I have recently completed the academic foundation programme in palliative care/mental health/GP based at York University (August 2006 to August 2008). I got the job by interview in December 2005.

Research project

As I am interested in psychiatry, my supervisor has been a psychological medicine specialist (Prof Simon Gilbody), but I think if I'd wanted to do a project on primary care or palliative care he would have put me in touch with someone who could have helped me research these areas. Four months is not very long in the world of research so I found it was a good idea to have modest but achievable aims for the time I had. I did a systematic review on smoking cessation interventions for people with severe mental illness, a project my supervisor had the idea for, as he is planning to do an RCT in this area in the near future. I did my research 4 months from December 2007 to April 2008, and got most of it done then, but I did have to finish it off during my final F2 job in GP. I'm hoping that my work will be published in a good journal, and I'll be able to talk about it at interviews for specialist training in February. Obviously, you really have to publish something to make it look like you made the best use of your 4 months, but if you get the right project, it shouldn't be too difficult.

The research part has been a bit of a learning curve, and I didn't have anyone to ask about every little thing and had to look up how to do quite a bit of stuff i.e. with statistics and writing literature searches. However, I've massively enjoyed not having people supervising my every move and doing a project where how hard I work is directly rewarded by how good a journal my project fits into and what opportunities I'm offered. Also, its been great to have the space to decide what hours I worked (in those 4 months), whether I worked from home some days, and what pace I worked at. I guess a downside is that you miss 4 months clinical exposure, so my acute skills are probably not as hot as another F2s. However, I've completed all the same competences as the other F2s, and I'm sure I'll catch up quickly now I'm back in an acute clinical setting. Also, during my F2 year, I had day release to sit in and do the exams for some of the masters modules (biostatistics, epidemiology, research methods and international health) for the health sciences course at York so I've learnt the theory and practice of research and have some pieces of paper to prove it. I've also taken part in some medical student teaching on research at HYMS, which is good fun, great practice and adds to my CV.

Recruitment

Even if you are not definite about wanting to be an academic, this is a great year as it sets you apart from other foundation trainees, makes a publication likely, allows you to get some teaching experience and introduces you to some quite influential people. I am very glad I applied, although was initially put off by the pretty hardcore person specification. It wasn't that competitive when I applied but they were still looking to make sure you are keen and can demonstrate you've been interested in academic stuff at university. I suspect the recruitment process might be tougher now as more people know about the jobs and recognise how unique the opportunity they offer is. I went to an interview with a panel of 4 and made sure I looked them all up so I knew who was who and what they were interested in. They didn't ask me anything difficult, just questions like 'why should we give you a job?', 'why do you want to do an academic placement?', and 'what achievements are you most proud of from your time at medical school.' I guess ideas on what you'd like to research would be pretty impressive, although you might have to be flexible on that. Enthusiasm for the job in a must.

Clinical commitments

Having said that my clinical skills got a little rusty, the weekends oncall in AAU at Scarborough District Hospital were useful so I didn't forget how to put in a cannula! During our 8 months when we were not supernumery, we had to do 7 weekends in AAU. As a bonus there was some flexibility as to which weekends we did, as longs as we did the totoal of 7 by the end. We were on the rota in addition to the regular staff, so the shifts were not too busy. I mostly clerked in the medical patients and did some ward work.

Downsides

I think, that although the year was largely great, its only fair to mention a couple of down points.The foundation year assessments are a bit of a pain. It was more of a rush for us than the others who had a full 12 months clinical, and there were few assessors in the hospice/GP practice so it was sometimes a struggle to find someone to watch a procedure/history. Also, not having someone to ask about the mechanics of research was frustrating sometimes, and I felt that having to wait for an answer to my questions by email slowed me down.

In conclusion...

Overall, I would highly recommend this programme. You do virtually the same as any other foundation trainee, but you are a bit different. Its also quite eye-opening to learn how an academic department operates, and great to spend time with doctors who are not clinicians day-to-day so you can learn how else to use your medical degree. I would definitely do this programme again - it was well supervised, flexible, and challenging.

Lindsay Banham, Academic trainee (2006-2007)