----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Cartwright"
> A short training period is essential if you are going
> to train sufficient docs to run a consltant delivered
> service. Unless you have a very small number of
> hospitals and a smallish population. As there are 100+
> million Americans and goodness knows how many ED's I
> don't think they have a hope in hell of extending
> training.
Actually the US population was 250 million at the last count Fred! But your
point is a valid one. However we've already recently truncated our training
in this country, with most SpRs now doing only around 4 years in emergency
medicine; I wouldn't like to see it speeded up any further. On the other
hand I accept that there are many areas of practice where you only really
get good after you've become a consultant. Leading a trauma team is a good
example; it's very hard to do this really well while you're an SpR, as all
the other guys are SpRs too, so there is often an authority/leadership
breakdown or at least some difficulty. It's important to continue on your
learning curve for at least several years after you've "finished your
training".
Adrian Fogarty
(they say you learn something new every day - but they didn't warn me that
you forget something new every day too!)
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