Results
Of the 26 run through trainees in England 23 responded (12:ST1, 11:ST2).
The educational background of the trainees found 12 attended private and
11 state run secondary school. The most frequent year of graduation was
2016, with the largest number of trainees graduating from The University
of Birmingham. Seventeen trainees held additional degrees and 4 were in
an alternative training programme prior to starting ST1 (Figure 1). The
majority (n=11) of trainees moved straight from foundation training into
a run through post with 8 and 4 trainees having a 1 year and 2 year gap
respectively. The median amount of ENT exposure (including foundation
training) prior to starting ST1 was 4 months (Range: 0-17 months)
(Figure 2).
The trainees most commonly decided to pursue a career in ENT on the year
of the interview or the year preceding (Figure 3). The median ranking at
the core surgical interview was 27 (range: 3-174). In total 91% ranked
a non-run through post. 87% of those surveyed stated geographical
stability was a factor in applying for the run through post.
During the run through pilot 48% of trainees were contacted by their
regional trainee run through lead, of those 45% found this helpful.
Overall, trainees will spend a median of 6 months (range 0-16 months) in
both a secondary and tertiary ENT centre, with 10 trainees only
experiencing one of these care settings. Additionally, 91% of trainees
have 2 allied specialty placements during their ST1 and ST2 years. The
majority of the trainees thought that being on the run-through pilot had
increased their ENT trainer engagement which was not the case for
non-ENT trainers (Figure 4). Nineteen trainees were members of ENT UK at
the time of survey.
Of the 11 surveyed ST2s 9 felt equipped to become an ST3, 3 planned to
attend the 2020 national selection and 10 the ST3 bootcamp. The trainees
attending ENT national selection had the aim of changing region.