Getting onto a GP scheme

medicine12345

Hi everyone, I was just wondering if anyone had any advice about getting on a GP scheme - things you can do to increase your chances while an undergrad. How necessary/helpful are the following things?
-electives
-relevant publications
-outside interests
-exam results
-family connections
-conferences, etc
Also are certain schemes easier to get on to than others?
Thanks for any information

Vorsprung

Electives are no longer all they're cracked up to be - this is something the National Director for GP Training recently said at a talk I attended. 2-3 short electives would be advisable, you can do the old mix of rural/urban/single handed/large practice if you wish, no harm to see different environments to be sure it's something you want to pursue.

If you have a GP module in college, I'd suggest completing the assignments well and making note of positive and memorable experiences. It's useful to have for GP applications and interviews. An honours degree would be a good plus.

Outside interests are important for anything to be honest. It's good to show a commitment to others and the community (something like this came up in this year's application) so getting involved in societies in college would be a good idea. Sports are always good, and activities which demonstrate an ability to work in teams.

Research is always helpful, this can be an audit within a practice where you might do an elective. Published material, or even a poster presented at a conference are also pluses (on any subject).

Family connections sadly were in vogue but now are happily less important. Applications are marked centrally so there is less room for bias, though connections will undoubtedly raise your profile at interviews.

Schemes outside Dublin will be less competitive but this changes year on year.

The marking scheme for the application (making up 20% of this year's overall mark, assuming you get to interview) can be found here - http://www.icgp.ie/index.cfm?spPath=become_a_gp/training_news/FFA81E50-FE60-26AC-BAB1CC9257697543.html. I suggest downloading it before it disappears to give you a better idea of what they're looking for!!

medicine12345

thanks very much Vorsprung, thats very helpful
when you mention audit, would you have to write a paper about this and get it published?
thanks again!

Vorsprung

medicine12345 wrote: »

thanks very much Vorsprung, thats very helpful
when you mention audit, would you have to write a paper about this and get it published?
thanks again!

You can certainly do it that way but audits that tend to get published in peer reviewed journals describe the whole audit cycle and its outcomes. You can relatively easily get a poster presented out of a single audit without follow-up intervention, but if the results of such an audit are likely to change practice generally, you might well get a publication (say a short report in a peer reviewed journal or a bit more in the likes of Forum). If you did a GP esque audit, you could submit it for presentation at one of the ICGP scientific meetings.

Also remember that some colleges (UCD for example) have student research days whose poster abstracts might get published in a journal, and this counts as a full on publication (UCD gets their abstracts published in a supplement of the Irish Journal of Medical Science).

medicine12345

ok thanks Vorsprung, that seems alot more feasible to do a poster presentation or something along those lines than to try and publish an entire paper; unfortunately im not in Ucd but ill certainly keep an eye out of that sort of thing in my college, thanks

Vorsprung

Don't feel obliged to create your own research topics - you can also help out on other projects with a view to getting your name as 2nd or 3rd author.

Best of luck and feel free to ask more questions.

Ellegill

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone happened to copy or download the information from the link above re the marking scheme. I am really interesting in seeing it but the information seems to have been removed, as predicted

Vorsprung

Here you go.

Just be mindful that it might change for the next group of applications.

Ellegill

Brillaint, thanks a million.