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Oh, do you? We can wait until seven o'clock. Um We're, we're live now and we've got eight teams. So we may as well make a stop as the first bits an intro anyway. All right. Hi, everyone. Thanks for, for joining so far. Um We will make a start and people probably sort of drift in in the next couple of minutes anyway. Um But the first bits just mainly an intro. Um So welcome to the SP application course. Um If you have been already, this is our third session now. So we've had sessions on uh an intro to the SFP and an inter panel and also a white space question writing session. However, um I'd like to preface by saying that this session will also be very useful for your white space questions if you are still writing them. Um because we're going through lots of useful things that you would say in your interview, but you can also say in your white face questions. Um So do apply what we say here to that too. Um If you have any questions, you can email us on this address or message us on our social medias. Which are here. Um My name is Cathy, I'm one of the SFP doctors. Um And lucky will also be speaking today and she's also an SFP doctor. Um I'll let her introduce herself when she starts talking. So, um but just to give you a very brief intro to the course, like I said, this is the third session. So um on our medal, just like you signed up for this one, you can sign up for the other sessions. So um they happen every other week on a Tuesday at 7 p.m. So you can sort of predictably write that down in your calendar um for the next four every other Tuesdays. Um So these are the next sessions. So the next two will be on the academic station um covering how to approach critical appraisals, the structure that you need to apply questions and terms that they might ask you. Um And then after that, we will have two sessions on the clinical station. So one on how to approach the clinical station and the structure that you should be using um and how to prepare and then another one on common A to e scenarios that you'll encounter and how to um go about doing that in January. Um Probably the day or the day after the SFP offers come out. We'll also have an event on choosing a Deanery and making the most of your SFP. Um So make sure to keep your eyes peeled for that date as well. Um We also have been having um sign ups for our mentorship program on which you get White Space question reviews. Unfortunately, those have now closed. But if you do email that email address at the start, we may be able to still squeeze you in for White Space question reviews. Um And also around the um sessions towards the end of October, we will start advertising for sign ups for mock interviews. Um And those will have a cap because we have got a limited team. So do keep a watch for those. We'll also um if you've attended this event or previous events, add you to our mailing list. So you'll get emailed when those signups open as well. So make sure that you sign up quickly as it will be sort of first come first served with those. So, um what we're talking about today, we're talking about personal portfolio station which you'll have at many deaneries um that aren't London essentially. Um And we'll also be talking about how to talk through your academic plans for your SFP. So we'll cover um some of the common personal questions that you'll get asked how to approach those and how to sort of think about um planning for your academic rotation. So some like it says on the slide, some deaneries have the station and others don't. So London doesn't, London will just have a clinical and a academic station. Um But if you're applying to another dean, then you will have it. Um if they do have it, it tends to be important. So for example, in our no interviews, it was something that was quite important. It was considered as a whole station in its own right. And they do look at that. So deaneries outside of London that are very holistic and care a lot about things like your white Space questions will also care about how you approach the personal station, how much you're able to tell them that you want to do the SFP, why you want to do the SP why you're a good candidate and what you want to achieve from the SFP. And that's all really important. So that's why this station is important. Um And some just very generic things before we get started are it's really important that you are yourself in this station. So um talking about things from your own perspective and talking about things that you're interested in is the best way to approach the personal station. Um And also being sort of very honest about what you want to achieve from the program. Um If you have academic interests, don't be afraid to talk about them and don't be afraid to sound very prepared. It's best to sound very prepared in fact and try to practice common questions. So make sure that that's not coming across as robotic, but that it does come across as though you've thought about that question and you have a structured response to that. So my personal approach was to go through the very common questions and make sort of bullet points for what I would personally say in response to those. So that means that you're not writing a script. So it doesn't sound robotic, but it does sound like you've got a structure and that you're sort of adhering to the important things that you want to say. And some common frameworks that you can apply are C and Star. So camp is very useful for background and motivation questions about why you've applied and it can help you to talk through various aspects of um your experiences. So using clinical academic management and personal experiences to answer a question. So for example, um why do you feel that you've got the time management skills to be a good SFP doctor? You could use clinical academic management and personal examples to demonstrate that within the same answer. Um And Star again is a useful framework for when you're asked to reflect on an important experience you had. So for example, they could say, um can you talk us through an example where you showed good teamwork or good leadership skills and in that context, you could go through the situation, the tasks. So um a specific instance and, and what you had to do what you did and how it came off. Um And then the extra R on the end should be the reflection of what you learned from it and then kind of link that back if you can to, how that would make you a good SFP doctor. Um So I hand over to Lucky to start with the first question. Hi, everyone. My name is Lucky, like I already told you guys. Um So yes, I'm also an academic doctor at NNN. Um And also my social will be put down so you guys can contact me if you need anything. So why SFP um essentially what they're gonna ask everyone, this question is actually a common question in most um er interviews where they have a personal station. So why do you want to do the SFP? So don't be afraid like Catherine has said if you want to talk about an academic pathway, so this being um it preparing you for an academic clinical fellowship role then potentially getting, doing a phd, getting some funding from NIHS, which is like the National Health Research Center and doing like your own clinical research and then becoming a clinical fellow. So even though it seems so so much in so many years, it's good to sound prepared and that you actually know what the SFP is preparing you for essentially. Um And to know why SFP, you ideally need to know what an SFP is um because they can find, they will, they can see right through it if you don't know what the SFP entails. Um you should also talk about the skills you have that are competent for the A FP or the SFP role. Um This being like you can say how organized you are, how you have already got on yourself involved in certain research, certain audits and it shows that you are also competent for the role because at the end of the day, it's almost like a job role. You have to sell yourself. Um talk about any research interest, um patient impact and ability to combine this and also bridging the gap between clinical stuff, um bridging certain gaps that are not available clinically. So you want to bridge that, um you want to research into it, make sure that health care on a national level is improved, um discuss specific passions. So if you want to do an SFP in something specific, so since we're from Norwich, I'm just going to mention this in Norwich, SFP, you can choose where you want to do SFP in. It's one of the perks. So um you could do something that you're really interested in rather than uh something that's given to you, which is quite common in other places as such as London. Um discuss your aspirations within the IAT and you get a supervisor of choice, someone who shares a similar interest. So one of the things you can mention um that you can say is that, oh, I in your interview is um I have spoken to this professor or this supervisor, um who is interested in my research. And if I do get it more than happy to become my educational or academic supervisor and guide me in this. So it's quite good because they know they specifically know what you're talking about as well. Um Dedicated time to do research. Um It's quite hard to work and do research. It is possible but it's much harder, especially doing data analysis um and can like forming a team and so on. So you get dedicated four months where you can ha where you do Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 is pretty much um and you can allocate how you do your research. And yeah, and opportunities to progress and develop skills such as teamwork because you would have to form your own team people to help you uh analyze data. Um You need to get contact with certain um specialities or spec um to get access to patient data. And if it, if it isn't clinical, for example, if it's lab based, um this will be either in the research park so you have teams there that can help you out as well. So you have to be a leader as well as a team player um teaching opportunities. Um SFP is a great time in that four months. You can have a lot of teaching opportunities, especially if your hospital is linked to er, it's, it's a teaching hospital and linked to a university, for example, Norwich um NNN is a teaching hospital and is linked to UE A. So you can do in that four months. You could do PB L teaching, you could do clinical teaching at PC RE. Um You can also do a PG diploma if you wanted to and um that people can, there are some funding that you can get for it as well. Um And you can also do some teaching like this like Katherine and I are doing both, both teaching by SFP. So you're part of this program as well. Um learning to balance. So doing an SFP will give you a rough idea how an AC F post almost will be like, even though that's a little bit more intense, it's just that um you're trying to balance as well as your clinical side of things as a doctor. So you have to meet your academic and your clinical needs at the same time. So your requirements have to be met. So having to balance all of that um is so doing an SAP will be good in, in that sense. Um Academic medicine is challenging and it stretches you. Yes, it does. Um One thing is that it makes you more, it makes you think more about certain stuff such as the ethical consideration for your research. Um whether something is um possible to do and does it make a clinical difference? Um And I think the idea of just balancing everything is also challenging even though, you get that four months, it's best to start your research prior that four months. So whilst you're actually doing your foundation programs and your other rotation, just so that when you do those four months, the b like the ball is rolling when you do start your research, so you need to start contacting people and just be a bit on top of it. And it's also very competitive. That's actually one of the cons of academic program, not everyone gets to do it and not everyone gets that opportunity. Um So yeah, and like I said, prepares for our clinical foundation program, personal reasons. It fulfills your needs as an advanced practitioner, improving care nationally. Like I said, um it's just bridging that gap where you can see it. Um when working, you can even mention it, make it related, make it personal and related to or when working, I noticed there was this missing or there there isn't treatment for this or I thought we can do this better. So I thought we can research into it. It really shows that you're um actively taking on a role in bettering healthcare itself. Um So making it personal is very important for this question. Thanks. So you just to like add to that as well, even in deaneries where they don't have a personal station, they will still ask you this question. So in London, they still ask this question at the start of the academic station and you are still scored on it. So even if you're not applying to deaneries with a personal station, um I would still prepare an answer to this because it can be interpreted as part of the academic station as well. Um So yeah, uh moving on to the next one, You might be asked why the deanery specifically or why do you want to do SFP here? Um If you're asked why you want to do SFP here rather than just why do you want to do the SFP? That's a two part question. So you need to answer the, why do you want to do the SFP and then the why here bit separately. So if you're asked why this dean, why here, it's important to think about what the deanery has to offer you. And I think that that's really helpful to speak to current SFP doctors in the deanery, if you don't know any in the deanery that you're applying to use your social networks. So reach out to people on linkedin on Twitter and they'll be generally more than happy to help you and to give you advice about what is going on there. So for example, like, like you mentioned access to teaching opportunities and things like that. Um It's best to kind of ask current SP doctors, you know, what, what is there in the deary and what will I get and what sort of funding exists if you're interested in? And for example, the medical education SFP SS, does it give you an automatic PG cert or not? Does it give you any funding to do one? So it's important to speak to people and find out things like that? Some of the things that you can mention and this kind of the structure that I tended to follow was what can it offer you from different perspectives? So firstly, clinically, what, which sort of hospital sites will you be based at? Is it a tertiary hospital? Does it have a variety of services? Is that in areas that you're particularly interested in? Um will that give you an opportunity to in your clinical rotation? See a variety of pathologies with that clinical um facility as well? Are there specific facilities for the things that you are interested in? So for example, if you're interested in um from my experience, microbiology, um if you're interested in things like me genomics and like that, do they have facilities for that? Are they interested in implementing it clinically if that's something you're interested in? So if you're interested in something very niche specific, it's important to see whether clinically um that role kind of already exists at the deanery that you're interested in academically, what work is already happening in the deanery. So just looking up the faculty for the associated university, so every SFP deanie is tied to a university, so you will always be associated with a university. Um obviously, in London. That could be any of the five medical schools in London. Now in the east of England Deanery, there's Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin, Norwich, etcetera. So you could be associated with any particular institution. So have a look at the faculty and particularly what doctors are on the faculty and what work they're doing and often they'll be the best people to approach to be your supervisor. Um And what work do they have going on? That's maybe aligned to previous research that you've done. It's really good to reach out to them even if it's a cold email and you don't know them and say I've read your research on this, I'm really interested in doing it as part of an SFP. Can I have a quick teams call with you and just have a quick conversation about what kinds of things you'd be interested in doing? It doesn't have to be a fully fledged plan by the time you get to your interview. But if you can say I've spoken to the person about X area and I've got this project that I'm quite interested in and I'd like to be involved as part of it just shows that you've gone the extra mile and tried to sort of set up connections. And it also makes you look like a realistic candidate and that one who's going to make the most out of their SFP, um, think about what research facilities they have so similar to what kind of clinical facilities they have. Um do they have the equipment and facilities for the things that you're interested in doing? Um And then at the Allied Institutional Medical School, think about extra things that they offer to you, like teaching opportunities um opportunities to become a member of the faculty, et cetera. Um Also important to mention things like the atmosphere. So in deaneries that care about White Space questions and care about personal station, they do also care about you what your perspective is of the deary. So what kind of training and mentorship opportunities do they have? Do they have a structured um academic teaching program? Do they have ac f mentoring options? Um So are you able to be matched with someone? Do they have networking opportunities? Um And do they offer, you know, any extra support for the SFP program? Think about the structure of the program? I think I said this in um the first talk, but some programs a day release, whereas some have a four month block. So think about whether you would benefit from a day release, which can be longitudinal, but it also means that you only get one sporadic day a week in the middle of your clinical duties to do your academic work rather than a four month block. And also think about whether the rotations are something that interests you. So for example, in Norwich, we have clinical rotations in t in the academic program, which is something a lot of people are interested in and ent FF two posts are not that common. Um Generally. So that's something to think about as well. If the A FP is giving you access to a rotation that you're particularly interested in and might not get otherwise. And like I said, a CF funding and support. So what's the ratio like how many people are going on to carry on down the integrated academic training pathway and how well supported do they feel as well? And I think it's also important to think about why you want to work there and say that as well. So, um what is different about this scenery? Do you feel like it has a supportive and friendly atmosphere? Is that something that's drawn you to it? Um Do you like being in the countryside? So it sounds really stupid. But when I did my interview, I said that going to Norfolk was one of my favorite childhood holidays and I think that went down well, so think about things like that and why you actually want to be there. Um And yeah, the last two things are things I already said. So and just adding on to this part as well, I think um if you're from UB A just in general or if you're from a specific area and you're speaking about. So for example, if you're from another London Union and you're applying to London as well, you can mention the familiar familiarity you have with the environment er and saying that you want to be in a similar environment as this. And for the um I think uh Cathy was mentioning about speaking to previous SFP or people who are doing SP right now. Um You can also mention how the reviews about it is quite good from, if you've asked, you said you can mention how like um I've spoken to current SFP trainees and they mentioned it's all positive feedback and I want to be in an environment where I'm well supported. Um And there's a great mentorship where I um I can openly speak to someone if they had an issue. I think that's really important because coming into F one F two is quite hard and doing an SFP um trying to orientate orientate yourself is quite difficult. So by saying that it's a welcoming team, um it's almost um giving them positive feedback and showing them that, oh, they know that we're quite good at this. They want to, they want to be part of this team as well. So that's quite good. Um So, yeah, why research education or leadership um So specific uh SFP programs do specific things. Um So some actually don't provide certain sectors, so really do do your research and whether they provide all of this. So I'm gonna go straight into the research academic. So what things that you can gain is that you can have research courses? Um you can actually get who uh have dedicated time to undertake research, attend conferences, present your work and specialities of your choice. So during this four month period, you should get this done these four things and there are certain learning outcomes that you need to meet. Um some of the possible achievements you could do. So it's not a um it's not a current criteria, you have to get these done, but some of the things that you can do is complete an academic work in four month placement. So complete your research within four months. Um I'm not saying it's not poss er impossible but like that's quite difficult. But if you can, that's great. Um Do literature reviews practical projects in the lab given that your SFP is lab, lab related data collection, um writing a paper or even just getting the protocol out. Um publishing papers, these are like the end goal. So you can spend some time after your sp um to finish these research off, but publishing papers, achieving a research degree such as a part time, part time, you could do a master's, I think you have to fund it yourself. Um But you can apply for funding in specific specialities uh and just getting ready to apply for an AC F and a future phd. Um That's what happens in an academic SFP with education, you could do a systematic review of literature um and these will be on educational styles and like teaching styles. Um lesson planning, there are specific courses on this actually um on lesson planning, um data collection, on lesson feedback, interviews, surveys on teaching and how effective different forms of teaching are um teaching students and healthcare and to healthcare um colleagues. So I actually done some of this is to physician associates. So you can there are many opportunities if especially if it's a teaching hospital um where you can teach other people. Um and other healthcare staff and possible achievement is bedside and ward round teaching. Um You can also provide um also present an MDT if you ask um critically appraising different theories in teaching and different teaching styles, teach in different professional settings such as a hospital you could do in the university, you could do virtual just like this through me. Um present abstracts at conferences based on like a PGC which is uh certification of education um start a teaching series like this. And this is actually really good even if you don't do an SSP if you want to apply for a special specialty training programs, um it's in a lot of the requirements um medical school admissions and oss. So you can um I think you get two days training to become an OS ad um assessor. Um And for medical school admissions, I think you have to email the med school itself that specific med school and then give you training for that as well. Um So this one really helps if you want to become a professor in uh in when you get become older. So you can actually do it. It also helps with a technical fellowship, sorry. Um which you can do in F three. yeah, leadership. So this is mentor, management and leadership, uh planning service improvement and applying this. So where you can see there's a not an error but where you believe that that um a service can be improved or it's lacking somewhere and you can provide um a solution towards it. This can be in triaging or anything else possible achievements you could do is complete a master's in leadership and um commissioning teach, medical students. Um also get a PD CER T and also NHS Leadership Academy qualification. This is also good when you, if you wanna do a clinical fellowship um and become AC PC specialist advisor. So a lot of these are towards a clinical fellowship program and um just really depends what you want to go into. Do you want to go into something research based or do you want to go into teaching and leadership based? Um I think UE A provides academic and e education. I don't know if leadership is provided. Um I also applied to Cambridge Sp and they only have the academics. So really do your research um as to what they provide and what you want to get out of it. Yeah. Um So another common question is for them to ask you, where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years and sort of how the SFP will help you to achieve this. So I think that, um, going through some of the things that luck you just talked about is really helpful because you're kind of saying what you want to get out of the SFP. Um, in the latter part of this question and where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years is also kind of a leading question in that what they want to hear from you is where you feel that SP will take you. So if you are interested in the research program, which I believe is what the majority of applicants apply for, um then you would start to talk about something like this, which is the integrated academic training pathway. So you would talk about how in 5 to 10 years, you'd hope to see yourself on the next rungs of the integrated academic training pathway. So for example, an academic clinical fellowship followed by an academic clinical lecturer post and that sort of runs alongside your clinical training. And with that, you can do P DS and postdoctoral fellowships um leading on eventually to being a consultant with a research professorship or as a senior lecturer, et cetera. So I think that um it sounds good if you research this well and you think about um where you'd like to be in five years where you'd like to be in 10 years. And I think it's also important not to just outline your career plans. So career plans are really important, but it's also really important to think about other things that matter to you and how you'd like to achieve those. So I'll kind of come to that in a minute. So this question can also be phrased as what you would like for your career plans to be. So I would start off with some kind of statement of what you are specifically interested in and what you'd like to do. So in 10 years time, I would like to have completed an academic clinical fellowship and be um doing postdoctoral research in X area after doing my phd, don't be scared to show your interest. I think it's really good to show your interest if you have a specialty that you're interested in, um if you're talking about the research angle. So if you're talking about from the research perspective, then talk about a specialty that you're interested in and your research experience in pursuing a career in this, especially if there is a specific area of research that you are interested in that you can see yourself continuing in. Um Then definitely mention that and talk about that. Um If you are on the other hand, doing an education or a leadership sfp your angle on this question will be slightly different. So you're not really going to go down the IAT pathway as such because there isn't such a formalized pathway for educational leadership. So instead you can talk about in what position in the medical school would you like to see yourself? What kind of areas of medical education are you interested in making a difference in? And how would you like to do that or if you want to do leadership, what kind of leadership roles are you interested in? Would you like to do? for example, a medical directors, clinical Fellowship at the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. Would you like to do larger BM roles and things like that? Um in terms of your leadership journey, where do you want to go? So, like I said, if you're doing the research, one mention the it pathway for doing educational leadership that can be sort of more ad hoc. Even if you are talking about the research side, I would still talk about leadership and educational opportunities that you would like to do. Um So for example, I think like you might have put this in so becoming a member of the British Society of Radiology um or anything else that you are interested in doing. So for me, I said, I would like to be part of the faculty of um a medical school whilst doing my AC F because one of the areas that I'm interested in is differential attainment in medical education. And I'd like to work on closing that gap. And like we said, for most of these questions, make sure that you personalize that answer to yourself. So discuss things like how you'd like to be part of a team um and go forward as part of this team. So again, deaneries, which have a personal station, things like working in teams matter to them. So it's important to say, I like the team atmosphere in this deanie. And I feel that being part of a team early from, from the SFP and being embedded in that team will put me in a good position to then apply for the next stages of my career. Um And like, like we were saying as well, discuss what matters to you. So how do you see yourself making a difference in your chosen field? So are you passionate about something like um attainment inequalities? Are you passionate about closing the gender gap in surgery or something like that? And how will you be able to make a difference to that? I think that comes across really strongly as well because it shows that not only are you a motivated person in your field in terms of research and planning your future career, but you also really care about making a difference. And I think that's the kind of person that they're really looking for. So even if you're doing again, an education or a leadership SFP, you can really bring that angle in. So for example, if you have noted um in, in the leadership field sort of the lack of diversity representation in the top leadership in the NHS. How, how do we fix that? And how do we go about improving inclusivity in leadership in the NHS? So thinking about things like that and talking about that in this question is a really good added angle to have. Um And sort of how will the SFP help is this latter part of that. So thinking about things like what we've mentioned about this being the first step on the IAT pathway opportunities to build skills, knowledge and networks and to develop your sense of balance early, either as an early career academic or someone who's going to have to balance education and leadership commitments with your clinical role. Sorry, just to add to that, um you can add some personal things um in this as well. Sometimes they just say um for my Cambridge interview, I just got asked, where do you see yourself in five years? 5 to 10 years? So you can mention all um like we talked about the structure at the beginning with a, so we can also mention something clinical academic, um vocational personal. So just so that and cover all aspects because though you're applying for a job at the end of the day, they need so that you're actually looking at realistic as well. So you can be like, no, I really like this area. I wanna, I wanna actually get settled in Cambridge or I wanna settle in Norwich er for this basis. I want to be part of this team. I realized it's very diverse and it's a great team. They have a great faculty here. I want to be part of the recruiting team. So mention those specific things and really research uh about the hospital and the faculties. It's very important. Well, so what experience have you had within the chosen area? So warning you do not need to have publications. You don't need to have an indicated degree. You don't need to have audits. You don't need to have any of this. I'm going to be honest, I applied to SFP thinking I won't get it purely because um I didn't have any of the above, but you can still get a place in SFP. Um It's more about showing your passion for wanting to do research and that you actually started to have a read about it. Um and being quite um active in your passion, I guess and your interest. So show initiative. So show that you have spoken to certain members um that have a similar interest as you and ask them and ask them, how do you go about conducting a research? How do you do certain things? Are there certain programs I can attend? I attended a few courses online. Um So these, these show that you are um being you're being proactive um and it shows that you are quite eager um state the level involvement. So, so for example, you can say, oh, I have done, I haven't done, I haven't got a research paper done, but I have done the data interpretation. I've done the data analysis or I've read through the ethics. I've done a s a systematic review. Um These are very important to say what you've done. How much have you done and what have you learned from this? Um So always reflect, they really do like that and you can be like, I want to transfer these skills into my own research. Um and always uh reflect on your experience and what skills you had learned. Um I mentioned the smallest things such as confidentiality, data collection, data analysis um using different programs. That's really important because um different hospitals, even different um specialities or er faculties have different, different programs in which they collect their data and audit their data. So you can say how you would do specific courses or you're familiar with these programs. Um So it means it's much easier when you go on to doing your own research. Um And I mentioned how you apply these skills going forward. So even so mentioning stuff like being part of a team. So you've been part of a research team. And um so you know how you can be a team player, you know, who to go to when you need help. That's very important. Um And saying that you can, you can communicate with one another and knowing when you don't have the competency. Um And yeah, so some of the things that you might, you won't be asked in Norwich, but you can be asked in other places is that if they, if you mentioned you've done this research or you've done this audit, they'll, they can ask you, OK, what's the difference between an audit and a research? And how did this audit was this audit impactful? Did it make a difference? So they can ask you question um further questions on this. Um You can mention about research protocols that you've done at your universities um or even SSS so like like um power points on certain areas and how that en um ignited your interest and you saw a gap in um in it clinically. Um And any teaching experiences in the area will be really good as well because it shows that um you are sharing your passion and you can actually communicate um any elective, any articles you've done. May this be ki medics or teach me surgery? So I mentioned a few of those um which shows that I was very proactive and engage, engaging, I guess. Um But yeah, so show that you are someone who is not only just proactive but um have spoken to other people as well. So th that also in um consi is considered as an experience and even going into the lab and asking certain members. Oh, how do you do this. How do you feed stem cells? How do you keep it? How do you keep this going? How do you do that? Um These are all considered experiences and shows that you're going out of your way to show your interest. Um, anything small, anything big do mention it, but reflect on it all and say how you're going to transfer all of this into your own research. Yeah, I completely agree with that. Um Like, like, like you're saying, it's really important to just be able to reflect on what you've done. Um Not necessarily sort of just what you have done, but what you, what you've learned and how that makes you a good candidate moving forward as well and demonstrating your sort of academic curiosity is a really good way to kind of approach that um moving on. So you might be asked. Oh yeah, I was also going to say for this question, um this is also something that is applicable to your White Space questions. So in the research experience question, you can discuss it just like how we've talked about for the interview. So even if you don't have outputs from your research, what have you done or outputs from your medical education, leadership is all about applying the reflective frameworks to them and talking about what you've learned and how you'd be able to apply that going forward. That's really what they want to see from what experiences you've had. Not sort of the quantification of, of how much you've done and I've got 24 papers or blah, blah, blah and that's not really what they want to hear. So again, um this was a white space question for us last year. I don't think it is for you anymore. But if it still is, then this might be um helpful. If it's not, then it could be an interview question instead. So giving an example of a non academic achievement and significance to your application. So examples for this are it can be anything that you've done at all? So you can, because it's non academic, think about things that you've done outside the scope of your curriculum. So, were you involved in any student societies? Were these related to your area of interest? Have you held a leadership role? Have you instituted any specific changes in that society? So, did you start a new program? Did you identify a gap and try to fill this um in your research interest? Have you had any projects? What have you been able to do? Um Have you published um things like electives and students elective modules or components really show your interest as well? So that can be an example of something you learn on, on your elective um Other things that you've done. So I think in non academic achievement, you can go down sort of a clinical route as well. So was there something that you did in the clinical environment, which you were given special recognition for because you did really well in a particular scenario or um outside of the scope of your curriculum, have you held a leadership role? Like something in the B MA what did you achieve during your time doing that role? And how does that apply in terms of the skills that you gained from it? So you can use literally any example for this. Um If you've organized a charity event, if you've volunteered, these are really places to talk about things like that as well because it shows that um you've had a sort of holistic approach to developing yourself in medical school. And you've done not only all of the clinical and other requirements that, that are, you know, required of you, but also things like volunteering. Um and, and um you know, trying to organize events and things to improve your other skills and some of the things that you can talk about and these I would say are, are sort of buzzwords for your entire interview actually. And they're very similar to probably the words that you used when you're applying to medical school. Um It's a very similar set of things that they are looking for and that they will give ticks to so personal skills like resilience responsibility. How have you showed that you are particularly engaged in an area motivated? Um Do you have scientific curiosity and inquisitiveness? Um Have you been able to show self-discipline by how you've stuck to deadlines or timescales for specific things. Um and various other things like creativity are important as well because you will need that sort of adaptability and flexibility in academic careers, social skills. So your communication skills are really important and you can talk about how that is applicable to academic careers or careers in leadership in education where you'll very often be working in teams and you need to be able to negotiate the challenges associated with that. So how has your non academic achievement put you in a good position to do that? Um Other than that, what other skills have you learnt? So things like problem solving, you've learned to be adaptable and think laterally when faced with various problems, have you been able to work under high pressure? So for example, um have you been working to a particular deadline while organizing an event? And in that, did you feel under pressure? How did you cope with that? Um That's often actually a whole question on its own is how do you cope with stress? And so thinking about a non academic achievement in the context of that question as well is a useful example to have and you can also talk about harder skills. So organizational skills, analytical skills, and specifically presentation skills as well, which are all directly transferable to research education and leadership careers. Um Let's add on to this story. This can also be used in your White Space questions. So any experience or any point you make, make sure you can get a skill out of it. It sounds really weird. But as a top tip, I would say when you plan your White Space questions or even your interview questions, I wrote every, all my experiences reflected on it and talked about a skill that I can transfer at the end of the day. This is almost like it is a pretty much AC B you're trying to sell yourself. They wanna see whether you have these skills that are transferrable and that you will be a great academic doctor um as well as a clinical doctor. So mention all the clinical skills and uh academic skills that you have already and why you are fit for the role and not what you can gain, not just what you can gain out of it, but why you're made for this role itself. Um So what are your academic plans? What would you like to achieve during this SFP? So similar to our previous questions, what you can gain out of an SFP? But um things you can do are mentorship t teaching. So this could be like PB L clinical teaching to physician associates and other FF one doctors um choice of your project and rotations. So as we mentioned before, not all SFP programs allows you to do in your own project. So please do look at the different dearies and what they provide um and rotations, they have more specialized rotations like Catherine said already. Um And you could do like a journal club. So it's really good to show that you're actually interested in your specific speciality that you want to go into. So I did mention being part of a journal club, getting involved in ongoing research um when they talked about it where they're like where they, when they dissected the different um articles. So it's really good to learn those skills, I guess and be part of a team um with like with a like wise mindset um be proactive and showing organizational skills is um so a good academic planning shows this. So like Katherine and I had mentioned before, speak to get a supervisor and speak to someone beforehand, speak to ongoing SFP and doctors. Um Yeah, so contact, contact, potential supervisors early, look for research directories for your foundation schools or email the leads for this um search specific um uni or hospital directories for emails and introduce yourself. Don't be, don't be scared. Like at the beginning I think I thought it was very not awkward but I hadn't, I hadn't emailed someone professionally asking him to be a supervisor. But if you just say, oh, I've read around some of the researches you've done like Catherine mentioned or even saying, oh, I apply for an STP, I just want to know a little bit about it. What are some ongoing research you do? Have, um, I think for Norwich, you have a research page where it talks about the different ongoing researchers. So it's, and then it's got their emails underneath so you can contact someone, um, who's currently doing a research, organized meetings with them. Um, I met up with my uh, supervisor because I'm in. No, I'm based in nor so made it easier, but you can have like a meeting teams, um, meeting and just discuss what you potentially can do if you were to get involved. And um whether you have, you yourself have a research idea and what they feel ab how they feel about it? And is it possible and what are some of the limitations? So during my interview when I spoke about my academic plans, um they said, oh, but how is this possible? And I did, I already told them, I know some of the limitations I have and I know how I'm going to tackle it. So this just made me look very prepared and I told them how, um I spoke this with my supervisor and contacted different specialities to get involved in this. So it just makes you look very well prepared and also, um you look very proactive so read up on previous research in your fields and identify gaps, very important if you want to start your own research. But you can also be involved in ongoing stuff already. Um looking to academic clubs that already exist, what are the opportunities supported by your SFP. So teaching and like you can, you can mention these because not all SFP provide it. So you can mention, oh there's these teaching opportunities and I would really like to get involved um because I can then do a clinical leadership or clinical um and try and become a professor. So what research facilities does the foundation school have? So how we utilize these fat facilities? Um Very important. Not everyone has all these facilities and they're quite expensive as well. Um For example, I am, I wanna do radiology and I know there's three radiology academies. So I want to be part of Radiology Academy where they provide these teachings. Uh I spoke about the different facilities that are available um for um radiology, they have an MRI here, they have CT scans here and all of that. So um really broadens the aspect and how, how well you know about them and that specific area. So what you're going to gain from your academic plans is that basic research skills such as data collection system reviews and critical appraisals. So part of your interview, you'll be doing a critical appraisal, they'll be speaking about this in one of the SP sessions. So um that'll be something that's very common research methodology. There are different research methodologies and depending on what your research is, all the research you're getting involved in, um you'll be conducting different um me uh conducting different research and different methodologies. According to the research itself, it's very specific um build a CV for an academic clinical fellowship. Um It's almost like a taster in what an academic clinical fellowship will be like. Um whilst you're doing a speciality training. Um So, yeah, yeah, that, that slide from us was very tailored for research S FPs. But again, if you're applying to education and leadership, I would similarly follow a sort of similar approach. So who in the gene that you're interested in going into is already leading the kind of medical education projects that you're interested in or is in the kind of leadership roles that you are interested in. And instead of contacting as a research supervisor, contact them for what could I get involved with during my SFP, I think education and leadership as of what I understand of them are a little bit less structured than the research sfps. So, whereas we have to have a specific supervisor and we have to meet XY and Z competencies in the academic framework. And for the research S FPs, it doesn't work quite the same way for the education and leadership ones. So it can be a lot more ad hoc. So for example, one of my friends who is doing a medical education SFP in Brighton is going to spend her sf looking at how the use of cartoons or illustrations in medical education um help students. And that's sort of what she is focusing on and that's going to be her area. So if you have a specific area of interest like that, there's someone already doing work like that in the Deanie, contact them, look into it and use that in place of um sort of your academic plans and what research you want to do specifically and what are the main challenges associated with there. So P is again a very common question. So um when you're talking about a challenge, it's important to talk about how you will overcome it. And examples of where you've already displayed this as well. So challenges include achieving your clinical competencies in the same time as your colleagues, despite having one less clinical rotation. So this means that you have um four months less than your colleagues to attain the same competencies, which means meet the same um level in your uh e portfolio. So in order to stand out, there are a few things that you can talk about. So you can talk about how you've already, you recognize that this is a problem and you knew this would be a challenge that comes with doing the SFP. But you can talk about how in medical school you've already been through this. So having to maintain your virtual extracurricular activities, alongside maintaining a log book and reflections for your for your medical school program, you've already developed organizational and time management skills. So you feel that this will help when it comes to the SFP I also mentioned things like actually, I don't think I got asked this question, but I prepared this question a lot, which is why I feel like I got asked it. But you can talk about things like how you are aware that the Horus E portfolio exists for all foundation doctors and to prioritize getting your competencies done early, being quite aware of what you need to do. Prioritize meeting with your educational clinical supervisor, early, et cetera because it shows that you are very aware of the requirements of the Clinical Foundation program, which means that as per the second bullet point, you are prioritizing being a doctor first as that is the main goal of the foundation program and the SFP is just giving you an additional opportunity to explore other interests. Another challenge is that four months is not a long period of time to conduct a project. So within that, you need to talk about how it's really important to plan early and be proactive. So setting your clinical and academic goals early discussing things like your project timeline and ethical approval that's necessary in advance so that you are ready if you need any funding. So for example, if you're doing laboratory work, sometimes you'll need to apply for additional funding. Um are on top of maybe what they already have if you want to do a specific project and applying for that well in advance. So all of that being done during your F one so that it's an advance of your academic rotation in F two. Some people have their academic rotation in F one. So be aware of if that is you and um how sort of early and proactive you'd need to be for that as well. Um Another challenge that you can talk about is being able to balance the priorities that you will have. So your clinical priorities of course, but also, you know, what other priorities do you have in terms of applying later down the line? How will you balance all of those things and those requirements with your SFP program and with your clinical um um program. So again, mentioning things like proactivity and organization, again, linking that back to things that you've done before and mentioning how you've already built those skills looks really good and it shows that you've already put yourself in a position to be a really good SFP candidate. Another challenge is that you'll probably face things like setbacks and hurdles. So I don't know any SFP doctor who has had a smooth run at the A FP project. Most people have issues with ethics funding supervisors, pull out projects, changing, missing application deadlines, things like that. So I think it's really important to link that to resilience. Um How have you already had any setbacks or hurdles? So for example, when you were doing an interc degree, when you were doing the project or the dissertation from that did you face any hurdles? And how did you sort of bounce back or cope with that? And how does that then make you a good candidate for the SFP? So what, what you're essentially trying to demonstrate is that you are recognizing these challenges early and you are reflecting on them and discussing how you would avoid it by talking about the skills that you have already developed. And the key ones here are things like time management proactivity, um the ability to kind of reflect on things that have already happened and improve from those as well. Um And thinking about things like your ability to respond to um constructive feedback as well. Some of the other you can get uh why would you specifically make a good academic trainee? So you can um you can talk about the skills you um have and the skills you've gained by doing other um some research and things you've got involved in already. Um because achievement to date. Um So you can talk about this can be academic or non academic as long as you can reflect on this and say how you can transfer any of these skills, it would look good. So don't worry if you don't have any, anything academic related. Um And you have to sound passionate as well when it's not academic related just because it just shows that um you are interested in something academic, especially when you're doing an SAP program, talk about a time that you showed good clinical and communication skills, this can be from placement, volunteering um and give to go into details about the scenario itself and like how it was good clinical and like how you reflected on it afterwards and now you go going forward now you always do this or um you learn something from this. So once again, reflecting um what are your strengths and weakness in terms of weakness? Be careful what you say because you don't want them to use that against you. So be specific in the type of weakness you show. But how for example, um for example, time management, OK, time management, I was really weak on that. But um in my final year, I took up this old and my fourth year I took up this society, I I also um started a research and I learned how to time manage. I got better at it by having a timetable, allocating specific times and um having times to catch up as well. So if you give it weakness also show how you over, over ki that as well. Um because you don't want to be like, that's still an ongoing issue. What qualities do you think you need to succeed in academic medicine? So previous skills that we put in the table, that's just like a rough um description of the things that you can mention. If you were given 1 million lbs, what would you use it? Uh for within the health system. Um It's a bit like a medical school interview so you can. But for, because an SFP program potentially talk about something research related, educational leadership and bridging a gap and how specifically you will use that money, I guess. Talk to us about a recent paper. You have read some, an issue that's bothering you and how just reflect on it, I guess. Um, I got um, I think different, different hospitals ask different questions. Um But during my in, I'm sorry, different dear, during my interview at Norwich, I think, um they were supposed to ask me a bit more personal questions, but when they asked about my research that I wanted to conduct, one of the, one of the um doctors on the panel was a bit more intrigued and actually the whole like a good few minutes we spent just a um talking about how I'm going to conduct this and how I came about this idea. So it doesn't always go to plan. But if you're passionate, they can actually like, they'll get really excited about it and they would actually ask you on it. So it's, it's a good sign. Um And not everyone's interview is the same. Um especially on a panel, they can have different people. So please don't compare on other SFP pe uh people because it will be different questions. Um So, yeah, yeah, I completely agree with all of that. Um, agree with the sort of statement on weaknesses. So a common one that I tend to use is I find it difficult to say no to things that I take on a lot. And this is something that I've been working on by, you know, doing XY and Z. And I think that I'd like to keep this going in my SFP, as I understand that in an academic career, I can't possibly say yes to every opportunity. Um When you're thinking about the qualities that you need to succeed in academic medicine, it's also very appropriate and fair for you to talk about role models that you have. So what have you seen? So do you have, if you've worked in a research team before, for example, have you seen the lead of that research group work really well with other people communicate well, help other people to overcome hurdles, work to the strengths and weaknesses, other team members, things like that is really important to mention um important qualities that you need to succeed in academic medicine include the things that we've mentioned. Like time management, proactivity, dedication, resilience, teamwork, leadership, and good communication. Um The both of the, the latter two papers are the last two questions. Sorry, are very um reflective. So there's no, there's no right answer. They're not going to judge you on what you're saying. They're going to instead look at how in depth you're able to talk about it. So is do you sound like you really care about the issue that you're saying 1 million lbs should be given to you. And are you able to argue the cause for that? And things like telling us about a recent paper you've read when you do that, you can almost um kind of use that almost like a critical appraisal. So you can say these were the good points of this paper, these were the bad points of this paper. But this is why this paper is important and this is sort of the future directions that I see coming from this paper. So it's important not to just leave it at describing the paper, but going a step beyond and saying these are the applications and that's the impact that it will have. And like luck you said, don't expect the structure of your interview to stick to what you are expecting and neither of my interviews did. So in London, I was expecting to get a very structured critical appraisal. I didn't um I got given the paper and they just asked me about ethical issues to do with the paper. So, um it was a trial where they changed the protocol halfway through. So they instead asked me about, you know, what are the reasons that you would change a trial protocol halfway through? Why is that ethical? Why is that unethical? What are the sort of consent issues around that? Um And then in my other interview, um they went down a completely different avenue in the academic interview. Again, I was expecting a critical appraisal, but they asked us lots of questions about the tables and figures and focused mainly on that instead of the critical appraisal. So don't be thrown off by the fact that questions will be worded differently or, um, you know, you might spend time because your interviewer wants to listen to you talk more about the area that you said you're interested in. Um be probably more encouraged by that because it shows that interested in what you're saying and they're kind of reflecting that back to you. So this is the final slide. But before I go to that, I know people have already started dropping off. So just to remind you that I've sent the feedback form um in the chat, so please do fill that out. It will also be emailed to you. Um It's really helpful for us going forward to know what to, what works well, what doesn't work well. Um And especially this course is run every year. So what could be um changed next year or done differently is really useful for us to, to have the feedback. So please do, do that. Um So top tips for your application at this point. Um And for your personal and academic plan station um plan edit and, and change your, your white space questions early. So start to send that to people. Um I would be starting that now, hopefully because your application window opens tomorrow and closes on the fourth of October. So start to get those White Space questions ready and sent to people for their reviews and their feedback. Um Use the, the C framework like we've mentioned, which ensures that you're covering things both from a clinical academic and a personal perspective, which gives you a really sort of holistic approach to answering the questions, try not to repeat skills or experiences as well. Um This is both for your White Space questions and for your interviews. Um So for the White Space questions, because you've got a limited word count, it means that you don't want to be um laboring the same point multiple times. So um you don't want to be saying um in your, in your research experience paragraph, I did this, it gave me stat skills. I did this, it gave me stat skills. You can talk about the statistical skills you developed from one research project or something and you can talk about another experience and how that gave you the the more transferable skills like your communication team work, et cetera. And again, in the interview, try to speak about her range of experiences that you've had. So I know it can be tempting to come back to one big thing that you've done and always focus on that. But I think it looks really good. If you're able to say for one of their answers, you give a clinical example. For one of their answers, you're giving your academic example and your experience. For another one, maybe you're focusing more on a non academic achievement that you've got. So if you have that range of experience, please try to use it. Um And every, every point that you make should directly answer the question and relate back to the SFP. So like we've said, talk about the experience, talk about what you've learned and talk about why that makes you a good SFP doctor, especially with, with this as well. Um If you need to take a minute, uh not, not literally a minute because you don't have that long. But if you need to take a few seconds and think about it, that's completely fine. It's best to say, can, that's a really good question. Can I have 10 seconds to just think about my, my answer? It's better to come to start with that and then to give a structured answer with lots of reflection than to start, you know, mumbling and waffling. Um because you didn't have time to sort of order your thoughts. So if you need to take a second to do that, don't be afraid to do that. It does, it just makes you look more, more prepared if you do that. In fact, because you, you don't want to give a sort of rubbish answer just because you're put on the spot. Um I think we've harbored this point but make sure you reflect and in your white space questions, make sure you proofread it so that it all looks very professional and there's no grammatical errors, spelling. I'm sure if you're sending it to people for feedback, um they will be able to help you with that as well. So they'll probably pick up on anything that, that you've missed um from that perspective. Um Just like last minute to add. Um Is that in some of your interviews, they might not argue essentially, but um it's almost like a debate in certain things or they might like really question your research. Um I experience this quite a bit in my Cambridge interview and they're like, but how would you do this? How many people do we need for this to be clinically justified? How are we gonna find these patients? So I had already um gone through this in detail, but please don't be thrown away, thrown off by this. If you don't know, don't make it up. And you can be like, oh, I haven't thought about this, but this will be something that I will be talking with my supervisor or I will be attending courses to learn how to do this data collection and look into it further because if you haven't conducted a research before or if you haven't even started thinking about your research in this much detail, you won't know. And these people are very experienced in their fields and in research as well. So don't try to bluff, you can really be honest and it's better to show that you're willing to learn than, um, trying to bluff your way out of it. Um But yeah, in whatever you're going to talk about, know it in detail. Um because they have every ground to question on it or be like, ok, how come you did this or why do you want to do this? Um Even if it's something non aca academic, um they do wanna see people that are, that will not only be, be good in the academic side but also good clinical doctors. So don't forget at the end of the day, you, one of your main things is that they're trying to make good clinical doctors as well as academic. That's something that's additional. So um show that you are someone who they want to be part of a team and that you won't be slacking in your clinical requirements either that you are someone that's capable of it all. Um So yeah, but good luck guys. Um and I'm pretty sure everyone is available to help you out. Um And definitely plan early. I did my white space questions many times and it's very important because that's the initial impression of you. Um And then interviews always important to know the questions just like Catherine said, have bullet points, don't learn answers and make it too structured or robotic because that they will, they will know that, um, I was really relaxed in my Norwich interview. They were really lovely. Cracked a few jokes showed that I'm someone they probably would want in their team. So it's really good to show your personality. So, don't be afraid of that. Yeah. And, um, one more last thing is, is try to not undersell yourself. I think this is something that lots of people can do. Um, it sounds, and it feels like you're bragging but you're not, you have to sell, you have to sell yourself to them in, in an interview, not just at this stage, but at every stage that's coming. So it's not overstating your abilities, it's just making them aware. Um And I think we'll, we'll stop that with having sent the feedback link and we're already slightly over time. If anyone has any last questions, you can drop them in the chat um or you can email us or contact our SFP call social medias. Um As per the first slide, I think we have a question. Do you have a question? No. Thank you guys for coming. Thank you. We hope that you found it useful. And like Catherine said, guys, if you sign up to the email, you would get regular updates um as to when the diff um the next session is. Yeah, and you can already sign up on medal for all of the rest of the sessions. So if you wanna get email reminders, just go to the medal page and sign up for all of them now and then you'll get your emails. Um If no one's got any other questions, I will end the event and just take us off live. But thank you everyone very much for attending and we hope that you are successful in your SFP applications.