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OK, perfect. I think people can see us and hear us. Um Welcome everyone to be MSA on F to stand alone um by doctor Sabah. Um First, I will introduce BSA and then I'll hand over to doctor to do her talk. Um So Bi Sa um stands for Bulgarian International Medical Students Alliance. Uh We aim to build a more connected community for international students studying in Bulgaria and uh make it more accessible for students to reach out for help and support. We are dedicated to help students overcome the challenges of adapting to a new culture and education system by providing essential uh resources for academic success, cultural integration and personal growth. Our aim is to create an inclusive community where every student can try. We offer support as graduates uh navigate the process of reintegrating into the NHS. Recognizing the unique challenges faced by Im GS who study um in and graduate from Bulgaria. We are committed to simplify the transition to professional practice and to ensure you are well equipped for your medical career. If you have any questions or suggestions about initiatives um that can help students at your university, please feel free to reach out to us at any time on our Instagram. Um I will post the Instagram um link in a bit on the uh on the chat box. So you can s um reach out whenever you like uh with no delay. Uh We'll hand that over to doctors who will be doing her FD. Stand alone talk. Hello? Can everybody hear me? I think you can see my screen as well. We're gonna do the presentation first and we can have a little uh QA at the end. So first of all, me, I am Doctor Saba. I uh graduated from Medical University in 2023 got my GMC registration around August of last year and I applied for that to stand alone in 2024. And I've just started at uh East Kent Hospitals uh in August of this year. So let me tell you all about my experience and how to apply. I am basically only focusing a little bit about the application process, but to go into detail, maybe we can do another uh talk such as today based on how to actually do the application on the oral system and how to do the ST and how to do the interview because that is going to be a long talk before uh going into the F I to stand alone. I don't know if most of the people even know the difference between the training and the nontraining uh course because I didn't know. And it was very confusing to even understand the basic differences between those and how to choose which one to go into. This is the basic um training and non training pathways that foundation doctors or even you care. Uh doctors tend to take um the training, there are two types. We have the foundation training, the two year foundation program that is usually only for the British graduates or for people coming from the European countries who have not done their um foundation year one, like most medical universities have done already. So this is for people who don't have the full registration and the F I two stand alone, which is for people who graduate with a one year training program like most medical students do and we have full registration. So that is technically what we are supposed to be doing. And then if you don't want to go into training, you can do nontraining equivalent like you can get a nontraining job, which is um a junior clinical fellow or you can get an essential F one F two. There's an, there's so many different categories that they put into even C one ST one, they all do pretty much the same job. So you can apply for them, even if it says that you need certain type of uh requirements of M RCP and experience and this and that you can still apply for them on the track jobs because I have applied for them and I did get the interviews. Um, but I personally did prefer the training over the non training program because when you go into training, you are already in a system and you have an educational supervisor, you have a clinical supervisor, you have certain criteria to be, you kind of have like a pathway, you know what you're supposed to be doing. I will be talking about it in a bit. There are certain things that you're supposed to do because you're in a training program, you're held accountable for it. There are people constantly giving you feedback. So you are in a way you're scrutinized. But at the same time, it is good for your growth. When you're a nontraining program, you have to do everything yourself. You have to kind of train yourself. You have to go out of your way to get things signed. You may not have enough support at your hospital. This depend on the trust because certain trust like my hospital actually does provide a lot of support to the non training as well. So it depends where you're working. But um as far as I know the people I've talked to nontraining does not have a lot of academic support. You don't have access to simulation training, you don't have access to a lot of educational uh resources or even mandatory teaching that the training program or the trainees do have. So this is um some of the differences between them training by the end of it, like F two, stand alone, by the end of it, you are graduating with um the UK FP um certificate which allows you to get into the training specialty or whatever you want to get into. Uh But non training, you have to prove yourself to one of the consultants that you're working with for at least three months and you have to prove to yourself that you have done certain things that you have done um in a practical procedure that you have done an audit at Q IP, that you're a good communicator and all of those things, you have to prove yourself to the consultant and convince them to sign a request form for you, which may be easy if you um have a good interpersonal skills and you can convince people that you are good with it, but three months is a very short time to be to be able to do everything. Uh So uh there's no right or wrong here. Um Training and nontraining both can be a really good option. But personally, for me, I did prefer a training post before getting into a training specialty. I think it's good to already be in that kind of mindset. So now that we know a little bit, hopefully I can answer more questions at the end if you still have questions um comparing the training and the nontraining. But if this stand alone is a training program. This is different from the two-year Foundation program, which is usually only for uh doctors who go from the university directly into the foundation program or from uh people who um do not have the full registration. But because most medical graduates do have full registration are eligible for that, we have to choose the FD stand alone program. That is the only training program that is available to us before we have a re form signed. This is a 12 months program. So we have a whole year from August to August. So if you start in August 2025 you're gonna be finishing in August 2026. There are three specialties that you will be rotating through. This is based on the preferences that we're talking about later. I'll explain how it's done. Uh You will have three different departments that you will be rotating through. Each department will be four months long and in this time you will be doing on calls, you will be doing your nights, you will be doing uh independent ward cover and there's a lot of um opportunity of growth there. But um not all hospitals do that, but the one I'm working at did allow me to have an induction program, which is that we had 12 weeks of no on calls because we were too new to the system, too new to the hospital to be doing such uh independent work. Um So early on. So they gave us some time to kind of adjust to the system before we were thrown into the deep end. Um, but be prepared to be on into the deep end because not all hospitals will do that then, uh, like I said, all training programs, you have educational supervisor, that one educational supervisor will be looking after you the entire year. They are responsible for you to be fulfilling your uh commitments, to be fulfilling all of your roles and all of the expectations that are on you. They will be constantly um in touch with you to kind of have um your feedback. They will be telling you what you need to do more or you, you can focus on certain things. It's kind of like constant guidance. You can go to them with any sort of issues that you have or any projects that you wanna work on or anything that you're interested in, like any leadership roles in your hospitals or any audit that you want to do or AQ IP that you're interested in any tt teaching opportunities. So basically, it is a two way communication that you are constantly in touch with the educational supervisor. Whereas a clinical supervisor is that like I said, we have three rotations. So three different departments that you would be rotating through every department will have a clinical supervisor. And this clinical supervisor is basically responsible for your rotation for that one block. Are you working properly? They will give you feedback specific to that rotation. Um Like for example, I started in geriatrics. So my clinical supervisor uh helps me to understand the polypharmacy and how to prescribe drugs in older people, how to do fall assessment and how to uh do examinations specific to your population. So it depends on what you're working as um they tend to provide you support, um they're there for you to sort out your annual leaves with and your sick days with. Um So they're basically under the level of support but tend to be limited to just uh your rotation that you're working in. Then uh this has to be another completely different talk because it's a huge um thing that we can focus on. It's too early on for you all to be uh thinking about it. But once you do get into a training program, we have a portfolio. This is an online portfolio. Uh Different hospitals tend to use the different ones I think um where you have to do certain things. Like I said, we have to do part procedures that needs to be signed off by senior colleagues. You need to do case based discussions with senior colleagues, likely your clinical supervisor or the consultant that you're working with. Um Then you also need to be doing some dedicated teaching, but you need to attend teaching but also uh conduct teaching sessions uh that usually um either your department kind of helps you with it. Your clinical supervisor can help you organize something or your education supervisor can help you organize something or you have to take the initiative and do it. So, um then you also need to do an audit AQ IP. Uh Then you also need to do a mini, a mini case is basically you going out and doing an examination on a patient in front of um a senior colleague and they're looking at you and they can give you like a feedback on how you have done. So there's constant feedback and there's constant things that people need to uh watch, you do, watch you do certain things and then they kind of give you the feedback and it all goes on your portfolio. So when you finish your uh foundation program, by the end of it, they can have entire portfolio and they go through a discussion with you, there's a panel and they go through a discussion with you what you have done, what you haven't done and uh whether it is uh satisfactory for you to pass and go into training or whatever you want to do after that, I stand alone. So this is a general breakdown of the program, but um we can do more talks on that or you can ask me more questions at the end. So how to get into the program? We have certain person specifications that we need to uh fill in. And when you go into um the application is basically done on oral. So when you go into that, these are certain things that you should have ideally be already having, like you should already have these things with you. Um Your part, your primary medical qualification should be recognized with the GMC. So medical, obviously, Bulgarian medical universities are recognized. So that is good for us. Uh They have introduced this new thing which is a 2025 change is that the primary medical qualification has to be confirmed by this specific form that the U KF EO will issue. When they um post the new publication of the guidance for the F two stand alone in 2025 they haven't uploaded that yet. So what they want you to do is that if you have the degree uh because certain Bulgarian medical uh universities, I think graduated in January mine, we graduated in April. So I didn't have my um I didn't have my degree at the time of application, but that was ok. But now what they want you to do is that if you have your Bulgarian medical uh uh degree, get it translated and you can upload that as proof of your medical qualification. If you don't have it at the time of application, then you need to get this uh form signed by your university stating that you have successfully passed all your exams and you will qualify and your degree will be available as so and so date So the form will be uploaded when they upload the uh new guidance. Um Another uh requirement is that we need to have a one year internship. That is what will qualify you for the full um GMC registration and a license to practice. You don't need to be fully GMC registered at the time of application, but you have to be registered by the start of the program. So by August 2025 you need to have full GMC registration with a licensed practice. Another thing is that you need to have a ballot is certificate. Uh alternatively you can have an A ACL S or an A S but uh both or any of these that you have need to be valid at the time of starting of the program. So it has to be valid by August 2025 uh language requirements. They have made certain changes. Um If your primary medical qualification is from uh a country where the English is a native language, then you don't need to do anything. But if you don't, you need to either say I es academic only or UK uh V one academic only get 7.5 in each domain. That was, that has been the case forever. But they have added this new thing that they're allowing people to set the AE LT S one scale retake and they can upgrade one domain only. But this has to be done within 60 days of your original test and either way your I ES has to be valid for at least um uh at the start of the program. So the laser that you can do would be um 6 August uh sixth of August 2023 which is last year. So most likely you'd be taking your AE LT S this year. So it should be valid anyways. But you can do the AE LT S one skill retake if most of the time people struggle with writing. So if they don't have the uh 7.5 in writing, they can retake only writing and upgrade them and that can still be um used up. And that is still allowed to be submitted for the application. If you don't wanna do A LS, you can do O at and the O ET the rule stays the same. It needs to be 400 in each domain. And overall, if you are, if you have been working in the UK already for up to three months, 34 months as a doctor, then you can ask one of the consultant that you have been working with for that long to um sign a form and testify that your English language is perfect and they have no concerns regarding that. And you can submit that as proof of your English language as well. But that is for people who have already been working in a nontraining uh program or something like that. The, this is actually how we apply for the FF to stand alone. It has to be done via the oral uh platform which is a website that you log into your account. And then as soon as the vacancy opens it pops up as F two stand alone and then you can just start applying on it. There are certain uh sections on it that you need to apply, like I said, um it is another huge talk that we can do um about how to actually go through the whole application process. But you need to put in your regular uh education, your own personal details. Um You know, English pro uh your English language uh schools, ie LT schools and stuff like that. Um There's also a section where you put in your employment history. So your employment history is going to include um the entire year that we have done as a six day medical students. Uh break it down into each uh rotation that you have gone through. Um And then if you have done any clinic attachments or anything like that, that you can put that in as well. Um Once you're long listed, the criteria for long listing is this, if you have these things, you will be long listed, you just need to have a valid S ACL S for GMC registration eligible for it. You need to have your uh primary medical qualification uh which is recognized and makes you eligible um by the GMC and a language requirement. That's it. You will be long listed. Once you're long listed, you will be asked to sit the SJ T. Uh the SJ T exam is basically, um it consists of uh 45 minutes, 20 scenarios. And this is basically um talking about how you would act as a doctor. It's not clinical, it's about your interpersonal skills. It's about whether you understand the ethical scenarios, whether you understand how to work in the NHS. So there are certain past papers that are present on the website that you can go through and maybe um it will help you. But there's no such resources available. Like there's no, there's nothing really available out there. I suggest going through the good medical practice, especially the new one and just understand what they would want you to do um in a certain scenario. Um It's very difficult if you have not worked in the UK, if you're not um part of the NHS already, if you're not British, it's very difficult to go through that and answer exactly how they would want you to do it because some of the questions are very subjective. So it depends, but most of the time people do tend to pass the S JT, uh it's not a part or fail exam, it is more of a scoring based exam. So like I said, there are 20 scenarios and it's 45 minutes. Each scenario will have five questions and each question will have um like five options that you have to wait according to which one would you do first, what is the most desirable option to do? And then you go from less desirable to less desirable stuff like that. Um So each of this ranking will give you a positive marking, there's no negative marking in it. So the total score of your S JT will be used to be invited for the interview. Most of the time people do tend to pass. So passing is not the problem. The problem is that if you are invited for the interview, that is the next stage, which is again a 20 minute interview by a panel, there will be four people. Um And the interview uh basically starts with a CV station where you talk about what have you done so far? The fr one, the fr one that we have done in uh a university, if you've done any clinic attachments, if you've done any courses, if you've done any research, any audits, um any teaching, any conferences, presentations, whatever you can think of. Um again, that will have to be a whole different thing. But interview preparation can, should be done like very strongly because that is what's going to give you a like. So we do the CV station and then the next patient is going to be a clinical scenario. They give you two clinical scenarios where they tell you that. So and So patient came in. You, you have to doctor what you're gonna do and you have to talk about it. You have to ask them questions because if you don't ask, they're not gonna give you any more details. So you tell them how you're gonna manage that patient and then they give you two scenarios and then an ethical question, an ethical question is usually about patient confidentiality or about um handling difficult patients, handling difficult uh colleagues um or standing up for somebody or you bullying somewhere happening and what you're gonna do if somebody said something to you, how you're gonna react. So it is all of that. There are a lot of resources available for interviews where you because you always know how to answer these questions, but there's a certain way to answer them. There's certain frameworks that we need to use. There's certain words that we need to use to be able to impress the interviews basically. Um So that will be your interview based on the interview. Each of these stations you're getting, you are getting like certain points. I don't remember exactly how much the points were. I can share that later. Um The points will basically be responsible for you getting a rank. Now, this rank um in 2024 we had, we had 240 seats and um there were about 512 applicants that passed the interview and were so we had 512 ranks, each person gets a rank and that are unique to you. The interview is used to rank you. But then if some people have the same um uh number or for the interview score, then it goes back to your S GT. And according to that, the ranking is decided again. So you need to do really well in your and really, really well on your interview to be able to get in like a really good um A R because the rank will help you do the preference because there were 512 people who qualified to sit uh or to apply a preference and there was only 240 seats available. So there was a lot of competition there. I was so the 1st 240 are more likely to get it because they are like getting, uh the rank is that they can just get it if they, if they preference and they are, they don't wanna deny it. They can, they will just automatically get it because they're higher up in the rank. Um The last rank that I got in was 296 A according to 2024. But there are talks that they might be reducing the number of post this year again because they have done that last year as well. So the competition is really, really strong, but I would still encourage everybody to just give it a try anyways and try your best to do it. Because nontraining also has a lot of competition. So it doesn't really matter at this point. Um Once you do your preferences according to your location, according to the program that you wanna do and on the program, it shows you the trust, it shows you the hospital you will be working in, it will show you the rotation that you have the three rotations and how you will be rotating through them and you do your preference according to that. Um I didn't really have a preference according to location, but I did have it according to the ro rotations I wanted to do because I wanna get into I MT So choose something that would help you in your specialty training. That is another big benefit of that to stand alone that you get to spend time um building up your portfolio, building up your CV according to your own um to your part. If you wanna get into surgery, you try and choose surgery oriented uh rotations. If you wanna get into medicine, try and do medicine. If it's acute medicine, you can do into more um acute settings. So once you are done with the preference, you will be o offered um an offer. This is the whole application process that started all the way in January and it ends in August. So we can just go through that. So we have an idea of um when what needs to be done, there's a lot of times. So it's not that everything happens all at once. So we can take a, uh one step at a time at the time of application that usually uh starts in January. You need to have your lab. We don't have to worry about that. But if there are people here who are not uh strictly vulgarian and they have, they're from elsewhere. If you have to see your pla you should have your plaque one done at the time of application. You should have your, a list or your a or your A CS at the time of application. And you should have, even if you don't have your degree. Um you, you, you, you can download the form and you can get that filled in. Um So the application opens on, on AO you fill it in, there's enough time for you to do that. There's at least two weeks. So that is more than enough time for you to spend on the application on filling it out because it does take a lot of time to fill each section and uh describing everything that we're doing and we have on and then the long lifting happens by the end of it and then you need to set the SJ T that will be um OK. So the SJ will be uh in February where you can uh apply for it or book it according to when you want to do it. And then you see that in March and the results come back in April and then once you have SJ T according to the pass or fail, you will be invited for the interview, the interview will happen in April and it's a 20 minute la panel interview. Like I said, it is usually done online. So you don't have to be anywhere. You don't have to go anywhere. Also, I forgot to say about the S JT. Um You can either do it in the center or you can do it online as well. So it depends on how you want to do it. Uh for the center, not everybody allows. It, it depends on um which country you're in and whether there are centers available, otherwise you can do it online by this website. They have it all set up and they um once you book it, there will be a full guidance on how to uh book it online. Uh Once you're done with the interview, you will be given a rank. Now, this ranking will help you do the preferences. Like I said, the preferences um depend on where you want to go and how you want to do it. Now, the thing is that they have changed again is that there used to be three rounds where you do um Each round that people can choose what they want to do. And there was an upgrade option that let's say you were rank 50 you got your choice of uh uh there was something that you rank 20 in round one, you could accept the offer, but you could uh opt in for an upgrade to in round two. If your preference that your preference at number five got available for some reason. Maybe somebody who had it before rejected it or something happened, they uh got off the program and that was made available to you. You could upgrade to that offer, but they have uh cut that out. Now, in 2025 there is no upgrading. You get what you get and you either accept or you decline it. And once you decline it, you are out of the program again, if somebody has to do um labs, then the lab two has to be done by May so that you will have enough time to get your GMC registration sorted out by the start of the program in August. Um There's also a clearing round which is basically uh we had 240 by the end of it, all 240 were gone. So we had a clearing round where they put a new um office about um I think there were about 28 spots that were open in the clearing rooms and they uh we got another um ranking based on whoever was left. So the last person that I got in was 296 originally. So there were only 27 or 28 spots that were open up for clearing So in total, there was 244 plus the 28 that all were the only spots that were available. And once the clearing is done, you do the references again and then you get an offer and you start your F two stand alone in August of 2025. That is all uh the application process about my own personal experiences. I have had a really good experience because I have a really good education supervisor, a really good clinical supervisor. I'm working with a really nice team who, who are really supportive. The hospital is very supportive. There's a lot of um training opportunities. There's a, there was a huge induction program which really helped us. There was a lot of uh simulation training uh to prepare us for you on calls and to be to help us work independently and understand the system. Um But that is not the case for everybody. So I asked a few of my friends who are working uh why they have to stand alone but in different trust and they were just thrown in with their own calls. They don't have a supportive educational supervisor and they um struggle to get their footing. So it depends, it could go either way. The training is that you do have a bit more expectations than a nontraining doctor. But at the same time, you do have a bit more support than a nontraining doctor as well. So it depends on your own, uh, how resilient you are and your own luck about what kind of people you've been working with. So I suggest before choosing, um, well, the choosing the preferences, what I did was according to what I wanted to do. But if I, uh, and I got lucky that I got very good people, but if I would repeat it again, I would look more into the trust that I'm applying to. And what are they known for? Is it a good trust? Uh Are they well staffed usually? Um what are the other F twos or uh as a chose? Talking about it? And how is the work environment there? I would be, I would, I would do more research on those side of things and instead of just blindly choosing um a program based on what I want to do. So that is one thing that I would definitely um suggest you all to do if you want to get into this. Um But I personally really uh find the have to stand alone beneficial because I wanna get into training. It already puts you in that kind of mindset where you know that there are certain criteria that you need to fill in, you know, that you're constantly being like um looked at, which is, which can be very pressurizing. But at the same time, it puts you on the spot to kind of grow as well. And there's constant feedback which also comes with criticism So there's a lot of uh benefit to it. But the challenges are obviously new to the UK, it's very difficult to assimilate in the system this fast. So those challenges will stay, regardless of whichever job you're doing, your first job is going to be difficult. Um A lot of people said that a training program is not the best to start with because there's a lot of pressure on you. But I think regardless of whichever job you're gonna do now and it is stressful and you are gonna be stressed. It is, it just depends on your own, um, on your own personality and whether you pick up the system fast, whether you interact with people and you build relationships where you have a support system and they can support you through it and you have, um even if it's not your supervisor, you have um senior colleagues who can help you. II do believe that there's always somebody to help and always somebody to guide you into how to be a better doctor. That has been my personal experience and we can do a lot more of the questions because I feel like that would be more beneficial. Yeah. Thank you doctor for the presentation. Um We're gonna take a 10 minute break where uh I will post the feedback form on the group chat. If everyone can take a minute and fill out the feedback form, we will be grateful. It, it's really helpful for the doctors presenting. Um I will be answering all the questions. I couldn't really see uh the question being posted while I was having, while I was talking. So I can go over them and to answer if you could just do the feedback and then we can go through the questions. Yes. No. Um Guys, I see that a lot more people have to fill in the feedback form. Could um kindly please fill in the feedback form. We can wait until um then to do AQ and a session. So please please fill in the feedback form. They're really important to us. Thank you. OK, perfect. Thank you so much, everyone for filling in the forms. We will start the Q and A session as doctor Sabah is ready. Yeah. Yes, we can go from the top. I can read them out for you if you'd like. No, I think that's OK. OK. Um I do believe that desktop is being recorded and will be uploaded to be um seen later um about the uh primary medical qualification and the KF PA form. Um Basically, what they want you to do is that um the F to stand alone 2025 applicant guidance would be published later on. I'm assuming end of December to prepare everybody uh to apply in January. So they want to introduce this form uh from the for the primary medical qualification with this form needs to be um obviously, I don't know what the form is, but it needs to be registered by your um university to tell the UF U that you do have a primary medical qualification and you graduated. So that is the form that needs to be uh submitted as part of the application in the audio platform. But once the form is published only then we can know what they actually want, but it has to be uh registered by your uh medical school. Is ACL S part of the, I mean, accepted by the program. I do believe ACL S by the H A AHA is recognized by the program because UK as a general do accept that. Um but preference is I LS or A LS because they, these are the UK based programs, but ACL S by AHA is recognized. Yes, it has to be valid at the time at the start of the program. Um How can I prepare and increase my chances of faring for the interview as a primary medical student? Um to prepare for the interview, go through the Oxford handbook of emergency medicine and go through the emergencies. Um Basically what they want you to know is that you are a safe doctor and you recognize emergencies. You recognize when you see an acute uh acutely unwell patient, uh you know, when to ask for help and seek support. So what they want you to do is go through the ABCD E approach, regardless of what patient you're getting always go through the ABCD approach. You can never go wrong with that and um go one by one and all we ask them questions and that's what some of the people didn't do during the interview is that um they said so and so a patient came in. What, what are you gonna do? And they never asked for the vitals, they never asked for anything. They never asked for any past medical histories to ask the questions. If you ask only then you will only, then the interviewer will tell you because that is what happens in real life. If you don't look for those things, nobody is going to give them to you. So they want to um uh do the interview as much of like a real life scenario as much as possible. So go through the emergency scenarios that is for the clinical side of things. Uh You can go through um NHS guidelines about how they want to handle certain emergencies and how they would manage certain situations. And because we had enough to, we're at the bottom of the food chain. So almost always um at the end of it, say that um I'm gonna ask for senior help or I'm gonna ask my medical registrar for a review or any senior person to come and review my patient with me because you have to be a safe doctor before a good doctor and for the e ethical scenarios. Um The sat basically is the ethical scenario uh where they tell you how to um handle a difficult patient, an aggressive patient, uh or an intoxicated colleague, stuff like that. And you have to follow certain frameworks. Um There is um there is a video um there's a video playlets by Raja Adnan Ahmed that I personally used to prepare for the interviews for the ethical side of things at least um because he talks a lot about how to answer certain questions and he has a framework for that and you should use the frameworks because um answering is not important. What's important is that uh you know, how to say things and it has to come off professional and it has to come out in a certain way for them to understand that you, you understand the system. Uh What resource did I use for the S GT uh for the interview prep, like I said, I used um Rajan much videos. I went to the Oxford Emergency handbook. I um also prepared um certain questions from Omar's guidelines, uh II MG and road to UK. They all have certain questions I went through all of them. I prepared answers for all of them based on my own personal experiences. Um According to the um to the framework that they asked us to use for it to be like more uh legible when we are like talking about it. Um So that was my interview prep for the S JT. Unfortunately. There's not um, anything uh significant of, personally, I didn't find anything very helpful. Um There are certain, uh past medical papers that are um, available on the official website of the F two standalone program. Um to at least give you an idea of the questions and how they, how you have to rank them. And, um what does that even mean? But people did use past medicine and they used certain resources, but I don't think you should be, I don't think it's worth the money because it's really expensive courses. Uh They don't really help you that much as long as you go through the good medical practice handbook and you understand, um, or to do 1 to 6 a pole and again, one to escalate things you should be ok because that is what SAT is all about. They want you to be a safe doctor. They want to know that, you know, your own limitations that, you know, uh who to contact. That is something that you might have to know the difference between education supervisor and clinical supervisor because they say certain scenarios where you're like you are going through something who would you contact? So you need to know when to contact your educational supervisor, when to contact your clinical supervisor. And like I explained, um, your educational supervisor responsible for the entire program as a whole, so they can answer a lot of your questions. But if it is, if there's something related specifically to your rotation to something on the ward or in your department. Then your clinical supervisor would be a better person to reach out to. So these are some of the things that would really help you in ST prep um is the interview mainly based on clinical scenarios. Um No, they do it. It's a 20 minute uh interview. So there's not much time. So I suggest be very concise with the answers. Do not. Yap, do not be very um detailed in your answers. Trying to squeeze everything in, just have your answers prepared already. So and practice. So you already know what you want to speak and you don't um say something unnecessarily because you don't have the time and you don't want to waste your time either. Um The CV STATION will take the majority of the time because that is when they will just ask you to say whatever you want to say. So be very, very careful and do not use up a lot of your time. And the best framework that I used to explain my CV was the C uh CAM P which is basically you start with your clinical treatments. What are you, what have you done so far? Uh You can talk by a fr one. If you have done clinic attachments, you can start with that as well. You can talk about how um you have rotated through. So and so departments and what have you done why we learned and then a is academic. You can talk about any research, publications, presentations, um any teaching that you have done those sort of things that you can bring up in your academic side and then, uh and goes for management if you have been uh your student rep, if you have been part of any uh societies, if you have participated in anything where you had a leadership role or where you manage something that would or you were part of a campaign or any conferences, stuff like that. Um You can put that in your management and pee is personal. Um always talk about how you are as a person because everybody will have the approximately the same CV as yours. So you have to stand out and interpersonal skills really help with that. So you can really use this um to talk about what you like to do and how that makes you a better person and a better doctor. So that is basically uh the clinical uh clinical scenarios will just be about the emergency scenarios. But it can also be um simple things because we were told to do the emergency scenarios and majority of the people I've talked to did have emergency scenarios, but I personally didn't have an emergency scenario. Um My scenario was um in a GP setting. So you ABCD ED doesn't really work there, but I still did it. Um And they wanted me to identify that a patient came to me, it was acutely ill. So um in that way to be prepared that it could be anything but at the root of it, they want you to recognize an acutely unwell patient and manage them and ask for help. And like I said, you can never go wrong with the ABCD. Um They ask you one or two clinical scenarios. Um Our clinical attachments of more importance when it comes to F 27 and application. Uh No, uh the person specifications do not uh include an s experience. So clinic attachments will not really um it could put you in uh it would give you an edge uh during the interview when you're talking about it. And um if they ask about it, what you have learned in the clinic attachment, you can talk about how you understand the system now and that can help you um tra transition better into your work. Uh But otherwise I think the catastrophes will help you more than your application because um it really helped me uh kinda understand how the works. What are the people? Because there's so many teams, there's so many different types of um people available which can really provide support to your patient. So those sort of things um clinic attachment is really helpful for when your application. Uh not so much it could give you uh maybe a point or two in your CV station. But majority of it, what they want you to do is that you have an fr one, done and that you have some courses, uh, that, and you have done some presentations or some research, even if it's not published, at least that you understand it. So that would really give you an edge. Uh, what were the things you did to get into? F two? Do you recommend doing anything specific? Um, there's not, unfortunately, there's not a lot of career support in Bulgaria as a whole. But I knew that I want to work in the UK. So um even at the time when I was a student, I didn't know that I would go to have to stand alone, but I knew that I want to work in the UK. So I did uh put myself out there. I participated in presentations in conferences. I um did research, well, none of it is published, unfortunately. Um but I did uh do literature reviews and some case studies. Um And then I also conducted an audit um as part of a broader campaign that I organized with uh some of my colleagues in the university. So there's a lot of leadership and management and I was part of um a society where we generally did um conduct uh teaching sessions. So there's a lot of teaching experience and research, research and presentation experience and an audit as well, which I think gave me um I had uh maximum points in my CV stations. So I think these are the things that really helped me get those points. Do you uh did you complete your clinical attachments after graduation? And did you do any medical electives? I didn't do any medical electives whilst I was studying in Bulgaria. Um except um just like um two week summer program thing in Kuwait where I'm from. Um But I don't even think I put that in my application. Um I did my clinic attachment after graduating and because I used um the GMC uh registration and um the ID check to come to the UK and also used the opportunity to do the clinic attachments. I did it in EDI did it in psych. I did it in anesthesiology. So I was here for at least four months when I rotated through different specialties um trying to gain references, which is the most important thing I would say to try and get references uh from UK consultants. Um because that would be really helpful and at least one from your university because you always need at least one until we have three years of experience in the UK. Uh Do you have a certain number of weeks of clinic attachment before you apply for two? Um Again, like I said, clink attachment is not a prerequisite. Uh It's not mandatory to um do it. Um It is more for your own health uh or an understanding of the system than anything else. So there is no certain number of weeks that you have to do. But I suggest if you do have the opportunity to do a clinic attachment, at least do four weeks, 4 to 6 weeks is a good block in one department to do and to understand the system. Uh And to do something in acute medicine, I feel like that would really um help you and teach you a lot of things. Will I be able to do a clinic attachment or local job whilst applying and preparing for the F two? Stand alone. If you are British, then you can do a local job. Uh But if you are not British, then outliner attachment would be an ideal choice for you. Um But you can do whatever you want to do, you can work back home, you can um take a year off or you can do whatever you want to do whilst you're preparing for the up to standard room because it is such a huge process like it starts in January and you start working in August. So that's six months, you can work part time, you can do local jobs, you can do flink attachments to kind of prepare yourself for the job in itself for the interview stage. How much does the CV section weigh on the score compared to the clinical scenario station and Ethics Station as well as the SST T score? Um So basically they all uh the CV Station Clinical Scenario and Ethical scenario are all we the same, they all value the same. So there's nothing that is more important than the other. But if you do not have a good CD, if you don't have presentations, if you don't have um, an audit done, which most of the people don't have, that does not mean that you're not gonna get in. You can, uh really, really prepare hard for the clinical side of things where you answer everything correctly, where you tell them the whole ABCD E approach, you can tell them the drugs and uh exact management that they want. If you gain um a lot of points in your ethical and your clinical scenarios, then you still have a really good chance of getting an offer. So they all weigh the same. You can gain points in different departments if you don't have a great CV, or if you mm sorry, if you messed up your clinical scenario, you can gain points in your CV. So it, it's all the same uh S TT score. Um Basically, they don't tell you on the score that they, that is the whole thing. I don't remember how much the score was to be honest. Um but it's not a pass or fail and there is no certain uh score that you have to reach to be able to get shortlisted. Um It depends on who gets the highest um sat score and they use that as a standard to rate everybody else. So every year it changes uh STD score, it will only be used to get you into interview. So the score just has to be uh above a certain limit that they set every year. So um if you have a, that S GT score, you'll be invited to the interview after that SD doesn't mean anything. But again, S GT will be used only if your interview score is identical to someone else's uh interview score and they want to rank who goes um higher than the other. So they use JT score and uh do the ranking accordingly. Uh In the last you get your programs that are for the standard ate that ACL S doesn't have to be acquired at the time of application at the start of the program. Yes, it is correct. You can say that I have already booked it and it will be done at so and so time, but then you have to provide proof that you have booked it. Um I personally think that it is better to have it at the time of application because that is that there is proof that is already done. But even if it is not because II understand that um we have just graduated and stuff. So there's not much time so you can book one and you can put that in the application that as your future. Um It's something that you're gonna do in the future before the start of the program and you can mention that in your CV station at the time of interview, do mention it yourself otherwise it gets missed. Um So we have to go back and deal with the universities if they get that form done. Yes. Unfortunately, that is something new that they're putting in. Maybe it can be done online. Hopefully, there's not much information on that yet. So we don't know how they want the form to be uploaded and how they want it to be done. Um But maybe it has nothing to do with the uni maybe you just put in the details of the medical university on the form and you can just upload that there's not much information uploaded as of yet. So we just have to wait and see how they want this to be done. Uh For the references from a uni would it be a doctor teacher from the student department? Uh You can get it from a consultant uh from any of the uh consultants of the departments that you are comfortable with or you can get it from the student department because they can provide it as like an educational supervisor or from the dean itself. So references can be from either it doesn't matter. I personally think the student department would be a better choice but depends on the student department. Uh If you have a good rep with one of the consultants, maybe they can vouch for you uh for final year students. How amiable is that you need to sign the P MQ form. Um, unfortunately, the form is a new thing. I didn't have to do that. I just uh filled in my um medical qualification and it was fine. This is a new thing that they are uh um implementing in 2025. So we don't know how they want it to be done as of yet. But I do believe that if it is, if it has to be sent to your uni, I think it should be fine because that is the same thing with Epic. Um Epic sends it to your uni and your uni kind of like um does your thing so it should be fine. Um Most likely they may not even have to do anything and you can just do it yourself. But if not, then I hope the admins of the uni will be more supportive. How can you prove your F I one competency in the interview? If you have only done your 60 of unit to believe that your sixth year of uni is an fy one equivalent. Look into um what an fy one jobs are on a regular. You can go on Reddit. There's a lot of um there's a lot of people talking about their F I one and go through the jobs that they do, go through their lifestyle and what they have studied, what they've done, go through what they do on a regular basis and implement that in your interview. Um with your own personal experiences, talk about how you um are at the same level as UK fy one. You have to believe it before you talk about it in the interview. Um uh We uh rotated through um I think all Bulgarian medical universities have kind of the same framework where we rotate through all the different departments. Whereas the U KF I one people don't, they only rotate through three or four departments in a year if I'm not wrong. So you can say that you have a comprehensive understanding of a lot of departments and you have done a lot of practical work. You have um managed a lot of uh different types of patients, uh different patient population, different uh you have experience with um a completely different medical system. So you are adaptable, you're resilient to work in a different environment and all sorts of things which puts you at a better advantage than other people. So you have to believe in yourself before you try to make other people believe that you're, you're a good doctor and you're competent. Is it possible to conduct independent audits in the hospital? Um Even in your clinic attachment, you can do an audit. It, it can be anything small. Uh whoever your consultant supervisor is, they can guide you through it, they can supervise you, but most of the work has to be yours. And the idea has to be yours. Um, but there's a lot of simple ones that you can do within two weeks, um, or within four weeks and you can put that uh in your application even in UNI, um, I did one in UNI uh none of the consultants knew what an audit is because it is such a UK specific thing. So I uh looked up how the UK wants us to do the audit and I followed the steps and I conducted it independently. Uh So you can also do something like that if you understand what an audited uh audit is and how to conduct one and how to collect the data and how to analyze it, how to implement change and again, do a re audit um and how to present your changes or um how to conduct the whole thing. I think, then you can do it. You just need somebody to be a named consultant supervisor or you can do it independently. Um If the references from the UK consultants are necessary, would they have to be obtained in a clinical attachment after graduation? They're not necessary. The uh your references can be from anywhere. I just believe that it is um nice to have somebody from the UK to give you a reference. But uh that's not personal opinion. There is no evidence to prove it is better. Um But I just think UK consultants are more uh likely to do the references quicker and they just they, because they understand the system and they know how it's done compared to people from Bulgaria. But the uh references can be anybody. It doesn't have to be from the UK. It can be any person who has worked with you for at least three months. So most likely the people in other consultants in Bulgaria would be able to do that for you. Um It can be anybody, it doesn't have to be from the UK. But you, you can build a reputation with one of the consultants that you're working with during your clinic attachment and most of the time they're really happy to help. Uh Could you share the info? You used to conduct an audit? Um I don't remember exactly uh where because there's a lot of resources available. I just went on a like a spree and I just like looked up everything to uh see how an audit is done. There's a cycle that you have to follow in the hospital because most of it is Vulgarian language. So it's gonna be a bit difficult. I can explain my audit because I've done it um on um uh the awareness and understanding of uh foundation, one doctors that is the sixth year medical students, their understanding of breast cancer and their understanding of how to do um a breast examination. Uh This was my audit where I uh generated a survey uh collected enough data analyzed and saw that there was some gaps in knowledge. So I created some uh pamphlets IC uh conducted some educational sessions uh where I educated the um F one doctors regarding the breast cancer and its examination and what is important and stuff like that. And I did a re audit again where I saw there was an improvement in their understanding and their knowledge. So this is a quality improvement project and this is how you can kind of uh do an audit as well. You can do on understanding of mental health assessment, on capacity on um whether they, whether um f one doctors know how to do a death verification. Uh There's a lot of one, there's a lot of things that specific to the NHS that a lot of Bulgarian medical students may not know. So that is a good one to use to even educate um the junior doctors as well as use it as an opportunity to educate and improve a clinical practice. Is there any more questions? Sorry, I talked very fast, but I hope everybody is understanding what I'm saying. I think that's the last question. We can wait for like a couple of minutes and see if there's any more questions and then we can end the talk. If that's OK with everyone, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about in your CV station, even if it is not included in your A application. But I suggest to put it in your application if you wanna talk about it in your uh in your interview. Um because they look at what you have uh what you have uploaded and compared to what you're saying, and they ask you, they might ask you specific questions about, um like I posted, I uploaded about my audit and they could have asked me specifically about my audit instead of the whole CV station. So it depends on their questions. But I suggest to put everything in your application. What happens if you do not get the desired ran? Personally, I didn't get the desired drunk and I was really upset about it. Uh But then you have to just stay in the program. Do not put yourself out of it, do not um cancel the application because like I said, there was only 240 post available, but the last person who got the job was 294. So there's a lot of people who leave the program, a lot of people who decline offers. Um uh there's a lot of uh new posts, not a lot, but at least there are certain polls that do uh get put in. So there's always a chance um If you're not too far into the post or into the rank, then I think you should still give it a try. Are those roles more readily available than nontraining post? Um No, I don't think so. I think the competition in both training and nontraining post is quite a lot, but the way I've seen it, um, when I, uh, when I was applying for nontraining jobs on track, there are a lot of doctors who are applying for it who had a lot more experience than me. Uh, but they were still applying for junior position jobs because they wanted to get into the UK system. That makes it very hard for people like us who just graduated to get a job. So I think in my personal opinion, um training jobs are really helpful, especially for people who are not British and they don't have the local option. So I think they um have a better uh chance of getting into the system. They have to stand alone. But it all depends on why you're applying because some of the nontraining jobs are also um pretty good and they uh have a lot of support and they may take people who have absolutely, you know, experience. So it really depends on who is applying and where uh no, for the CV station, you describe it, not the whole thing, but the way I, like I said, in your CV station, you should divide that into your clinical, into your academic, your management and your personal skills. So the clinical, where you talk about F one should only be taken up like two minutes, not much. So uh talk about that, you rotated through certain departments, you um through all of the internal medicine departments, which is really good. Uh You did a lot of practical uh experiences, you had a lot of exposure in acute medicine area. You saw a lot of trauma patients like, but you should be able to back that up as well. Um So you should explain it uh And do describe it because how, if you say it is f on equivalent, they probably assume that you've already done three or four patients, but we haven't, we have done all the rotations in F one. So um I personally prefer if you describe it because uh British people don't know that uh Bulgarian F one is different than U KF one F one even though it is equivalent. So I think it is better to explain it and explain it in a bit of detail. Could you please repeat which results you had prepared for ethical scenario? Uh It is Raja Ana. Ah he has a whole playlist on his youtube channel um where he talks about um where he talks about certain scenarios and how to answer interview questions as well if we did O at and the results are not out at the time of application. What can we do in such a situation? Unfortunately, you cannot do anything. Um If your uh results are out by the time of application, that's fine. But if they are out after the deadline, there is not much you can do um because there are no exemptions um into the deadline. They do not extend it whatsoever. Ok. I can share my email. Um, teaching sessions depends on what you personally prefer. I did a lot of teaching sessions on topics from obs and Gynae because that is what I was comfortable with and I liked it and enjoyed it. So, um, you can do that or you, like, they're saying sa has a lot of teaching opportunities. You can do that as well. Uh You, what you need is a form of feedback um to prove that you have uh done the teaching and it counted and that it was beneficial to the people that you were teaching. What were the parts of the interview? The interview has a CV station, a clinical scenario station and an ethical scenario station. The clinical academic and management is what I am saying is beneficial to explain your CV uh in a structured format where you talk about your clinical things, uh the academic side of things, your management and, and with some personal information about your life and that would be your CV station as a whole for academic and management of academic. You can mention any presentations that you have done. Um any research that you're conducting, it doesn't have to be published. Uh But showing some interest in research is always good. Uh You can talk about if you have done an audit, any sort of teaching that you've done all of that would be uh under Academy management is if you have been part of any society, doesn't necessarily have to be clinical. Uh There are football societies or there are like cultural societies, part of university. You can do that. If you are a student rep, you can show that as your leadership skills. Um If you participated in a conference as an ambassador or something, you could use that as your management. Anything that showcases your leadership and management skills. Basically, that's not a problem. No, once you submit, you cannot edit the application. The only thing you can edit would be your references after you have submitted the application. OK? I think that's our last question. Thank you everyone for attending this talk and thank you, Doctor Sabah for such an insightful talk. Um Thank you. Um uh Give me a second. You ready to come in. Thank you. Uh As we have mentioned before, you can reach out to us on uh Instagram or on our email ID, if anyone is interested in um teaching um or if they have any other initiatives, um the ideas for initiatives for your universities, you can always um drop a message on Instagram or to our email ID. Um Yes, thank you everyone um for coming once again and I hope everyone has a great evening. Thank you.