The first thing everyone will ask is why do an FY2 LAT post for 1 year when you can get foundation competencies easily signed by working for 3 months or even from your experience back home. Well, let me list the pros and cons of joining FY2 LAT post.
All of this information is not hearsay but from my own experience of working in an FY2 LAT post (2016-17).
So I would recommend, if you have a chance go for it and you will see the difference.
So I would recommend, if you have a chance go for it and you will see the difference.
PROS:
- access to e-portfolio
- protected (bleep free) teaching time once a week (great learning, classes on sutures, chest drains, catheterisation and every common topic you can think of)
- Educational and Clinical Supervisor
- Seniors treat you differently as a trainee i.e you get more support with your short comings, help with your career goals, encouraging you to utilise study leaves for courses, etc
- rotational post giving you a good experience of working in both medical and surgical specialties, which makes you a good junior doctor
- the transition is much smoother from FY2 to CT1 as compared to going from a non-training post to a CT1 post.
- it prepares you to apply for any specialty you prefer (I got selected for CMT, GP and Core Psychiatry Training)
- you have an opportunity to do taster sessions (which means you get study leave to work in any specialty you like)
- access to numerous resources like athens account, online courses
- education department will send email reminders about all the courses/ conferences taking place in the deanery
- you get a Foundation Competency Certificate which is valid for life, so you don't have to go around asking Consultants every year to fill a new form
- To top it all off, you get Tier-2 sponsorship from HEE, which makes you eligible to apply for Round-1 in ANY Core Training specialty you like!
CONS:
NONE!
HOW TO APPLY:
NONE!
HOW TO APPLY:
The posts open in January this year (2019). There is only one recruitment round.
The rest of the details including person specifications can be found on the link below -
This varies a lot and I believe has changed over time as well.
During my interview there were 4 stations
- Ethical scenario where they asked me to describe a difficult situation I had been in at work and how I managed it
- I was given a list of tasks and had to prioritise them with reasoning
- A septic patient (mannequin) was lying, they were assessing our knowledge of Sepsis 6
- A collapsed patient (mannequin) assessing your knowledge of Basic Life Support
My advice would be to read the Emergency section of the Oxford handbook of medicine. The rest will be based on your day to day experiences of working at NHS.
Other Experiences:
Gbemisayo Adebiyi - Applications opened and closed in February 2018 for this year's recruitment. We did not have a shortlisting score. To me, it was not clear what criteria they used for the shortlisting because a lot of people I know that were shortlisted did not have any additional supporting evidence like ALS, teaching, audits etc. I myself had only masters and ILS as additional. The most important criteria is a valid ILS before the start date and proof of English language- either IELTS (7.5 in all domains) or atleast 3 months in the NHS. Interviews were conducted in Birmingham and was scored. Ranks were allocated according to the interview scores. Those who scored below 60% in the interview were not shortlisted. We ranked available places and offers were given first EU and British citizens and those settled in the UK and then others (on Tier 2 etc). Everyone got a slot (except those who declined their offers) and they had alot of vacancies left (especially in Wales and Scotland).
FAQS:
Q - Do I need previous NHS experience to apply for an FY2 LAT post?
A - Although not an essential criteria, I would recommend to start with a non-training post as it will greatly help you in the interview since most of it is based on practice in NHS. It also helps to know the system beforehand in order to adjust better to your training job.
Q - Can I apply for this post if I am not a UK or EU citizen?
A - Yes you can apply. Although people with UK and EU citizenship will be given first priority, they rarely apply to these posts as most of them start from FY1.
Q - I do not have a 7.5 band in IELTS, Can I still apply?
A - Yes. Recently they have added a criteria where have 3 months paid work experience in the NHS counts as having the required English language skills (another reason to start with a non-training job).