The new cultural norm: reasons why UK foundation doctors are choosing not to go straight into speciality training
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
The new cultural norm: reasons why UK foundation doctors are choosing not to go straight into speciality training Alexander Conor Hollis1,2*†, Jack Streeter3†, Clare Van Hamel1, Louise Milburn3 and Hugh Alberti3
Abstract Background: The number of UK foundation doctors choosing to go straight into speciality training has fallen drastically over the last 10 years: We sought to explore and understand the reasons for this change. Methods: We undertook semi-structured interviews with 16 foundation year two doctors, who had not applied to speciality training, from two regional foundation schools. Transcripts were thematically analysed. Results: The reasons that foundation doctors are choosing not to go straight into speciality training centre around the themes of feeling undervalued, career uncertainty and a new cultural norm. They report major feelings of uncertainty regarding career choice at such an early stage of their profession and this challenge was magnified by a perceived lack of flexibility of training and the growing normality of taking time out from training. Trainees feel a lack of support in planning and undertaking an “FY3” year and being helped back into the workforce. Trainees overwhelmingly reported that they feel undervalued by their employers. Importantly, however, not going into training directly was not always a reflection of dissatisfaction with training. Many trainees spoke very positively about their planned activities and often saw a break in training as an excellent way to recharge, develop skills and prepare for the rest of their careers in medicine. Conclusions: Taking a year or more out of training after foundation years has become the new cultural norm for UK junior doctors and reasons for this include feeling undervalued, career uncertainty and the perception that this is now “normal”. Exploring these factors with participants has generated a number of recommendations related to improving the workplace environment, allowing more flexibility in training and supporting those who chose to take an FY3. Keywords: Speciality training, Junior doctors, Foundation doctors
* Correspondence: [email protected] † Alexander Conor Hollis and Jack Streeter contributed equally to this work. 1 UK Foundation Programme Office St Chad’s Court, 213 Hagley Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B16 9RG, UK 2 Address: Flat 305, 89 Branston Street, Birmingham B186BU, UK Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If mate
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