Personally, I think the stand alone posts are best. Trying to fit academic
work in around clinical work is difficult even if time is supposedly "ring
fenced" for one or the other. My old supervisor said that one of the major
problems with clinicians was that they minds were too full and busy with
lots of concurrent things to really stop, think and consider the problem
they are looking at. he advised a comfy chair and a nice view out of the
window. I do believe he was right, when learning and initally conducting
research it is important to be able to fully concentrate on the task.

Doing research before SpR posts has some advantages because one can clearly
show and develop an interest in academia prior to gaining an appropriate
SpR post. For example, it is of benefit if trying to get an academic SpR
rotation such as exists in the North West.
However, doing research before an SpR post is often financially bad news as
they can be difficult to fund, and 2 years on low salary is a disincentive
to many. In particular they are difficult to obtain regular funding for!
Getting grants / arrangements to let established SpR's take time out from
within rotation may allow funding to be found more easily. You state that
you would not be able to obtain deanery funding for SpR's to take time out,
I may be wrong but I think this can be done (at least partially).

For those interested in doing a bit of research but not going all the way
there is always the option of doing a one year MPhil or equivalent (i.e.
research based MSc). That is what I did prior to SpR posts. The disadvantage
is the potential for liking research and then possibly having to do another
2 years later to gain an MD or PhD (if one years research is considered not
enough for an academic career).

in the 50:50 post will it always be mixed or will it be something like 3
months academic followed by 3 months clinical? The 3 mths on 3 mths off
model was (fairly) well run by one of the local medical teams some years
ago. A four year model with time split as suggested may have some advantages
for particular types of project (e.g. those relating to long term prognosis
which are very difficult to do even in 2 years)


Simon Carley
SpR in Emergency Medicine
Hope Hospital
Salford
England
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Coats <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 14 July 1999 11:21
Subject: Academic Training


>I would be very interested in the opinions of members of the list about the
way in which
>we should train the next generation of A&E Academics. Writing a thesis is
the essential
>part of an academic training that needs to be fitted in to SpR training.
>
>There seem to be a number of ways of doing this:
>
>1) A stand alone two year academic post for an existing SpR who suspends
their SpR
>training, but retain their NTN. One years of the academic post would count
towards SpR
>training, so that total training time was increased by one year. Deanery
funding would
>not be available for this model.
>
>2) A stand alone two year academic post before becoming an SpR (following
the surgeons
>model). In times (probably a long way off for A&E) of fierce competition
for SpR posts
>an MD might give an advantage.
>
>3) A four year post split 50:50 between SpR and Academic training to be
undertaken after
>the first two years of SpR training. This model increases total training by
one year,
>but can be part funded by the Deanery (as other SpR posts).
>
>From the point of view of an academic department (1) is the best model as a
thesis is
>produced every 2 years, compared to every 4 years in model (3).
>
>Does anyone have any other suggestions?
>
>How about those trainees who do not wish to be academics, yet want to spend
more time in
>academic work than the average trainee? Should we have "academic
attachments" in the
>same way that we have a "paediatric attachment"? Does anyone do this?
>
>Tim.
>
>Timothy J Coats MD FRCS FFAEM
>Senior Lecturer in Accident and Emergency / Pre-Hospital Care
>Royal London Hospital, UK.
>



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%