Is it time to jump off the training bandwagon?
BMJ 2007; 334 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39156.655718.47 (Published 29 March 2007) Cite this as: BMJ 2007;334:696- Rob Walker, consultant paediatric anaesthetist (robert.walker@cmmc.nhs.uk)
- Manchester Children's Hospital
I recently spent three days and £600 of my study leave allowance, not including expenses, to attend an APLS (advanced paediatric life support) course. This followed an email instructing all consultants at the children's hospital where I work as a consultant anaesthetist that this was now mandatory training. After 13 years as a consultant, I thought it was time to bite the bullet and go for a refresher. I was also interested to see if the reliance placed on APLS courses as a mark of the competent practitioner was well placed. So, after completing the online, compulsory, multiple choice questionnaire (MCQ), I joined the course with 31 other fresh faced but apprehensive young colleagues all eager to pass the course and enter it on to their CVs and thus on to job applications. I was told by many that this course and other such courses were now mandatory for successful career progression. They told me that the course fee almost emptied their annual study leave budget (£600-800 (€880-1170; $1160-1550) a year) and therefore it …
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