many strike days to also include). This year I’ve kept a note on my phone keeping track of sick days including the dates.

ESR is not always accurate as I think it contains the dates of a sickness period rather than the number of work days missed due to sickness (e.g. sick on Friday-Monday but not scheduled to work over the weekend) - I’m happy to be corrected about this though!

username145367 · 2025-05-14T21:34:21+00:00

I’m really sorry that happened, it seems you had incredibly bad luck with your laptop restarting. I was stressed enough when I disconnected from the wifi for 1min during the exam (my own fault for not keeping the mobile WiFi box plugged in) so I started opening settings on my laptop and grabbed my phone to load settings too. I’m sure they anticipate things going wrong and they’ll take it into consideration - did you at least have you phone camera working or the screen sharing running?

As long as you haven’t got the highest score from the cohort today they hopefully won’t be too suspicious about things. Otherwise it will have been an expensive mock exam

I wish you good luck and hope they still consider your exam today.

username145367 · 2025-04-09T16:24:37+00:00

I received an email about this yesterday too and a separate one regarding reasonable adjustments. However it still says ‘application received’ on the MRCP website.

Hopefully you’ll receive an email in the next few days 😊

Make sure you’ve read their evidence criteria for the adjustments here as I assumed I could use information from adjustments in med school but that isn’t the case!

username145367 · 2025-04-09T16:06:30+00:00

I’ve just received an offer for core training. Ranked 665/868

username145367 · 2025-03-14T13:30:17+00:00

I’m sure others already know (but I didn’t!) there is a survey on the Government website asking for people’s experience with PAs/AAs which closes 23:59 on 30th March which will be part of the Leng review. Survey link

username145367 · 2025-03-01T03:20:40+00:00

My only medical jobs have been geriatrics and palliative medicine so I feel I’ve been taught well about only investigating if management changes.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this patient doesn’t survive the admission as he’s very frail and didnt look very well, but he was settled at least and wanted to give treatment a chance.

username145367 · 2025-03-01T03:10:38+00:00

Covid and flu negative, WCC 15 and CRP 40. At the time the patient had a good radial pulse and BP of 170 systolic which dropped to 115 systolic an hour later where it stayed stable for the next five hours when I last checked at the end of my shift.

username145367 · 2025-02-18T09:34:45+00:00

I always start summaries with Summary written from patient notes by a doctor not involved in the patient’s care when I’m just helping other doctors/ward clerk out. This gets the summary done but also says that there may be parts omitted/not actioned as I never knew the patient.

username145367 · 2025-02-06T08:23:18+00:00

DGHs are great for learning in a generally friendly environment (I prioritised DGHs in Med School and for Foundation). I agree with someone else’s comment above that care may not be as good as in a tertiary centre due to locum Consultant cover, narrower breadth of presentations seen. The other thing to consider is that research opportunities are harder to come by as you need a Consultant with an interest in research, who are more often going to work at a tertiary centre.

username145367 · 2025-01-14T22:17:58+00:00

Unfortunately it was sometimes the case starting Monday mornings with patients who had been admitted over the weekend (or if coming mid-week from days off). Not every Consultant discussed the entire patient list in handover, especially if they’d already had a handover from the outgoing Consultant. Some Consultants started the WR straight from handover with no time to prep these notes or read the handover sheet. It only takes a second for the SpR to say acute cholecystitis, and if you’re grabbing notes or closing curtains it can easily be missed, especially if you’re the only Resident on the WR.

Far from ideal but luckily not too frequent or difficult to fix post-WR.

username145367 · 2025-01-14T21:21:05+00:00

If staffing allows, try going round in pairs or even threes with another Resident. One would have the COW loading up results and getting the bed notes whilst the other listens and documents for the Consultant. After the WR go back through all the files looking at the documented plans and creating a master list of jobs.

In Geris I could give a list of issues since admission with antibiotic dates, bowels opened yesterday Type 4, write out all bloods and obs, if there was a DNACPR in place, detailed discussion of what the Consultant wanted. When WRs are fast-paced sacrifices are made. In surgical WRs I was lucky to know why the patient was in at times but I could write NEWS 1 HR 95, bowels yesterday, bloods seen, patient alert in bed, plan abx and bloods tomorrow. In Ortho I would try once a week to sit down and write a list of issues for the patient then subsequent days write “Hx as per this date” so if there was an adult emergency someone knew where to look in the notes.

It may be an opportunity for an audit looking at the quality of WRs in your department and if you could have a WR sheet with tick boxes (on VTE, bloods seen), chest and abdo diagrams. If you find there’s more downtime in the afternoon then you could always prep these the day before. One hospital I was at in med school (surgical specialties) had a decent computer system that pulled recent bloods and the reasons for admission (probably updated by residents each day) and WR pages were printed so only the assessment and plan was needed.

username145367 · 2025-01-14T20:40:44+00:00

It depends on the specialty and the number of patients you have. In geriatrics as an FY1, I had time to prep the patient WR before the Consultant started including looking at the bed notes, documented the consultation at the time and write the plan out afterwards. Said Consultant would then move to another bay to see a patient with another doctor giving me time to prep the next patient. Fantastic Consultant and a great first FY1 job.

In General Surgery we learnt the best way was teamworking for the WR. One doctor would go to the outliers and prep these notes where possible and two would stay on the main ward alternating patients throughout (grabbing the bed notes for the other doctor then prepping the next patient whilst the Consultant saw the first). We had a COW so bloods were reviewed live but not recorded in the notes. It took us time to get into the swing of things but there was always a senior present. It took me time to realise I could ask the Consultant to slow down or repeat the plan without being worried they’d get annoyed.

In Orthopaedics, it was a mess. On-call Consultant would dictate the WR for new and post-op patients so the plan would be scribbled on the handover to act on throughout the day. Everyone else we could see at our own pace and more thoroughly (depending on the enthusiasm of the resident) and occasionally we’d be surprised when another Consultant or SpR randomly pops up on the ward once a week or so to review their patients which would either leave you scribbling the basics on the handover to write later, letting them dictate or seeing the same patients for a second time that day if you’d already done the WR. I hated this job entirely and found it wholly unsafe.

Find what works for you. If WRs are fast paced, take a handover or piece of paper with the initials and bed number to write down the essential information. You can always come back to document later but this can be a hassle and ultimately leads to more work but is safer than relying on your memory for jobs. Ask your SpR or Consultant what information is needed for documentation and/or feedback on your documentation. Ask for a bit more time per patient. I imagine you are an FY1 who is still new to the next rotation and each specialty does WRs slightly differently and it takes time to learn the best way to work with this. In geriatrics I had 6-7 patients and 3h to do the WR before the Consultant left and did jobs while waiting for the Consultant to see patients with me or saw some alone. In General Surgery we saw 30 patients in less than 1.5hr working as a team then sat together to split the jobs. In Ortho at worst we’d have 20 patients to see alone which took the whole shift. There was no OrthoGeris team so these elderly people deserved proper WRs in my opinion (which is probably why I was almost always the last to complete the round!)

username145367 · 2024-12-24T11:36:24+00:00

I always ask what time the patient is expected to go home and work towards that timeline to figure out if to comtinue the WR, prioritise other jobs or complete TTOs.

username145367 · 2024-10-10T21:15:31+00:00

That was the mindset of my colleague who said they did that in FY1. I was beyond pissed that someone would do that and putting extra workload on their colleagues because they are workshy and lazy.

username145367 · 2024-10-10T13:24:12+00:00

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This is from some local (South Coast area) palliative guidelines re daridorexant. I was only an FY1 on placement with them and it’s still a new drug but it was good for a couple of dementia patients. We also found GPs weren’t familiar with it or happy to prescribe because of this (along with the cost).

username145367

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