Chin Han Tan
Introduction
Ophthalmology is a rewarding and exciting career that attracts many applicants each year. The recruitment process is overseen by Severn deanery and applications open at the beginning of November each year on Oriel. Applicants are ranked by their cumulative score of portfolio points, MSRA scores and interview scores.
Severn deanery has published the portfolio scoring for the recruitment this year and there have been substantial changes overall. This article will go through the changes for each section and provide useful tips to score points.
Qualifications (4 Points)
The allocated points for MSc, BSc (completed prior to medical degree or after), MD, PhD and DPhil have remained the same. BA no longer counts. This year they made it clear that MRCP, MRCS, Diploma in Child Health will not score any points.
The biggest change perhaps is that intercalated degrees no longer score points now.
Prizes/Awards (5 points)
The only change in this section is that best presentation at an international meeting only scores 1 point now and being 1st in final undergraduate degree scores 2 points.
Unless you have done exceptionally well in your undergraduate degree or have taken the Duke-Elder Exam as a medical student, this section is extremely difficult to score points in as a postgraduate doctor as they only accept prizes or awards won at a national or international level. My advice is to actively look out for national or international meetings/conferences and submit your work to as many of them as possible, it does not have to be ophthalmology related. Even if you do not win, you can still claim points for it in the presentation section!
Ophthalmology Specialty Links and Commitment to Date as a Career (12 points)
The scoring system in this section has seen the most change this year. Firstly, they made it clear that non-peer reviewed publications and case reports must be ophthalmology related, as apparently previous years applicants were able to score points on non-ophthalmology case reports/review articles here.
The maximum points available has been scaled back from 4 to 2 points but now you are able to score half a point if you are not the first author. There are many ways to go about this, writing an opinion piece or reviews of literature for the Journal of the Foundations of Ophthalmology is a good start. Otherwise, you can submit a case report to the British Medical Journal (BMJ) as they have a high acceptance rate.
In previous years, attending conferences/courses, eye clinic or theatre sessions and Eyesi assessments only scored a maximum of 3 points. This year, there are 5 points up for grabs which means one should really prioritise on getting these done. Interestingly, they have introduced “other ophthalmology simulation training” and “discretionary” evidence this year for 1 point each. It is difficult to ascertain what counts for these, but if you have attended the surgical simulation courses by RCOphth or demonstrated some form of commitment to the specialty such as organising ophthalmology events for your medical school, then you should include them here.
Multi-Source Feedback (4 points)
The points available in this section have been scaled down from 5 to 4 points. The evidence required is still the same, that is MSF within the last 18 months of the interview date and either downloaded from the TAB form in your E-Portfolio or signed by your educational supervisor.
Rather than speculating on how they score this section like in previous years, they have provided us with detailed comments on how points are awarded. To score full points here, one would need “multiple superlative positive comments” in their MSF.
Publications (6 points)
It is much more difficult to score points in this section now. Instead of using the usual author rank x cite factor to award points, they have decided to award 3 points if you are the first author and 1 point for publications up to 4th author only if there is maximum of 8 authors in total. This means that simply being a co-author in a multi-centre study or collaborative research will not count.
My advice here is to get in touch with consultants or registrars who are keen on research and see if you can join their project. This does not have to be ophthalmology related so do try to cast your net wide.
Quality Improvement / Audit Projects (5 points)
Not much change in this section but they have gracefully given us a clearer picture of how points are awarded this year. Scoring 4 out of the 5 points available is quite achievable and one should really aim for this. To do so, you should have a letter by your supervising consultant stating that you have been the lead in the project to have initiated, designed, completed the audit loop / implemented the QI strategy and written up the report with the improvements clearly outlined. If you want to go beyond that and publish the audit or implement the QI guidelines supra-regionally then there is an extra point available, but it does require much more time and effort which can otherwise be spent better for other sections.
Presentations (6 points)
As in the section above, there is not much change here this year, but they have provided clear guidance on their scoring system. Presentations accepted but not yet presented will be given points, poster presentations only score half the points shown and second author or lower scores half the points for that presentation. The presentations do not need to be ophthalmology related.
Poster presentations are easy to come by as large meetings/conferences usually accept hundreds of them. My advice here is to aim for international meetings to submit to so you can be more efficient with your effort.
Education and Teaching (5 points)
There is more clarity on how points are scored here. You should look out for opportunities to invigilate OSCE for your local university or design educational course for medical students on attachment in your department. Medical websites occasionally recruit doctors to help write articles or reviews on topics that you can then evidence in this section. There are 3 points available for higher teaching qualifications, but these are usually very expensive. Some trusts sponsor doctors to do this so you should keep an eye out for such opportunities.
Overall Portfolio and Layout (3 points)
Unlike in previous years where applicants need to present a physical copy of their portfolio, all parts of the application have now been moved online. The rule of thumb is to ensure all your evidence are clear for the assessor to score, only include things that are relevant and that any piece of evidence is used only once in one domain.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, the changes seen this year are positive ones as there is clear guidance in each section as to how points are awarded. Some sections are harder to score max points this year, but this is likely related to the rising number of applications each year, so the recruitment team need a better way to differentiate applicants.
Best of luck to all of you who are applying for ophthalmology this year!
References
- Severn Postgraduate Medical Education, 2022. Evidence Folder. Available at: https://severndeanery.nhs.uk/recruitment/vacancies/show/oph-st1-23/evidence- folder-lib [Accessed 28 October 2022].
- Health Education England, 2022. 2021 Competition Ratios Nationally Advertised Vacancies. Available at: https://specialtytraining.hee.nhs.uk/Portals/1/2021%20Competition%20Ratios_1. pdf [Accessed 7 August 2022].