Proposal for symposium at ANCIPS 2022 MRCPsych and Beyond- Career options in UK

Increasing numbers of psychiatry graduates in India in the recent years aspire to the Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych) for several reasons. Together we propose to cover some of the career routes in the UK for early career psychiatry graduates from India with recent experiences of the same along with a case-based demonstration of clinical skills that are tested on the membership exams. The Clinical Assessment of Skills and Competence (CASC) part of the membership exams poses a significant barrier to advanced specialty psychiatric practice and specialist registration in the UK. Substantial differences exist in clinical examination performance between UK and non-UK psychiatry graduates. Psychiatry is one of the specialities with the largest disparities and while over 40% of psychiatrists in the NHS are overseas graduates, the clinical exams seem to pose a specific hurdle to their career progression. This gap in differential pass rate is not explained by differing levels of clinical knowledge however subtle differences in communication styles and an understanding of the health services in the UK has been observed in non-UK doctors. It uses the format of an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), made up of two (morning and afternoon) circuits of clinical stations -This will be covered in detail by Dr Mehak Nagpal, MBBS, MD , MRCPsych Higher Trainee , General Adult Psychiatry , UK Dr Prasanth Ampalam , MBBS, MD, MRCPsych , Associate Specialist will be covering the different career options, different pathways and sharing his personal experience of the same. To take the PLAB examinations, overseas medical graduates must provide evidence of language competency in English on the International English Language Test System (IELTS).