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Um Can everyone hear me then or have we just started? And no one can hear me? All right. So now I'm live. Can people hear me? Let me check the chart? No, I presume people can hear it because no one's med on the chat. Well, at least I hope so. Uh Let me see the chart before we can hear you. Could you hear us before? Yeah. Um or have we just been talking? 00 no. Ok. Let me, hello. My name is Tilly. Sorry, we've just been talking and we didn't realize that I hadn't started. I'm sorry. Ok, we'll start again. So this is the second session for we're going to talk about White Space questions. My name's Tilly and um I'm doing an SFP in Brighton and um this is Angus. I'll let you introduce yourself. Yeah. Hi, Va sorry about that technical issue. Um Yeah, my name is Angus and I'm the SP in Newcastle at the moment. Uh So welcome to our second talk, which is on White Space questions and like we said before, but obviously no one heard we can't tell you anything specific about what we had in our cycle. But obviously the White Space questions are quite general anyway, and they're going to be specific to you. So just to talk about what are the White Space questions? So it's just pretty much a port, it's just a personal statement separated out into different questions. You'll have a word limit of 200 words for each question. So that's not that many. So it's important to be concise and it's kind of an opportunity to show off why you would be good for the SFP. And I guess they separate it out to questions to kind of show you the attributes that they want. And so you've just got to kind of give examples and kind of reflect on that. Um Often, um my to my understanding that after you get shortlisted for an interview, they don't look at them again. So it's just kind of a way to get shortlisted for an interview and often an interview, I don't think they'll have them in front of them. So it's not necessarily, I wouldn't worry about exactly what what you've said, but obviously what you said in your white space questions is what you're gonna say at interview. So I'm gonna hand over to Angus to talk about some top tips. Um Also, again, we're really sorry for the technical error. Um Please, can everyone hear us now, just before we start going off on a tangent again, if someone just says they can hear and then we can. Yes. Ok, good. I'll hand over to Angus then. Perfect. Um, so before we go through sort of each question in turn with advice, uh, and then we'll also go through some example answers, uh, and sort of analyze the good and bad points. These are just sort of our top five tips before getting started. Um I think it can be quite daunting sort of approaching the white space questions, even technology, like it's not something you would have used before. But as Teddy said, it's essentially just a personal statement and it's just an opportunity for you to sort of to show off uh the most impressive parts of your, your CV and why you should be all right, for this role. So number one is plan structure. Again, it, it, when you're trying to put pen to paper, it can be quite difficult unless you sort of uh brainstorm some different ideas. So I'd make sure you sort of review your current achievements, whether you have an academic CV. Already, this might be a good opportunity to, to curate one. and just sort of see how your achievements and projects you've done so far can fit into uh these questions. And then number two is just sort of, I think you can just be quite savvy with it. So um if you actually look up online, the UK FP 2024 person specification, it's essentially just a blueprint of what the government and the NHS want in the qualities of their junior doctors. And I think all, all the dearies are basically basing their uh their mark schemes if you will on, on that blueprint. So I find it quite useful to just sort of go through the specification and highlight all the qualities they're looking for and try and somehow fit those into my answers. Um So this is just sort of working backwards and making sure you're covering all bases to, to prove that you're an all rounded doctor with not just clinical competencies, but also that, that research background uh and, and a passion for your, your subject. So number three is um a bit of a strange one, but I think it's just basically just be interesting and try and find sort of interesting answers to questions if you can because you have to be aware that these assessors we're reading, you know, tens if not hundreds of applications. So it can be quite an arduous task for them. So I think similar to personal statements, university, if you can try and stand out with sort of interesting examples or maybe something that others might not have done, then that will just catch their attention and hopefully make you stand out a bit more. Uh And then the next one is basically just draft and redraft. You've got a, a few weeks now to crack on with it. So I just try and get answers down as soon as you can, even if they're not perfect and then you can take a day or two out sort of, you know, process it and then look at it with, with fresh eyes and just keep going through that process and just tweaking and tweaking. Because um I think part of this application is, although it is based on your, your current CV, you do have a real opportunity to, to manufacture the best version of yourself. Uh So it is just being about being savvy with it. Uh And this is a really good way to structure um interesting answers. And unlike the academic achievements, which is very sort of black and white, you know, you've either got to PUBMED idea or you don't, this is the opportunity to, to really sort of emphasize your best achievements and explain why they're relevant and why you should get this role. Um And then finally, uh tip number five is just get as much feedback as you can. So whether that's from uh academic supervisors or any buddies or anyone, you know, who's been through either this application process or specialty applications or even just family members, if, if they course experience in, you know, any sort of writing or um any applications or interview processes, I would just try and get as many opinions as you can, as much feedback as you can and then you can just tweak your, your answers. So it's as as well rounded as possible. Yeah, definitely I think even these tips might seem quite obvious, but I think it's quite easy when you start writing something to write something quite basic in a way. And these people are going to be like, like I said, reading hundreds and hundreds and if you say, oh, I want to do SFP, so I can do research so then I can enhance my career. That's boring. You need to be kind of specific and say what you like doing. And I think something you can just add a bit of yeah, uniqueness to it because to be honest, I would be quite bored reading loads of these and just on the right there, there's a book that I would recommend. So it's kind of for medical interviews for specialty training, but they kind of separate out questions to like what are your career plans and they give examples of like how to structure them. And I think it's really good, obviously, it's for interviews, but the White Space question is pretty much like a a written down interview. Um because often a lot of the right face questions, they're gonna ask you similar sort of questions at the interview. And so that this book will probably be available at all med school libraries or maybe it will be online and some with some through some medical schools. But I would recommend it, it kind of separates it out. I would say it's quite a lot of detail. They're not going to necessarily, you don't need to go into like loads of niche, special specialty stuff. But it's quite a good idea to kind of give you a flavor because obviously it's quite different to personal statement now, but also quite similar because of, you know, six years, 56 years down the line. So now, so structuring your writing. So, I mean, I'm sure I'm just, this is quite obvious, but point evidence explains. So you kind of want to be clear what you're trying to say. So you want to say I was captain of the hockey team. And why are you wanting to say that? Because it means that I'm good at organizing and leading a group and this will be good when in my future practice as a clinician and that sort of thing kind of reflect it back. And I'm using powerful verbs. So I think, I mean, it could kind of be quite obvious, but just, you know, I'm resilient and all this sort of stuff. I think you can always kind of highlight them in bold and just think what, what's going to attract the reader thinking you're going to be good for this role. And I think answer the question often, it's quite difficult to answer the question because you can sometimes answer the question that you want to answer and you can kind of go off on a tangent, but then you, you'll score quite low for that. And I think Yeah, definitely break the question down to sections. I think it's probably better to have fewer points, but more kind of explained, more explained instead of having loads of different points and not really linking them to why you'd be good for the SFP. So I think, yeah, always link it back to the SFP and also why you'd be good as a doctor as well because a lot of the SFP, they want to know that you'd be good as a clinician. Cos obviously, you're gonna have less clinical time and they want to know that you're gonna be able to manage that and what you're gonna do to ensure that you get clinical competencies. So there's the star approach. So for some questions kind of say what the situation was, er, like, let's say when you're talking about leadership, I was captaining the hockey team, there was a difficult situation where, um so, you know, someone dropped out and then we had a team to rely on. And then, so what I did was, you know, just when you, how you found a solution and then how you're gonna link it back to medicine. That was a poor example, but I can't think of one off the top of my head, then there's the C A approach. So when you're answering questions, so talk about a clinical point, an academic point and then a management point which is maybe kind of less relevant in for some questions and then a leadership point. So you always want to show that you have all of those attributes when answering a question. Um So I think it's important to not waffle that every character counts. I know, I'm sure as if you go back 56 years ago, your personal statement, those I think it was 4000 characters, every character counts. So I think um you just got to be careful and I think if you write down loads of words initially and then cut it down, it's a lot easier. And I think, yeah, so when you're cutting down, that's often non medical people can help you. I remember my mum helped me to call a lot of words and then to get a very concise um statement. So these are white space questions 2024. So I'm sure you've had a look at them if um you're interested in applying to SAP, which I presume you all are, you're here. So the first question is about career goals and then program interest. So I think it's important we're talking about program interest to kind of be specific. And don't worry if you don't know what you wanna do. It doesn't, I don't think, you know, you're not gonna be held tied down to whatever you say in your program interests and then talk about what research you've done. And like Angus said, this is a really good opportunity to talk about the things that you have done that haven't necessarily been published or haven't been published yet or you've done like projects um at UNR at, in medical school and stuff like that. It's a real opportunity to talk about sort of different sort of stuff. And the same for education and teaching, if you've done quite a lot of informal teaching or anything like that and then leadership and team working as well. I think sometimes I think it's good to use non medical examples but not too many. I think you need to make sure that it is kind of medical themed because obviously this is what all the application is about, but it is good to add a little bit of uniqueness by adding maybe something non medical. I think also when you talk about program interests, so some deaneries don't use all the white space questions, some don't use them all. So we talked about this in our first talk which the recording is available on medal. So have a look and it's also on all the websites. Um So let's say you're applying to two deaneries. So I'm sure, you know, you can only apply to two deaneries and one of the deans doesn't use any of the white space questions. That is an opportunity for you to put some really niche stuff to that particular deary in the answer to the question. So for example, when I applied some of the questions I applied for Yorkshire and Kss and Wessex, which is one unit of application. Er, one of Yorkshire didn't use one of the questions I could talk about Brighton and the South downs and how I, you know, love to be near the beach and stuff. So I could be really specific at the sort of end of the question. I think it's important to say. Yeah, make sure you keep it medical themed, but just add a little bit of flavor at the end. Um So we'll talk, Angus is gonna talk about um We'll go through the questions individually and just reminder, just remember to check the Deanie websites and check who needs the right special questions and who doesn't and so on the application form and or I kind of, we showed it in the first talk if you apply to both Dean two deaneries that they don't use certain questions, just put N A in the question box. OK? They're not gonna read it. So don't worry, you don't have to fill it in. So don't, don't do too much work. OK? And I'll hand over to Angus to talk about career goals. OK, perfect. So yeah, so just to reiterate uh questions, 12 and six are mandatory for everyone. And then as tidy said, you'll need to check on your websites for which other questions they're gonna mark. Um But we'll go through each question in detail. Um So yeah, so the first one's career goals um and at the top in the ital, you can see that's, that's the question you asking this year. It was very similar to last year. Um And you're always gonna get that question and you need to have, you know, well answers both for the space questions and for the interview. So as Tilly said, the first thing to do is just break it down into it part. So for this question, the two main parts are a, why are you applying? And what's your interest? And b what are your career plans? So that's how I structure this question. Um So in terms of your motivations, try and make it as personal as you can, I've given some examples here uh of just reasons why people go into academics or teaching. Um you know, for research, you feel like you're, you know, you're pushing the medical pressure forward or influencing guidelines, maybe you have an interest in technology. Uh maybe, you know, you have a desire to travel the world and present your, your findings at conferences and different locations, but I, I try to make it as personal as you can. Um But there's just a few examples. Uh And again, as we said to try and make it specific. So if you do have a really niche interest, then I think that's really good. And I would mention that here because it, again, it just shows that um you, you, you are really passionate about it. So I try and go into, into detail in that. And then the second part of the question is your career ambitions. And I think the main reason they're asking this is basically just to show that you have an awareness of the academic pathway and you, you've done your research, which again shows commitment. Um And yeah, this this pathway here, you'll see quite a lot and I think it can be quite useful to structure some of your answer off this pathway. So this is the integrated academic training pathway. Um I won't go through this in detail, but basically, um you can use it to structure your your answers. You can say I'd really like to join this SP program as it will help me gain skills such as critical appraisal or, you know, coding for statistics analysis. And this will help me sort of form the foundations of my career and hopefully, um hopefully will assist me in my application for AC F training or, or a phd further down the line. So that's the sort of the sort of thing you want to say. Um And yeah, just to mention again, with the motivations, I would just try and show it as much enthusiasm as you can. So you don't have to be really bland and just give off a robotic answer. I'd go into detail and just really try and portray your genuine interest and enthusiasm in the specialty. Yeah, it's definitely, I think an opportunity to say a bit about what you've done because you kind of wanna show why you've been motivated. So it's kind of, it's just another opportunity to show what's on your CV. So make sure it's not just sort of general example of, I want to do research because then this will make me a best doctor because that's what everyone's gonna say. I think also, like I said, it's, they want not, they don't want you to do an SFP to get so for your portfolio to then apply for specialty training. But they want you to be a clinical academic and a clinical academic. Part of the role is being clinician, but also part of the role is um pushing forward research and improving clinical practice. And they want to see that you actually have a genuine interest in doing that and you're not just doing this as a tick box exercise. So I think it's important to kind of make it as enthusiastic as possible like anger said, um so I guess if you wanna talk about program interests, OK. So again, I would check with this question whether it's actually included in the market scheme or not because it isn't always included. But you're basically just you, you, you tick a box next to which domain you instrument applying for. And then um it'll just have another box of 200 word count where you can go into more detail, just explain your rationale behind why you're choosing that domain. Um And again, if they do mark it, I think it's just an opportunity to build on um what you've answered in the first question. Do you mind? Go to the next slide? Yes. It's just an opportunity to go into more detail um for your motivations and potentially, yeah, go into the, the, it bit of the, the specifics of what you're hoping to uh research or teach in that project. And again, you can make this bit deary specific, especially if, as you said earlier, one of the dearies marks and the other doesn't, then you can be quite savvy with this and you can look up um that specific foundation school and you can even, you know, name drop certain facilities they have, which you're hoping to take advantage of or say, oh, I'm really excited to join this department because they're, you know, world leading in this research. Um So yeah, it just an example of tick those boxes and show that you, you've done your ground work. Um And again, things like the PG cert or the different structure of the program, you can always mention that and say how that will suit your rep application. No, definitely. So for example, if you didn't attend the first talk at Brighton, so mine is a four month block which I kind of said not necessarily my express question, I really like the four months to kind of get properly into it. And whereas some people, I think Scotland have like half days a week, every half days every week um for like the whole of F two. Whereas Angus, for example, in Newcastle, you have 24 month blocks. So I think if you are applying for Newcastle, I mean, I'm sure Angus can speak, but like you have a lot more opportunity to do your research. And I think there's definitely something especially an interview to be said, like you can do a project and then you can do another project. I, I mean, I'll let you speak about Angus, obviously, you know, a bit more about it. Yeah, I mean, it, it depends on what sort of project you're doing. A lot of people do it. If they're going to lab based work, it can give you that, that four months to really develop your, your pure science skills. And then in the, the second block, you can pick up where you left off from, really go into detail or for example, I'm doing a clinical outcome project and this blocks which I'm on currently, which my block is really useful to do the literature review. Um smash out a pilot study just with pay 20 patients. And then I can analyze sort of what progress we've made and then going forward, I can plan how I'm gonna to carry out the full project on a much larger sample size in two. So it just gives you that extra breathing room. Really. Yeah, definitely because realistically, the project is not gonna be done within the four months, like especially if you need ethical approval and all this sort of stuff. So you want to also illustrate that you're gonna be organized and you're gonna get on it as well. So I think the four month block is obviously the allocated time, but you will be having to do work outside of that. Um So yeah, I definitely think, like we said, make sure that you look on the website, see what they offer specifically because every most deer are quite similar, but like they offer slightly different things. So for example, KSS, you get funding for to do a PG set or to do another degree at Brighton um university, which is so I of doing a PG set this year. So I think it's important to kind of look show that you've done your research like Angus said, OK, so the third white space question is the research one which I would say is probably the easiest it, it, it's basically you just outlining all the projects you've done and the output they've had. So I would, I would definitely focus on one piece of research, uh, which has been the most impressive in your, your opinion. And you can just go through basically what the project is. Um And you can always use the PCO framework for that, which we can go through at the end. Um, what your role was within that project and the skills you learned from it and then also the output of that project. So you might not have got the publication yet to use in your academic achievements. But you can mention, oh, this was presented at an international conference or I won, you know, the first prize for presenting it as a student conference or whatever. So you can just go through the process of sort of the main output. And also we said it a few times but just reflection to reflect on the challenges and what you learned from it and try and tie that into the, the SFP person specifications and they'll be really impressed with you, you're able to do that. And then as I said, it's really difficult because you've only got 200 words. But if you do have a chance to mention a few other projects which you think are worthwhile mentioning, then you can always mention, you know, oh I also in and did a media analysis some for my, you know, um dissertation or in SSC two, I managed to present and we won the, you know, local teaching prize or whatever. Um But yeah, essentially that's, that's a really nice question to just include all your achievements and, and really, you know, impress the the assessors. No, definitely. And also I just forgot to mention. So if we go back to program interests, so you have to like indicate there's a little tick box on the application say, you know, you want to do research, one or education and training one. So definitely be when you're answering that question, be specific to research, educational leadership. But so I think one deanie wouldn't let you rank the other jobs. But when you're linking all the jobs, you can rank if you just clicked that button and research, it doesn't mean you don't have access to rank the medical education jobs and the management jobs. So unless you need to check the website because one de I've forgotten which one said you can, if you pick the research, you can only rank the research but obviously or is not advanced enough to like only allow once you click that box, only give you those certain job. So for example, like I wanted to be in Brighton. So I ranked all the Brighton research jobs and then the medical education jobs over Southampton research jobs. So just to keep in mind, you have an opportunity to apply for kind of all of them because what job you get at the end will just be based on your interview score and like kind of matching that to the job. So you're not like, yes. So it doesn't necessarily matter what you click, you have an opportunity for most dear to, to do any of those. And I think even if you're like, let's say you want to do research and you get a medical education, one you can still do research in that four month block and it's still really good opportunity to grow your CV. So I definitely would, you know, can definitely consider it if you were to get an offer for that. So sorry for that tangent, I'll hand over to, I guess, to talk about education and teaching. No, it's a good point. Um So, yeah, so the fourth one is education and teaching and again, just in terms of splitting the question up, he got two really discrete parts to it. So just as a rule of thumb, you, you're trying to sort of use up around 100 words on each part of the question. Um So part one is basically you, you want to try and give an example of your own experience in teaching and the impact you had on that session or project um and reflect on it and make the skills recipe. So that's part one. It, you notice it says within or outside of medicine. So it's given you sort of complete free range. So you can go for societies or you can go for extracurricular like sports or music. So I, I just try to use your most impressive example, but just remember to link it back to the sop and reflect on it. That's the most important part. And then the second part of this question, um which is a bit of a strange one. We had it last year and it must be something they're really focusing on because I think simulation training is a bit of a hot topic at the moment. So they just want to check that, you know, you're aware of it and you have a good understanding of it. Um So yeah, so you want to detail your own experience in simulation training and the value that it can have for doctors. And again, for this one, I actually did quite a lot of research. Um And you can just find sort of buzz words and you know, the highest tech uh sort of si si training you've used. So you could say, oh our medical school, we get to use a Sim man uh who, who's really responsive. And this is really helpful because it enables us to learn a controlled environment and you can detail different benefits of SI training, which I honestly just looked up. So things like, yeah, learning a controlled environment, being able to develop new communication skills, um gaining personalized feedback from tutors and also even things like working in a multidisciplinary team with nurses or pharmacists because this isn't something we get to do a lot of medical school. So I'll just do your research and just sort of drop a few of those in and they'll be like quite impressed by that because I don't think everyone will do that. Um And again, you can reflect that back and be and say, my, my experience with man working in these two sessions was really helpful when I was on my A block because I found I had a, a structure approach to clinical prioritization. I could, you know, be a really valuable member of the team and that just sort of round, round off your answer and uh sort of links back to your impact. No, definitely. And you can always also if you, if you want to apply for an education one, then talk about saying, and I know this program offers me the opportunity to teach medical students with. And I'd want to, you know, use more simulation training. And I think if you mean, even if you haven't done the SIMS with those like um quite advanced dummies uh simulation, it just literally means like the dummies for venipuncture, literally an arm or like let's say, um I can simulation training has a quite a broad meaning. It's not necessarily when you do the acute imss in medicine. So, yeah, I definitely, there's a lot of research on it and definitely have a read up what sort of thing they're looking for because they are looking for a specific sort of answer for that one. So if I talk about some leadership, so give one example in which you've demonstrated your leadership abilities. So yeah, you can't use school examples when you're a captain of the hockey team at school. Uh But no, so I think this is sometimes an opportunity to maybe use something that's non medical, obviously if you have a medical example, that's completely fine. Um But yeah, this is an example to use a nonmedical thing. And I think we definitely just so this is a good thing to say what your role was. And also to then use the star approaches to give an example of when there was a difficulty, what you did to tackle this and then what skills you've learned and how you will kind of use that um in your career in your SFP. And I think demonstrating, if you look up the words, what makes a good leader. So, you know, good communication, good listener and like how you would then and why the leadership is important to medicine. So kind of you're leading the MDT and all this sort of things. So I think it's important to link it back to medicine. And definitely I would use an example to kind of give an example where something where you have to be a leader and you have to step up and what you did and then how you're going to take that on to SFP. So that might be quite obvious. But I think this is probably an opportunity to use something with a bit of flare. And obviously like if you, you know, I think from my example, I used, I was like president of this medical society, we organized a conference, then COVID happened. So the conference had to go online quickly. This was really difficult but by using, you know, everyone's um skills within the team, we managed to do this. And I'll, you know, this has taught me some resilience and stuff like that. So I think it's quite obvious what sort of thing you should be using, but definitely a good idea to use um the star approach in this question. So then if the sixth question is about teamwork, so I'm sure it's quite obvious why teamwork is really important within medicine. So I think, yeah, to use it, this is they're asking for example, in this one. And I think kind of like the, the last one, it's important to use the Star approach again, emphasize why it was success and kind of similar to the last question. But this way you it's a teamwork example instead of leadership. And so I guess if you have two leadership roles, you can use um another leadership role for this one, but definitely use different examples of each question because I think it's you only have 200 words. So you need to make sure you show as much as what you have on your CV as possible. Um So I think those are all rough questions and now we've got some example, White Space questions and we can try and use a poll, but obviously, we're quite technologically challenged this evening. So the first question we've given an example. So what are your specific reasons um applying for recipes? So the career interest one. So this is our answer. I'll let you have a read for it. I won't read it out loud. Um Maybe just you, you have to message you kind of you want, but just think in your head of maybe a few good points about this answer and a few negative, negative parts of the answer and if you message and that'd be great. But I said in tutorials, so I'm gonna try and correct poem and see whether you think it's a really good answer or, or an average answer or bad answer. Um Let me see if this works. And I bring too, it doesn't matter if not. No. So you don't have to answer. Sorry, I didn't need to answer. So everyone's had a great questions. So I've just put the poll in, hopefully that should be up. So if you just want to say what you think about this question and if not, we can just, so the poll should be next to the cha feature, I think. OK. Yeah. So that's good. So, yes, we agree. So, um let me check. So this question is very vague. You know, it's just saying the only kind of niche thing that they've said is genetics. You studied genetics as an undergraduate, but great lots of people have done that and I find research very interesting. Why do you find the research? Very interesting? Um And to get a number of publications, I think that's kind of like a red flag. That's kind of saying you want to do an SFP for, you know, the tick box exercises. It's just really a very vague answer and anyone could write it. You, you, you're not really showing what you've done or why you're actually interested in, in the program. So I think this is a sort of improved answer. So I'll let you have a read of it and then we'll go through why we think this is a much better answer. So kind of, I think this is also a good thing when you're writing to kind of highlight the bo words and what the points are trying to say. So this is much more specific and you can kind of give an idea, you, you can from this answer, you can kind of see that this person actually has an interest or has shown that they have an interest in research and what it's gonna do for their career. And I think it is important to kind of say what sort of career you're interested in. And I, like I said before, don't worry, you're not gonna be held down to this, but I think they want to show you have some sort of direction of interest. Um So yeah, I think they, these are the buzzwords that kind of we've highlighted and I think we just wanted to show that you need to be specific and you don't want, you just want to write an answer that no one else will write in a way like as in no one's gonna have done this niche thing that you've done. So if Angus, you go on to example two. So let me, so example two is, was white space question six. So it's focusing on teamwork. Um So I'll just give you a second to read through the sensor and again, just sort of thinking ahead of some good and some bad parts of it. Yeah. So I think, I mean, it's going to be quite obvious that we're, I've got, we're going, this is not going to be a good answer. We won't do the poll again. But if people want to on the chat, say what they think is good about this answer and maybe what they think is bad about this answer. They soon. Ok, that's probably enough time. Can we go to the next slide to visit? Yeah. So, um, that's probably where we've put the, the poor answer first. So, yeah, we wouldn't say this is a very intensive, but I, I also wouldn't say it's an awful answer. Like it's a really impressive achievement. You know, they're part of a society and they've obviously had a really a good impact on, on the, the audience who went to the, the event. Um, so I wouldn't say it's a terrible answer. I just think the way they portrayed it is not as good as it could be. And this is where it leads back to what I was talking about earlier in terms of you, your CV is, is one part of the application. It's how you maximize the output of your CV. And really sort of emphasize and reflect on the, the best parts of it that will really help you get to interview and hopefully get the um get the job you're after. So, so yes, I would say it's an impressive achievement and obviously they've clearly got successful outcomes um which they've even got evidence for in terms of feedback. So I'd say they are really good points, but it's just not a very clear structure. Um He, he doesn't, he or she doesn't really don't demonstrate their specific role. So it says their sponsorship secretary, then it's just really vague in terms of working alongside other members of the committee. You know, they need to be saying, oh, I managed to cure these sponsorship uh organizations and I did that through, you know, reaching out to different different uh members. Um but it doesn't go into that in detail. Um And then also, although it sort of mentions possible outcomes to the event, it doesn't really describe the personal skills learned. And again, going back to what I said earlier, it doesn't link back to how that will help them in the SFP program, which is what you're always wanting to do. So, yeah, just sort of summarize, I think it is a good achievement. But I think it, it could be a much better answer if they go into detail on their specific role and also link back on the skills they've learned and how this will help them in the program. OK. So then this is our next example, which is clearly an improved version. I'll just give you a second to redo it. OK. Mhm. OK. Um So again, I've used a slightly different example here and that wasn't to confuse people. It was just to sort of um make clear the point that you can use different experiences. It doesn't have to be about a society, it can be from your clinic experience, uh or even, you know, sort of sporting, sporting or extract experience. Um, but the, the reason this is an improved answer is it's got a really nice structure, it's using that star approach, which we talked about earlier. So, you know, there's, there's a difficult situation, er, which they had to overcome, they've, they've clearly explained their role within the team. Um And also, er, it just sort of links back to, to positive outcomes and what they've learned from it. So, um just going through it has got a few of the buzzwords which is really nice. Like another hot topic along with simulation training is this emphasis on the multidisciplinary team and, you know, valuing other members of health care and not just uh medical but also the nursing staff or physiotherapists. So it's nice to sort of mention that um it, it then goes through their specific role and the impact they had. Um And also the reaching out to colleagues is just a really nice point because again, as tiny mentioned earlier, if you're successful with an SFP position, you're going to have less time in clinical practice. So they want to be 100% confident that you're clinically safe. And one of the main points which we mentioned here, but also is really useful interview is basically escalated when you feel out of your depth because that's, that's the big role of a junior doctor. You know, you're not an expert in the field, but you need to be able to recognize red flags and recognize when, when to flag it up to seniors because that will ultimately keep patients safety. Uh and well being, which again is what they want to hear. And then just at the end, they've just tied it into some, some sort of main points they've learned and it just, it shows an understanding of teamwork like closed loop communications, a really important part of team work, especially in sort of the emergency setting. Um And yeah, linking back to the teams roles and how that will that'll help them in their program. So, although it's a different example, um I've just used this because it shows that it doesn't have to be um you sort of classical society event, uh it can be something slightly different like an experience from placement, but as long as you structure it well and reflect on it and think back then, I think that's what we gave you those those maximum points. Yeah, definitely. It's quite a nice answer to read as well. It's like a, I think for these like example, questions where they ask you to list one example, it, you want to tell a story and this is quite nice to read. And I think the White Space questions are really an opportunity. If you don't have a lot of stuff in your CV, that's completely fine. But you have, you've been to placement. So you will have examples of all these things. It's to show, yeah, you, you can use anything for these examples. And I think this example is showing that you are committed, you know, you're committed to medicine. And I don't think everything needs to be shown. You're committed to research and all this thing because they want you to, they want you to be a good doctor as well. The sp is not just about the research, it's also about, it's also the foundation program. So I think, yeah, it's a really nice answer. And I think with all the questions, you know, just message people above you may have applied and you know, kind of ask to see what their white space questions look like and definitely, you know, give, send them to, like we said before, send them to everyone and I think it is always good for, like, non medical people to just have a read to them and see if they, you know, because everyone has experience in, you know, how to advertise themselves. It doesn't necessarily have to be related to medicine. So, um, I'll just let Angus talk about the top tips again. Yeah, I just thought I'd leave it on here for a second. So I think these are sort of the main points that I would take away from this session. Um And it can just help, as I said, it is quite daunting the white space questions, but I think I would just frame it as your mind as a really good opportunity to Bera, you know, why you're right for this role and why, why you're clinically and academically competent and this, this is your best chance to really emphasize um your most positive attributes. Um And again, as well as reflecting which we really sort of tried to drill into, into these questions. Um You can use the star and camp approach because they're just really helpful to, to offer a bit of structure. And it's just, it makes it easier if the assessor to and that medical interview book really gives a lot of examples and stuff. So it gives you the sort of ideas of the stuff you should be mean, you, they want you to be sort of mentioning. And I think what I, what I did is like you might think, oh, what have I even got, for example, is I kind of made a one note notebook and had like different sections to it. And that's why I have everything that I have on my portfolio because it's really important to start that now because when you get to like ST applications, you're going to be like, what did I do at medical school? But that stuff is all relevant for specialty training applications. And I think the White Space questions, like we said in the first talk are really an opportunity for you. If you don't have loads of academic achievements, which is completely fair enough, you um can talk about other stuff and it's an opportunity for you to kind of show off why you'd be good for the role because lots of people haven't got publications which is, you know, completely fair enough. They're difficult to get um medical school. Like we've got lots of other things going on in medical school. And I think if, if you don't have loads of achievements on paper, like we talked about in the first talk, some deaneries use the White Space questions more heavily than others. So maybe consider applying to those dearies over the others. So I see we've got a question. So can you go over the PCO framework you mentioned? So, Angus, do you want to talk about that? Yeah, absolutely. So you'll, you'll see the PCO framework used quite a lot because it's just quite a nice way to break down any sorts of projects and it's quite adaptable to different types of projects. Um So the p is for patients or problem and that's basically uh what group are you, are you performing some research on? So whether it's a clinical outcome project and I mean, I can just use my own project. So I'm looking at uh all patients who've had early stage breast cancer, uh who have undergone a certain type of breast reconstruction. So that's my sample. And for that, um for that sample, I'll have a certain number of sample size, say 300 in one trust. And I'll just detail the, the different specifications of that sample size. So it might be all these patients between a certain age range of, you know, 35 to 50 or they're all female or you can just sort of um detail different parts of it. So the intervention is um what is it, which you know, what is your intervention in the project? So whether that's looking at um a certain type of operation or whether quality improvement project, whether you've put up posters around the world to try and encourage, you know, more diligent uh record keeping your intervention is the impact you're having on the project that that's gonna change the outcomes. Um And then, so the next part of it is see which comparison. So for any sort of project, you need a control group. Um and basically, usually you'll have two main control groups. One will be the one receiving intervention. So whether that's, as I mentioned earlier, a certain type of operation or even in clinical trials, it'll be a certain drug, you'll have this alternative group, which is your control group. So in the clinical trial example, that will be a placebo group um And the, the benefit of that group is basically uh you need a comparison otherwise, your results are quite abstract. Uh So that's the comparison or control and then, oh is your outcomes? So basically, what are the outcomes of your, of your project? So um for example, going back to my projects, if I'm looking at a certain type of um breast reconstruction, my outcomes would be oncological outcomes. So has it, has it cured the cancer? Has it uh reduced rates of recurrence? You could have patient reported outcomes, has it improved quality of life? Um And it really depends on your project. So for the clinical trials, it could be, you know, has it reduced rates of heart attacks in the 10 years following the study? So definitely, I think it's relevant. It's not necessarily it's relevant for interview when you're talking about research and stuff to have that structure. But I think for the whites questions, obviously, you don't have loads of like um words even sorry. So this is kind of relevant for the research question. So when you're talking about what you did to kind of what your project was to use the PCO structure. But you don't need to go in like loads of details in the research question. You need to kind of, they don't really want to know all about your study. They want to know what you've learned from the study and why you're good for the role. But this is important to think about that sort of for interviews. And when we talk about we have an interview session, I don't remember what date we said. But Monday the 16th of October, there's lots of book, like there's a couple of books that we recommend to kind of go through kind of research stuff that's really useful for interviews. So now does anyone have any questions? And then we have a feedback form which would be very grateful if you could fill out. Um But we have to answer any questions. I can just just put the link in the chat about White Space questions or just about the general application. Um All right, so I can let me turn off, let me stop presenting. So I feel like then you can OK. So John has asked, do you think we should try and use different examples for different questions, exam? Avoid using SSE five B for education, teaching and team marketing. Definitely, I think, you know, you've only got 200 words each question. Don't use the same example, you know, because why would you do that as a kind of a you want to make sure you wanna show everything you you've done and like what all your skills and using the same example would be a waste of a question. And I think if you, let's say you have one leadership role, then in the teamwork, you talk about something on the ward that you did or anything like that. So I think, yeah, definitely use different examples for each one and that's the same in, in interview as well. So when you have the interview, definitely kind of think about different examples and I think that's really important when, because it goes back to having your portfolio li separated out and to know what you have. And then before interview, when you are answering your white face questions, kind of think tick, I've used that tick, I've used that. So definitely kind of look at everything you've got. This is a really good opportunity. Anyway, even if you do get into the SFP to kind of gather all of your portfolio achievements and it will help um further down the line anyway. Does anyone have any other questions? Well, Angus, do you have anything to add in from that question? No, I don't think so. Yeah, you made a good point that um yeah, the PCO framework is much more useful in interviews because yeah, you're not gonna be able to cover that in 200 words, but you could just say really briefly, oh, you know, I, I was involved in a bladder cancer project. Um My main role was data analysis and I also learned from more experienced academics about, you know, statistic analysis. Uh I can bring this into my, my uh program. So that's probably more the level you want to go up because yeah, 200 words isn't a lot. No. And I think, yeah, whatever the answer to these questions is the sort of thing you're going to say at interview. Um So kind of and you don't. Yeah, like I said, I think that I doubt will for at least remind me they're not going to be looking at white space questions at interview. So once you submit them, it's just kind of to get points and a lot of the points like we, like we said are to do with how well they're written. So definitely keep sending them to people and keep redrafting them. I mean, by the end of it, I think I couldn't even look at my questions anymore. I was so done with them. Um So we got some more questions. Is it 100 words for education? Examples and 100 words for sim training or 202 100? No, it will just be 200 for that whole question. Going to Angus the SIM training question. What questions is that education? And Oh yeah, yeah. So yeah, overall it's 200 words, you can split it however you want. I was just saying, um I'll try and do it about half and half. But yeah, it's 200 for both parts of that one question. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not a lot. Um But yeah, I think this, yeah, it comes down to just being really, really concise um on your or application. Is it required to pick only one theme, Eded? Leadership of research? Yeah. You, you can only, so, like I said, this is such a anyway, it's a weird system but you just click one box, you can only click one box and then when you're answering that question, just talk about, let's say if you want to do education, just talk about why you want to do education. But I think there was one dean like le er LNR, not er sorry LNR which say you could only rank the education jobs. If you clicked education, you could only rank the me like the leadership jobs if you click leadership. Um but obviously, or doesn't have the like facilities to like once you click that box to only show you the jobs for research. So you'll submit the application and then you'll get an email. I think a couple of weeks later being like you need to then go on to or, and rank all your jobs and they'll be like separate tiles and then you have to just put them all in order. It's a bit of a ff luckily for sap. There's not usually that many jobs when you do the UK FPO. When you do the general application, there were, you know, thousands of jobs people were having to, it took, took them hours. I think some people took it to a new level of obsession anyway. But you can rank, it doesn't matter. Let's say you put click research. So I'm going off on a tangent. You can put some research jobs and then you can put some medical education jobs and you can put some research jobs below them. It doesn't matter what order for a lot of the deaneries because they don't necessarily Yeah, you just need, I think that question is more just tick the box to say what you're going to talk about because you, you might, when you apply, you then you get an after interview, you then get a score and you don't necessarily know what job you're gonna get. So I think unless the deaneries. So some one dean when I was looking up has said that you can only rank certain jobs if you click one. But yeah, so you can do either. And I think, yeah, like I said before, even if you don't want to do education necessarily and you get an education SFP I would definitely go for it because it's an opportunity to do more research and education is important in any specialty training because you're going to be educating doctors, going to be educating patients. Like it, it's a core part of medicine and the reason they changed it to a specialized foundation program is it's all, you know, linked. Like, I'm on an academic book now, but I still do a leadership course. I'm still, um, you know, running this teaching course with it. So I, I, yeah, I wouldn't worry too much. You can do it whatever you want now. Yeah, definitely. Um, so, yeah, I think, yeah, I just, I think it's a really good opportunity just to build your CV and kind of do something outside because also F one and F two is like, there are some really good moments but you're doing a lot of rubbish jobs, like you're ordering a lot of CT scans, you're doing a lot of like scribing, unless it's sort of, you know, on calls and stuff. It is a pretty rubbish job and it's nice to kind of have a block where you get to do something different and you get to kind of build on your interest and stuff like that. Um So does anyone have any other questions that can be about anything or the general UK FPO application as well? Obviously, it's all changed for you guys with the, the, with this new algorithm. So it's going to be a bit of an interesting one. So can you apply for one education and one research in two separate dearies? No, you can, it's one application. So on oral, it'll be, you have one application for the whole thing for the, the normal FP, the F you can apply for an FFP. So the priority programs and the SFP, it's like one big form. So if you click research, if you click research on the answer that question, it's like each de both dearies will see the same questions. You don't write like specific questions for each deary. So no, you, you only get to the each deary gets to see the central application you do. I don't know if I've kind of been clear that what I'm trying to say. So I'm a bit tired of just come off the notes. Um But yeah, so you kind of, I don't, but again, I don't think it matters too much. I would definitely click what you're interested in though. You know, if you want to do research or if you want to do education because you're gonna have more examples for that one. OK. Does anyone have any other questions or we can, I can stop rambling at least? Um um Yeah, I would just say just trying to stress just, you know, sit down and calmly brainstorm all your achievements and then just get them, get them into the work space questions. Yeah, definitely. And I think, I think unfortunately because of this new SFP is gonna be probably more popular this year. So don't be disheartened if you don't get it, it's a really good learning experience kind of writing down, you know, everything you've done and it's only gonna make your applications stronger for specialty training cos you're going to have a greater understanding about how these sort of things work. And again, so the white space questions are very similar to the sort of things that is going to happen when you get invited to interview or if you get to interview. But again, don't be disheartened. I have a feeling this year it's going to be very competitive because of this new change to the foundation program. Um So I think if that's all the questions, we'll leave it there. So the next session is on the 16th of October, and we're gonna go through some interview advice and then after that, we've got a mock interview session. So we won't be running the mock interview session. We won't be running, you know, mock interviews on each one of you because we'll be here all night. We're gonna run a mock interview on each other and we have some other SFP colleagues as well who we might do some examples just to kind of see the sort of thing that would happen. Again, we can't disclose exactly what we had, but we'll just give you a flavor or the sort of thing. Um That's what happened for our interviews and I, I think all the interviews will be online as well. So in the interview, vice questions we'll session and we'll just go through you know how to present yourself and stuff, which I'm sure is obvious, but just, definitely makes all the difference because I think people say, oh, you know, this, it's about what you have done, but it's actually a lot about is how you communicate yourself and how you, you know, your first impression is really important. Um, so anyway, good luck for all the applications. I know it's a stressful time. I don't envy you. Yeah. Good luck, everyone. All right, we'll leave it there and just message the, the UK FP page if you have any questions and then not the UFP page. Our team SFP page. Sorry. All right. We'll leave it there. Grand like seven.