Watch this video to find out why people choose a career in Acute Internal Medicine:
AIM TRAINING IN EAST MIDLANDS
Acute Internal Medicine is primarily the acute management of adult patients in secondary care. This involves developing skills, knowledge and competencies to manage a wide range of medical patients, including those that require more intensive levels of care than those managed in a general medical ward. The 2022 curriculum is a 4-year programme that yields a dual Certificate of Completion of Training in Acute Internal Medicine with General Internal Medicine.
ROTATIONS:
East Midlands is split into North and South rotations. Trainees are assigned to one of these areas and will have all of their training in those designated hospitals.
The North Rotation hospitals are:
- Nottingham Hospitals
- Royal Derby Hospital
- Chesterfield Royal Hospital
- Kings Mill Hospital
The South Rotation hospitals are:
- Leicester Royal Infirmary
- Glenfield Hospital
- Kettering Hospital
- Northampton General Hospital
East Midlands deanery has the advantage of being one of the smaller deaneries geographically. Being split into two regions makes the distance between hospitals a lot shorter, meaning that it is less likely you will need to move after each year of training to accommodate your rotations.
MANDATORY PLACEMENTS:
Within the 4 years of training, there are mandatory placements in other areas of medicine. Time in these placements allow trainees to achieve the necessary competencies as set out in the AIM curriculum. These are:
4 months Respiratory
4 months Cardiology
4 months ITU
4 months Geriatric medicine
The rest of your training will be within AIM, with the final 6 months of training definitely in AIM and an opportunity for acting up for 3 months.
OTHER MANDATORY COMPONENTS:
Point of Care Ultrasound
Point of Care Ultrasound is a mandatory component of AIM training. This is achieved with the Focussed Acute Medicine Ultrasound (FAMUS) course. This will allow you to be competent in 4 aspects of ultrasound:
- Thoracic ultrasound
- Abdominal/renal ultrasound
- Lower limb ultrasound (to rule in DVT)
- Peripheral vascular access
An average of 1 day per week is allocated to trainees throughout their training to achieve FAMUS and specialty skill. Trainees are encouraged to use this flexibly to meet both the mandatory requirements of the training programme. You would not get this in the weeks when your weekly work schedule is affected by study leave, annual leave and out-of- hours on-call shifts. The current supervisors for FAMUS in the East Midlands regions are as follows:
Chesterfield Royal Hospital - Dr Sebastian Peter
Nottingham University Hospitals - Dr Suzanne Watt & Dr Mo Dafalla
Leicester Hospitals - Dr Salam Al-Alousi & Dr Latif Rahman
Northampton General Hospital - Dr Florina Stanley
Royal Derby Hospital – Dr Richard Bowman & Dr Hassam Usmani
Specialty Skill
All AIM trainees pick a specialty skill that allows them to gain capabilities/competencies that they would not be able to achieve on the standard curriculum alone. But we would encourage trainees to identify and start their specialty skill as soon as possible during the initial years of training. The list of skills are as follows:
CCT level skill
- Stroke Medicine - achieved by competitive national application to Stroke Medicine Fellowship Year
- Intensive Care Medicine - achieved by competitive application to training programme in AIM, IM and ICM
Clinical Skills
These are achieved by either block or a sessional exposure to the specialty, with evidence of work-place based assessments, clinics and experience as per the latest guidance issued by JRCPTB/SAM.
- Acute Oncology
- Dermatology
- Diabetes
- Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine
- Neurology
- Obstetric Medicine
- Palliative Care Medicine
- Peri-operative medicine
- Psychiatry
- Syncope
- Toxicology
Procedural skills
Echocardiography – follow guidance given in specialty skill document or alternatively use accredited programme like Focused Intensive Care Echocardiography (FICE).
Other
1) Medical Management and Leadership
2) Medical education (including simulation)
3) Patient safety/care quality review methodology
4) Research
For more information on specialty skills use the version available on The Federation UK website. Provided the link here - AIM specialty skills FINAL.pdf
Specialty Certificate Examination
The Specialty Certificate Examination (SCE) in Acute Medicine is delivered every nine months by MRCP UK. It is based on ‘Best of Five’ questions format. This format, in addition to testing core knowledge and comprehension, also assesses the ability to interpret information and to solve clinical problems. Check the MRCP UK website for more information and sample questions.
TEACHING
Curricular activity - 10 days per year of dedicated AIM curriculum related regional teaching days for the AIM trainees. These days focus on the AIM syllabus and cover a variety of topics that help trainees prepare for the Specialty Certificate Examination. These are face to face sessions that alternate in location between a North and a South rotation hospital. Alongside this are 10 GIM (IMT stage 2) teaching days, that focus on the related curriculum and are typically virtual sessions. If you prefer to attend any other activity, either curricular support activity or discretionary activity, you have to check with TPD via email before you pay for the activity or book any tickets/accommodation. For details on such activities, you can check the deanery study leave page.
TRAINING PROGRAMME DIRECTORS
AIM has 2 training programme directors, both of whom are happy to be contacted for more information about AIM in East Midlands.
Dr Nanda Kishore Nalla (teaching and learning) - nanda.nalla1@nhs.net
Dr Syed Jafri (recruitment/posts and assessment) syed-zulqarnain.jafri@nhs.net