Community service can look very different for different doctors. Some find themselves in academic institutions with a great academic focus and encouragement, while most find themselves with little to no academic supervision and input.
We’re hoping to be that mentoring academic voice for you.
1. Short courses - patients always come first!
Patients will always come first. This means that you have to make sure you have the clinical expertise and confidence to do what is required of you during commserve.
If you haven’t already done them during internship, now is a REALLY great time to do some short courses.
We’ve already spoken in depth about short courses in the topic I’m an intern, what courses should I do? so go check it out and start booking!
Tip
Most clinical jobs post-commserve will require you to have at least a few relevant short course certificates. So, if you want to prepare yourself to find a job post-commserve, it would be wise to have at least done these courses by the time you start applying for jobs:
Many doctors don’t get the post they were hoping for straight out of commserve. This often comes as a surprise and leaves many new independent practitioners unprepared and suddenly unemployed.
It’s important to be proactive and remember that, even though you hope to end up in dermatology, you might have to spend a few months or even years working in general practice or even emergency medicine. For this reason it would be wise not to limit which short courses you do especially when it comes to managing emergencies.
NEXT
Next we want to start looking at some other courses and examinations available to doctors.
If everyone is already required to do short courses then diplomas, fellowships or even other courses might make the difference between you or another doctor getting your dream job.
2. Diplomas
Diplomas are a really great way to significantly improve your clinical expertise and bulk up your CV in any relevant area.
They are typically more focused on clinical management of common conditions/presentations in that field. They also add a credential to your name that will stay there for the rest of your life, which in many cases can even increase your scope of practice in both the public and private sector.
Convinced yet? Then the next step is figuring out which diploma you want to do and where/how to apply.
Which diploma should I do?
This will usually depend on a few factors:
- What diplomas you qualify for.
- The amount of time you’ve spent in the relevant department.
- The facilities where you spent that time.
- Your area of interest.
Where do I start looking?
There are a number of institutions that offer diploma examinations:
2.1. CMSA (Colleges of Medicine of South Africa).
The CMSA is arguably the first place where you want to start searching for diplomas.
They offer diplomas in most of the main fields, e.g.,
- Anaesthetics
- Paediatrics
- Emergency Care, etc.
These diplomas often have strict criteria for application, like having spent a certain amount of time (usually 6 months) in the relevant department at an accredited health facility. This can pose a problem for many doctors who ended up working in a more rural facility.
That’s why we’ve added the list of diplomas that each CS facility has in the CS reviews:
So we recommend you either check which diplomas you might qualify for from that list, or you start by looking through the various diplomas and check whether you meet their application requirements.
We’ve also created different sections on SAdocs Hub for each of the diplomas for you all to share knowledge, tips, ask questions, etc. We’ve also included links from each of the diplomas to the relevant page on the CMSA website to make it easier for you, so feel free to check it out:
Tip
Some CMSA offered diplomas have added more methods to meet their application requirements, like meeting certain logbook requirements for the DipPEC examination, etc. These are specific to the different examinations so make sure to read the information on their website carefully.
2.2. Universities/other
Many universities also offer some postgrad diplomas for doctors.
Below are some examples of diplomas offered by universities or other providers:
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PG Diploma in Public Health
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PG Diploma in Occupational Health
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PG Diploma in Family Medicine
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PG Diploma in Tropical Medicine
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PG Diploma in Addiction Care
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PG Diploma in General Practice
3. Fellowship Examinations
Most of you have probably heard colleagues speak about part I or part II examinations by now. Those are fellowship examinations.
These are very theory-rich examinations (think anatomy, physiology, etc) that you want to look at doing if you are hoping to get into a registrar programme to specialise.
The main institution where these examinations are done is the CMSA, so you can find more specific information for the relevant examinations on their website.
The part I examination has no specific application criteria like for the diplomas, so if you find yourself spending commserve in a facility not accredited for any diplomas, then you can consider writing your part I exam in a field you are interested in pursuing.
Tip
Having a part I on your CV only really matter if you are applying for a registrar post in a specific field, and they do not add to your credentials. So if you are trying to decide between doing a diploma or a part I examination first, we’d recommend going for the diploma.
For more information about the various fellowship exams, we’ve added links to websites and discussion topics under the relevant departments in the Specialising category so feel free to check it out:
Finally…
We know that there is much more to discuss under this topic, but hopefully this was a great foundation to start from.
The conversation is open, so feel free to ask questions, create new topics, and reply to others’ questions so we can keep receiving and giving support.