Kelsey knew she wanted to pursue surgical training as a foundation doctor, but also knew that her 4-month surgical post in F2 wasn’t enough to get her onto a training programme. She needed additional application points that could only be gained on an F3 Year.

Despite securing a Plastic Surgery fellowship for her F3 Year, she was unfortunately unsuccessful in her first CT1 application. Using the lessons that she learned from that application round, she devoted the rest of her F3 and F4 Years to maximizing the application points that she needed to get onto the programme she wanted. By focusing her attention on key areas, and using some insider tips she used her time effectively to successfully meet her career ambitions.

👉 Topics Discussed

In this episode, Kelsey shares with us her tips for using your F3 Year to help get onto a competitive training programme, and pursue your career ambitions.

This episode also includes:

• How to build resilience in the face of rejection.
• How to create a mindset where you can successfully advocate for yourself.
• The challenges that women in particular face in male-dominated specialties.
• Insider tips to help bolster your applications.

👉 Useful Links

• Find locum work in surgical specialties using our Locum Finder Service.
• Use our Portfolio Companion to help you structure your professional portfolio.
• Find out how you can boost your portfolio with CPD and courses.
• Read our article about applying and interviewing for Core Surgical Training. Or for IMT training, check out this article.
• This article explains how to build a high-quality portfolio, and why it is important.
• Check out the logbook that Kelsey used to track her procedures and surgical skills: https://www.elogbook.org/
• Read about the course, CCRISP, that Kelsey mentioned in the episode.
• If you want to know what gets you points in your CST application, check out this link.
• Keep up to date on the latest news in Surgery on the Royal College of Surgeons website.