Core Medical Training
Core medical training (CMT) is the first stage of training if you wish to follow a career in a medical specialty. This core training is the entry point for all medical specialties. The Foundation Programme is a key part of the ‘Core Medical Training'. The Foundation Programme represents a shift to a new learning environment driven by the foundation doctor, and supported by supervisors. You are advised to familiarize yourself with the details of the Foundation Programme:
http://www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/pages/home/about-the-foundation-programme
The Rough Guide will give you an overview of the programme and tell you what to expect in your induction, placements, study leave, etc.
http://www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/download.asp?file=UKFPO_ROUGH_GUIDE_2010.pdf
Once you have completed CMT you will have a solid platform in acute medicine, from which you can continue into specialty training. You will need to achieve CMT competences to be eligible for training in any of the medical specialties. You will gain skills and the essential clinical and scientific knowledge needed to deal with a complex and demanding range of medical problems.
If you plan on a career in acute medicine you will probably follow CMT with acute care common stem training (ACCS) programmes, where you will train with trainees in critical care and emergency medicine. ACCS trainees can apply for entry to all of the medical specialties, while CMT trainees will still have the option to apply for neurosciences and acute medicine training.
Personal qualities of CMT trainees include:
• intellectual ability
• a capacity for hard work under pressure
• excellent problem-solving skills.
Training and the acquisition of competencies is monitored partly through the workplace-based assessments. In particular, the Foundation Programme e-Portfolio has been designed to help foundation doctors plan and manage their Foundation Programme and get the most from the opportunities available. The e-portfolio also contains guidance for foundation doctors on how to demonstrate the competences they have achieved. The e-Portfolio will remain in force until July 2011.
The Law and Medicine ‘Core Medical Training' course
The course was originally inspired by the simple observation that doctors felt that they needed a course which was not so exam-focussed, but which prepared them to face competently the challenges of being a senior doctor of any discipline including primary care.
It is helpful, in this MRCP guide, to explain that the MRCP(UK) is a central part of the core Medical Training. If not completed during core training, the MRCP(UK) Examination should be completed before the end of ST3 so that trainees can focus on other specialty assessments. Failure to gain MRCP(UK) by this stage (some time during ST3) may lead to recommendations for additional training (ARCP outcomes 2, 3 or 4). Whilst this course draws on the recently published General Internal Medicine syllabus from the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (November 2009), many of the themes are essential to all areas of medicine, and are even studied by final-year medical students in the UK:click here for the link. The MRCP(UK) Examination provides valid, reliable evidence of attainment in knowledge, clinical skills and behaviour, and is a mandatory component of assessment for Core Medical Training (CMT).
This course is also likely to appeal to professionals who are engaged in education and/or training in NHS or other practice-based settings. Therefore, those who are involved in training or junior doctors are therefore also encouraged to study the self-directed modules. The programme has a strong practice-based approach, designed to address the development needs of those new to core medical training and those with considerable experience. Currently, a diploma is not available yet. However, the certificate part of the course allows learners to discover in a safe environment complexities of putting into practice a diverse range of skills, including breaking bad news, handling complaints, getting informed consent, discussing difficult ethical issues, designing a teaching programme, organizing an audit, making clinical guidelines, explaining the ethos of health promotion and preparing the documentation for a local ethics committee application. 
This course is offers the flexible format of distance learning.
The course fits in the Foundation programme of junior doctors, the curriculum for which is currently available in the following link:
http://www.foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/pages/home/key-documents#curriculum
This Foundation Programme curriculum reflects a developmental approach to postgraduate medical education. Under the Curriculum, foundation doctors have to demonstrate that they are competent in a number of areas including communication and consultation skills, patient safety and team work as well as the more traditional elements of medical training. The framework for this structured two-year training programme gives foundation doctors exposure to a range of career placements across a broad spectrum of specialties, including accident and emergency, obstetrics and gynaecology, and anaesthetics.
Theme 1: Communication skills and ethics
It is hoped that the student will be able to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to be able to communicate effectively with patients, relatives and colleagues in a range of difference scenarios, and shows mastery of communication in written format, demonstrating evidence of anticipating and managing any difficulties which may occur. In particular, the student also demonstrates the ability to ‘break’ bad news to a patient or carer effectively and compassionately. Furthermore, in this theme, students are encouraged to develop sensitivity to situations where patients are unhappy with aspects of care, and seek to remedy concerns with help from senior colleagues and/or other members of the multidisciplinary team. It is also expected that students can demonstrate the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to be able to educate patients effectively. The principles of medical ethics and confidentiality are central to the them, as it is expected that a student will able to describe and demonstrate an understanding of the main principles of medical ethics, including autonomy, justice, beneficence, non-maleficence, confidentiality, and confidentiality as they apply to medical practice.
Theme 2: Law and medicine
This is inevitably a wide-ranging theme, which is a very basic overview of the legal framework that relates to medical practice and its application to patient management. A sophisticated understanding of how complex medical cases can involve legal and ethical considerations will be required; it is essential that the student shows a willingness to discuss such factors are considered openly and consistently with the current evidence.
Theme 3: Audit, research, teaching and patient safety
By the end of this theme, the student is hoped to have developed a sense of leadership in research; promotes research activity; formulates and develops research pathways; or can demonstrate proficiency in an area of the local ethics research submission. Furthermore, it is hoped that the student can demonstrate the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to use audit results to improve patient care. In particular, it is hoped that the student will be able to participate in a detailed analysis of the methodology of an audit tool, in relation to why that particular problem or issue is more amenable to audit than research, including an ability to describe the findings from previous audits in a reliable and competent manner. It is further hoped that, through study of this theme, the student will be able to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to undertake a teaching role, as part of a team, with clear objectives and outcomes. Finally, it is expected that students will be expected to demonstrate a clear commitment to maintaining patient safety and delivering high-quality reliable care. This is because clinical governance is the over-arching framework that unites a range of quality improvement activities to safeguard standards and facilitates improvements in clinical services.
MRCP(UK) and the Law and Medicine ‘Core Medical Training' course
More information is provided on the official MRCP(UK) website at http://www.mrcpuk.org/Candidate/Pages/_MRCPUKTraining.aspx
The Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB) has accepted that, from August 2011, possession of the full MRCP(UK) Diploma should become a mandatory requirement for ST3 entry into any of the medical (physicianly) specialties.
The Academic, Quality Management and Research Committee (AQMRC) maintains broad oversight to protect the quality and reputation of the examinations. One of the Committee’s key responsibilities is to ensure the examinations test mastery of the curriculum. This was an especially important duty in 2009 because the MRCP(UK) diploma was confirmed as a prerequisite for entrance into UK specialist medical training. For trainees who entered Core Medical Training (CMT) in 2007, the SCEs are also a requirement in many specialties for a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), and to become a consultant physician in the UK.
Get started today with the MRCP(UK) and Core Medical Training!
You can get started immediately through this link, to further your knowledge, skills and competencies; and ultimately your careerl