Monday 8 November 2010

Things I Hate About Medical School: FPAS

FPAS, The Foundation Programme Application System is (this year) the absolute bane of the final year student's existence. Last year it was called MTAS and no doubt something else before that just as it will almost certainly be called something else next year. As UK graduates we are (almost) guaranteed a foundation year 1 (FY1) job in a UK hospital however this year the UK FY1 market was oversubscribed by around 180 people. This did not help with everyone's tension. 


The basic premise is that all students apply through an online system where their performance at medical school, any previous degrees, awards or prizes are converted into points. There are then five white-space questions asking you to discuss the attributed of a good doctor in 200 words or fewer. These questions ask you either to give an example of when you have personified some value or other (specifically the ones the GMC think are important) or to ask you how you would deal with an hypothetical situation. The questions are released some time in October and you have 10 days to formulate your answers before submitting the application so the questions can be marked by an anonymous panel. Better answers add to your total score.


The application also requires the student to rank his or her choices of foundation school. These foundation schools correspond to around 20 chunks of the country where the student could work as an FY1. It is the system of matching students to foundation schools that is the real stinker. The matching system ought to be simple enough that everyone gets their first choice or, for those with weaker applications applying to more competitive foundation schools, their second or third choice. Sadly though, the situation is not that simple and generally if you miss your first choice then you miss by a mile and end up at your sixteenth choice. It is the assumption that any student would be so grateful to get any job that they would happily pack up and work anywhere that is offensive.


The old model of medical school was that everyone came in straight from school with no family, no partner, no baggage and could be sent anywhere. An increasing number of students are graduates with things like mortgages, partners, husbands, wives, that sort of thing. The system will only give you the opportunity of staying in one spot if you have children in school, are a carer for someone with a disability or have a health problem yourself that requires you to be near a specific hospital. If you don't like the system then that's fine; you just don't get to be a doctor, that's all.  

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