ABSTRACT

The National Health Service is facing a crisis in primary care because of a looming shortage of general practitioners. Improving the quality of career information, advice and counselling must become an important factor if reforms of postgraduate medical training embodied in the 'Modernising Medical Careers' initiative and leading into speciality training programmes are to be successful. Personality profiles derived for students on medical school entry may help to inform their individual learning and eventually to help with career choice. The deaneries and medical schools should share career counselling resources. Continuity needs to be established between the advice provided by medical schools and that available for doctors in training. As trainees progress into higher speciality training they will still need advice about research, out-of-programme experience, subspeciality options or what to do if they feel unsuited to their speciality. Ideally, this will lead to a shared, nationally agreed process that is woven into the protocols that guide undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.