Dear Dr Ragland
Maybe I can start with some information about specialist certification in
the UK and Ireland. This is supervised by a committee of the Faculty of A&E
Medicine. The Committee is the Joint Committee on Higher Training in A&E
Medicine. I am currently Secretary of the Committee and take over the Chair
at the turn of the year.
Specialist Training has legal definition in Europe. You cannot be employed
as a medical specialist unless you have been confirmed as completing
training. My Committee has had to a gree the programme of training with the
Specialist Training Authority. The programme is 5 years long, consisting of
clinical work as a middle grade in A&E, experience of management and
research, and finally short secondments in Paediatrics, Medicine, Surgery,
Orthopaedics, Anaesthetics. You can only ENTER the programme when you have
acheived one of our higher diplomas (FRCS, MRCP, etc), so that usually takes
4 years or so from qualification. Finally there is an exit
exam...Fellowship of the Faculty of A&E Medicine (FFAEM). This is designed
to test candidate's ability to evaluate evidence, and work out management
problems, as well as to care for emergency problems.
We are allowed to recognise overseas training in A&E Medicine or Emergency
Medicine providing it runs similar in length and content to our own
programme. The Australasian programme is very similar and we often can
recommend Australian specialists for official recognition . Most programmes
in the US are shorter and it is difficult to do more than allow a proportion
of the time, if a doctor from the US should want become a specialist over
here. Of course, a lot of our trainees do spend some time on secondment to
US hospitals and we are very grateful for that.
I hope this is useful. There is a Faculty website but the link to my
committee is "under construction" just now.
The URL is http://www.fam.org.uk/home.html This should give more
information. Your colleagues are welcome to contact me if that would be
helpful. Best address is [log in to unmask]
Please let me know if you need further clarication.
Good wishes
Jonathan Marrow
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